"fill-ups" continue

Last Thursday I went to Chapel Hill for my second "fill-up". Everything went great! Stewart went with me to learn how to do the procedure in the hopes that we could finish the rest of the fills at home. The nurse had him do most of the appointment and we left with enough saline, syringes, and needles to do three weekly fills at home. Up to that point fills had been bi-weekly so we didn't have to travel to Chapel Hill every week. From now on we hope to be able to fill every week, which would mean in three weeks I will be ready to have a pre-op appointment with the surgeon to schedule surgery!!!

Skip a week ahead to today... first attempt at doing a fill at home... and everything went great! So excited! Things are moving along much faster than I thought they would. At this rate I will be finished with reconstruction in no time! After my fill last week I noticed discomfort for the first few nights and I am already feeling a little discomfort from the fill today. As more saline is injected into the expanders it causes the skin to pull real tight and it takes a few days for the skin to stretch. I am thinking at this point that the tightness and discomfort will be a little worse after each fill. Overall this experience has been so easy and fast!

The big question is... how big do I go? While researching my reconstruction I found that the one thing most women who had expanders and then implants disliked about the end result was their size. They felt they either went too large or too small. And of course no one, not even the surgeon has a great way to decide when you have filled enough. The most common trick seems to be trying on old bras, but the expanders are so wide that I don't feel like this works well. Because women are all shapes and sizes you can't just pick a size or fill to a certain number cc's of saline. What would be a C cup on one woman isn't always a C cup on another, and the size that 450cc's of saline gives one woman may be much smaller or larger on another woman. Yeah, yeah I know... what a hard decision! Truth is with all the scars I don't think things will ever look like what I would like for them too, so is it really that important for the size to be just right. Well, probably not but after all surgery I have already been through I don't want to have to go back and do any of this again! So if anyone has any helpful thoughts ~ let me know! One thing I do know for sure... this is one decision that I don't want to let my husband make! (Just kidding ~ I love you Stewart!)

first fill-up

A few days ago I went to Chapel Hill for what I will be referring to as my "first fill-up". I was a little nervous as this was unchartered territory for me and I wasn't really sure what to expect. Thankfully I can say that it was really easy! Each of my expanders has a little metal port located near the top. A magnet is used to find the location of the port and then semi-permanent marks are made in a circle around the port. (Semi-permanent because as the expanders are filled the port's location can shift so it will have to be located at each fill appointment) Then a butterly needle is inserted into the port (yes, through the skin and yes I can feel it!). Saline is pushed through the small tubing attached to the needle "filling" the expander. Really cool to watch because on the left side where the mastectomy was just done and there is some extra skin you could actually see the as the expander filled up. During my appointment the nurse wanted to know if I drove all the way to Chapel Hill just to get my "fill-up". Well, it just so happened that this trip was combined with picking Karlene up from Raleigh as she finished basketball camp at NC State, but in the future trips would probably just be for my appointments. The "fill-ups" can be done at different intervals but she recommended that for the best result they be done on a weekly basis. This allows the skin to stretch at a slower rate therefore giving you better results. I don't know about you but in the middle of summer I don't really want to have to drive to Chapel Hill every week! We decided that my next appointment with her would be a two week interval and at that time we are going to learn how to do my "fill-ups" at home. She assures me we do not need medical training, and the procedure did seem rather simple ~ other than having to stick a needle through my skin! Learning to do them at home will allow me to do my "fill-ups" on a weekly basis without having to make the drive to Chapel Hill!

Not everything is going quite so smooth, but considering what has been done I think overall I am doing great. The right side (recent surgery was mastectomy and placing tissue expander) which was the side that had the least surgery is having some issues with fluid build-up. There is concern that it could be lymphedema (I haven't figured out how because no nodes were taken from this side), but it could also just be fluid that has built up from the surgery. The doctor is in the process of getting me referred back to the therapist I was seeing at Outer Banks Hospital to see if we can get the fluid to subside. Before surgery when I worked with her she was awesome and I have all confidence that she can help get things back on the right track.

The nurse was also concerned that the expander on the right looked as if it had shifted. We are hoping at this point that it only looks that way because of the fluid build-up. If it has indeed shifted we will be able to tell better as we further expand and at that point it may require surgery to get it back in the correct position. I am thinking that we will just worry about that if and when the time comes.

Hopefully I will be back to work next Monday! So I plan to enjoy this Holiday week! Hoping this heat gives us a little break so I can enjoy the beach and pool! Hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July celebrating and spending time with family and friends!