Immediate Reconstruction.
Liz's Story : Immediate DIEP (Aged 58)
I was Diagnosed with DCIS Ductal Carcinoma in Situ on the 13th July 07, and was admitted to hospital on the 16th August for a WiderLocal Incision and Lymph node removal, this operation was carried out and I was sent home the next day. Unfortunately my wound became infected and opening up to the chest wall. When I saw my surgeon some 10 days post operation he told me that the Lymph nodes were clear but that I would need further surgery as they did not have the clear results for the Wide Local incision, and that they needed to take more tissue, my boob was already a mess. I asked and if he didn't get enough this time what next, to which he answered a Mastectomy was then needed. So I said then I wanted a Mastectomy now but with an Immediate Reconstruction, he advised that that would delay the procedures by a week or so as the team of Plastic Surgery would need to be available at the same time.
My husband fully supported my decision because as he put it he did not want me to be subjected to 'Salami Slicing'. I was seen by Richard Haywood the Plastic Surgeon the next week, this was the beginning of September, he agreed that he could perform a Immediate DIEP following a skin saving mastectomy, but explained that I would need some skin grafts from the skin they would remove from my stomach as I had a large open wound on my present breast due to the infection. I had to attend the Dressings Clinic to check that the wound was not infected etc as the operation could not take place if there was any infection present.
The operation went ahead as planned on Friday 28th September, Richard was so reassuring in addition to two visits to see me on the day before the operation he also came in on the morning of the operation taking my husbands telephone number tucked into his shirt pocket. I went to Theatre at eight am and that was the last I remember until about four in the afternoon when I found myself back in my own room in Coltishall Ward. I was wrapped up like a baby in a cocoon of a warm pink quilted blanket but here began three days of intense monitoring, to start with every 15 minutes day and night, (the ward sister had said the first day that within 24 hours I would hate them all, for constantly disturbing me to check the new boob was OK). I remember on one occasion when I was awake fully asking how they could tell that the Doppler was picking up the blood supply flow in the new boob and not my heart beat as it was in about the same region, so the nurse showed me by taking a reading from both,
The first day post op I was full of beans even though I had three drains a drip and a catheter from my bladder. Day two wasn't too bad, but on day three having been walked to the bathroom for a strip wash I saw my new boob for the first time in the mirror, I burst into tears with shock. I don't know what I had expected and I am sure it was a combination of everything that had happened that caused me to react in that way but I was weepy for the rest of the morning. Later I was visited by a lovely lady called Angela from the Chaplaincy team, the tears started again, but she talked to me and told me her story, she had not had reconstruction. But I think just talking to her calmed me down and helped me see things clearly.
Of course looking back now I am sure a lot of it was also due to lack of sleep because when I got used to looking at my boob it was not too bad and slowly got better but in the first instant it was very red and raw, and all the colours of the rainbow from bruising, but within a month it had settled down and I was proud of it, well I had a new nipple and a new belly button in addition to a tummy tuck on the NHS. I left hospital on day 9 staying an extra day as we live nearly an hour by road away in North Norfolk, I could not stand straight which I had been warned about and my stomach was as tight as a drum I wondered if I would ever stand up again but the medical staff assured me I would. I had to return to the hospital on the Monday morning,
My stomach suddenly started to pour sebaceous fluid through the new belly button, well that was how it appeared to me, a quick telephone call to the Plastics clinic who told me to go in immediately well as soon as we could get there but that there was nothing to worry about. Apparently I had had a build up of fluid which can be quite normal and once it had been released my stomach was a lot less taught and I began to start to straighten up. There then followed weekly trips to the Plastics Dressings Clinic to have my new boob and stomach checked the staff were always very patient and happy to give advice on how I could help myself, for instance one staff nurse suggested using Bio Oil on the wounds once they were healed, massaging it in daily after a shower, this certainly helped to minimise my scars and I still use it today.
Now 14 months after the operation I have had one more small operation in August to make the new boob slightly smaller and the spare skin on my hips (dog tags) were taken away, those scars are now decreasing and hopefully within the next year will almost go away. I have also had two sessions of Tattooing by Ruth Harcourt the Reconstruction Nurse, this has given my nipple area more definition. I still use the Bio Oil daily I appreciate that age means my skin does not heal, nor fade as quickly as those on a younger woman, that is something which older ladies must bare in mind.
Anyone contemplating Breast Reconstruction who like me, knew nothing about what I was about undergo apart from what members of the medical profession told me and what I read, must talk to someone who has been there. Before and after surgery, Anna and Bev were both there to reassure me over the little things, I met them both whilst still in hospital about the time they started the Keeping Abreast Group.