prophylactic mastectomy after RNY

Hi! Im ok...swamped busy. My roomate has been getting diagnosed with lung cancer/emphesema....im healing ok...very tired still. I found a lump, a solid lump, on my right fake breast, right on top of a vein. It hasnt moved and is obviously poking out of the skin. going thursday to have it checked. How are things in your world? Thanks for checking in. I am about 20 lbs from goal weight and starting a bit of exercise...i hope to catch up on the posts soon...its been crazy busy..car got stolen, public.transit, etc etc. very tired, sick roommate...blah blah..

Glad to hear from you - you had me worried.  But I am glad to hear that it is life that is getting in the way and not complications.  I wonder what the lump is - hopefully nothing other than some kind of fatty tissue that found its way in an odd place.  The whole purpose of going through this was to not find a lump.  UGH.  Sounds like you are able to start getting back to your normal life - I would think the fatigue will go away eventually.  I did not experience that but you had the surgeries much closer together than I did.  Your body didn't have the chance to fully recover from one when you had the other.  So that may take some time.  Just make sure that your labs are good - don't want to wind up with a vitamin or iron deficiency on top of everything else.  Sorry to hear about your roommate.  This is a tough age to be listening to all of the things that are happening to our friends.  I go to way too many viewings and funerals these days.  Sending you good thoughts - have a great day.

 

JoAnn

As far as I am concerned, I am doing well. I have been released back to normal activity so I have been back at the gym for about a week now. Slowly building up my workout routine again. So I am feeling good. I had laser treatment of many of my scars. I had some bad scarring on my right breast that the ps is trying to improve for me but he did the laser to all of my scars. Will need at least one more treatment on some of them but others are looking pretty good. I am very happy with how my arms turned out. It is difficult for anyone to see the scars even when I wear a short sleeve shirt.
Have a great day.
JoAnn

Hi again....so so glad you are doing well, and enjoy your results...i have not been on this board in a few months..roommate is very sick. I am going to have my exchange surgery tomorrow morning...

you have been on my mind, so grateful that someone is doing good! 

My 6 month labs were all great...and I am about 17 pounds from goal..the hysterectomy was basically a non event, other than a few hot flashes every now and then. Mastectomy was way more painful.

This time, for the exchange, I am having outpatient surgery, and my primary prescribed Percocet for met at home...I am not dealing with the pain issues again.

I have had stomach pain the last two days, right behind my navel, but it comes and goes...got better with ulcer med...when i get home tomorrow, after the exchange, I will probably call my bariatric surgeons nurse, but I am having the exchange first....my insurance changes in 2 weeks....anyway...just now catching up on all of these posts.

grateful that you are doing better, and satisfied. Sounds like beating two diseases  to me.

 

So...I went for my exchange surgery on the 18....two days ago the right side ripped open when I was cooking dinner (had put a small steak under the broiler) and gushed out like a cup of blood..went to urgent care, and it was a draining hematoma and wound dishesiance. (sp?)....had to get it surgically cleaned and drained and re stiched...and back on antibiotics and some pain meds...the PS was not giving me any grief this time, I think he was a little freaked out---I was reading on another board that most of the time this is caused by surgical error...he said it was because he had removed a little excess skin under my arm...idk..it HURT...and there is a high chance of infection. He also went over my mounds/breasts and was showing me how to do a BSE with the implants in..ie, what was stitches, and where were implants..HE FOUND A LUMP which I am scheduled to have biopsies later in the week..and after all this the implants may have to come out....at least I will meet my annual out of pocket max early in the year....

OMG, I am so sorry that you had to experience this.  That must have been so frightening.  Were there any signs of trouble before the incision ripped open?  I would have thought at almost two weeks from having the exchange, that things would have been mostly healed.  Im assuming there are no drains associated with this procedure. Did he pull you too tight? I know when I had my thigh lift complication I was scared to death - for only about 2 hours until I got to see the doc - but those were the longest 2 hours of my life.  Although when I saw the doc, he was so calm and cool that he immediately calmed me down.  When they removed your breasts, did they send them to pathology?  I would have thought so given the family history of breast cancer.  I know they did that for me but I was a confirmed brca1 mutation.  I actually got the results of the pathology before I left the hospital.  I am so sorry that he found a lump - the whole purpose of this procedure was to not have to go through this.  Please let me know how you make out.  I am sending good thoughts and prayers your way.  Did you manage to get your insurance situation fixed for next year - wasn't that one of the reasons that you were trying to make this all happen so quickly?  JoAnn

Thanks....the incision pulled out because I had a HUGE hematoma that started to drain on it's own and busted through the steri strips....freaked me out..drained like a cup of blood all over the place. I got it restiched and stuff...I was sooo scared. they did not use drains....he said he doesn't usually use drains at the exchange surgery....the insurance is a MESS>..my current surgery approved mastectomy with reconstruction in July, and then a week after my exchange DENIED the claim...and then the hospital tried to bill my new insurance for it, which i didn't even tell the new insurance because I had it only for a week and didn't even have cards or any contact number for them....at least I got the exchange done before they screwed it up...I have to go over there on Monday and get that straightened out....oy.  They gave me antibiotics and pain meds and stuff like that, and I am back on my ulcer meds cause that started acting up after I got the anesthesia.   They did do a path report on the breast tissue and that came  back okay, but they uterus was positive for CA when they took that....so I got that in the nick of time....once I get the insurance stuff straighten out I am getting the lump taken out...BUT they have to wait for the wound opening to heal first cause the rate of infection is like 80%....it's been a bit crazy, actually. Plus allergy shots on top of that and my WC broke, and of course the insurance company has decided that since I reached my annual out of pocket max they don't want to pay for a new one, and said the reason is because I had surgery....it's like, i don't know how they expect me to use a push chair after a mastectomy, but I will fight them on it....I wound up getting a domestic partnership with my roommate and got on his health insurance, because the Obama-care was still pretty iffy a month ago, and the DP insurance took 60 days to go into effect...I am lucky that way....it's good insurance, cheaper per month but a higher deductible and co-insurance...kinda about the same price. They also found a mass in my brain that is getting MRI'd the first of January....(new calendar year, new deductible, and hopefully I will have a car by then.....)  thanks for the good thoughts. I have been tied to the couch for a while....bored, tired....hopefully not getting an infection....it looks a lot better on the outside than it feels on the inside. Doc told me about signs of capsular contracture and infection....I told him that if worse case comes just take them both out and forget it....it looks better today than it has looked all week..I think a lot of the blood is reabsorbing. Thanks for responding and all the good thoughts, They really help.

Wow, insurance sure is a mess.  I can only imagine what it is like to try and buy it these days – I am lucky that my employer provides a plan for us to purchase.  It was bad enough but with all of the changes coming, I am sure that it is much more difficult to find anyone who knows what is going on.  And then once you have it, it is a constant battle with them on what is covered.  I don’t know how the doctors deal with the mess.

Did you need any blood after the bleed happened?  When I had my incident, they gave me 2 units.  The PS didn’t think that I really needed it but said it would help to make me stronger faster.  My hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were running low at the time.  Since they found CA in the uterus are they concerned about any of the surrounding tissue?  It is hard to believe that after going through the mastectomy and reconstruction that now they find a lump.  Is it possible that it is some kind of scar tissue?  How did they find the mass in the brain?  Were you having symptoms that caused them to look or did they just stumble on it?  It is a shame that you are having to deal with all of these issues.  You should now just be concentrating on recovery and feeling relieved that this is all over.  But you still have so much on our plate. 

Glad to hear that it is looking better.  Now it just had to heal again on the inside so that you can feel better as well.

I am having lots of issues responding to things tonight.  The only way that I can do it is to type it in word and copy and paste it into the website.  Having an issue on both my laptop and ipad.  Chrome is the only browser that I can get to work as well with this method.

I think it has to do with the new website. mine has been doing that ever since it changed. I go to see the surgeon this morning. it's 22 degrees here and I am on the bus....(brrrr.....) and fighting a cold on top of it. I went to get a check up in neurology cause I had a TIA about ten years ago, and they did a CT and now they want an MRI....good times. My roommate has been sick too, so I have been kind of busy. Yeah I was paying COBRA through my former employers plan, but that expires in December and i have to have coverage...soo....kinda a mess is a big understatement. Apparently a lot of people are doing what me and my roommate did. In my state there are a bunch of paper applications for insurance that were not even entered into the computer so people think they have coverage and they don't.....given the mess I am in now I am glad I was able to avoid that one.....

Wondering how you are doing - how is the incision healing?  

JoAnn