10.20.09

The Valium Story

Posted in Excise, Fluid, Plastic Surgery Disaster, Seroma, Surgical complications, Surgical drains, barter, boob job, breast implants, breast lift, complications, compression bra, cosmetic surgery, excise fluid, implants, mastopexy, plastic surgeon, plastic surgery, serous fluid at 5:46 pm by Herbwoman

One of the more mind boggling instances of the HiQ totally blowing me off is what I refer to as the Valium story. After the initial surgery I did not have surgical drains. Drains allow for serous fluid to leave the body so that it doesn’t build up and cause complications in the tissues.

Serous fluid is the yellow sticky stuff that beads up when you scrape your knee. It’s the stuff that allows a scab to form. It also occurs when there has been damage to the capillaries. Basically your body is trying to heal itself. Mine produces a metric shit ton of the stuff. Unfortunately I didn’t know that THEN.

In the evening some time early during the first two weeks after the initial surgery I began feeling pressure in my chest. It felt like a baby elephant standing on my breasts. The pressure made it difficult for me to breathe.

So I had Ken call the HiQ’s answering service. I took off the surgical bra and laid down on my back because I thought the compression from the bra may be causing problems. I felt better and it became a little easier to breathe but I still felt pressure in my chest.

When the HiQ returned the call about 15 minutes later it was still kind of difficult to breathe. The first thing he told me to do was that I needed to calm down. I explained about the pressure on my chest and he said that I needed to put the surgical bra back on. He implied that not having the surgical bra on would make the pressure worse.

So I handed the phone over to Ken and did that. While I was occupied, the HiQ suggested that Ken should get me a Valium and that there was nothing wrong.

As I have said before, when the HiQ took the implants out he also found about 300 ccs of serous fluid in each of the pockets. That is probably what caused the pressure.

A couple weeks after that incident at a checkup one of the nurses noticed a bubble on the outside of my left breast about the size of a jumbo egg cut length wise.

Perhaps a little of it might have been anxiety. After all things WERE starting to go wrong. I’m still REALLY angry about being blown off like that though.

I also have a vague memory of  him telling me that even if he had known about the fluid in the pocket there was nothing he could have done about it.

Dr. Elliott and Dr. Guy excised over 500 ccs of fluid from my back between the two of them. So how is it that someone with supposedly 15 years experience couldn’t do the same thing? It still just pisses me off to no end.

07.24.09

Nip Tuck It

Posted in Excise, Fluid, Healing, Latissimus flap, Nipple reconstruction, Nipples, Reconstruction, Scars, Seroma, Surgery, Surgical complications, boob job, breast, breast reconstruction, complications, cosmetic surgery, excise fluid, latissimus flap reconstruction, plastic surgery at 10:28 am by Herbwoman

Since we had to be in Atlanta anyway I got an appointment with Dr. Elliott. He ended up excising about 100 ccs of fluid from the same general area on my back. No big deal. It’s common with this type of surgery. I’ve gone over that before.

Something else he mentioned after doing the medical groping to check  my progress was the revisions. He’s really good at what he does but sometimes skin doesn’t knit together quite the way you’d expect so there are little places that could be nipped and tucked to improve the overall appearance.

One of the things was smoothing out the corners. In my opinion there is a spot on the right inside next to my cleavage that looks a bit squared off. That should have smoothed out by now but it hasn’t.

Another thing he mentioned is possibly doing a lift. I sort of froze like a deer in headlights for a few moments there. The lift was one of the reasons I lost my nipples last time. Of course I know there are no nipples to lose this time, I have to wonder HOW he’d do the lift without making them smaller. I’m also not too excited about the possibility of more scars.

Time to do some research on that.

Either way I let him know that I would most definitely NOT be opting for another surgery any time soon. Right now I don’t care about the oddly shaped corner or the slight pendulous appearance. I love my new breasts and I’m happy with what I have.

Right now I’m even happy with what I DON’T have. I’m content with not having nipples. That may change again as my mood is rather changeable. Dr. Elliott told me in our first consultation that there would come a time when I would be ready and I’ll know if or when that time comes.

In the mean time I’m protective of what I have and I’ll keep the Twins just the way they are for the time being.

07.21.09

M M M My Seroma 2

Posted in Excise, Fluid, Latissimus flap, Plastic Surgery Disaster, Reconstruction, Recovery, Seroma, Surgery, Surgical complications, boob job, breast, breast reconstruction, complications, cosmetic surgery, excise fluid, latissimus flap reconstruction, plastic surgery at 6:04 pm by Herbwoman

I had an appointment at Dr. Guy’s office today to check on the seroma issue. Unfortunately, we got an emergency business call from Atlanta this afternoon and we’ve got to be there by tomorrow night. Because we have two orders on the table and a dog that desperately needed his shots and heart worm meds, I had to reschedule for next Wednesday. So far it doesn’t look like anything has developed again though.

It also occurred to me that since we have to make an emergency run to Atlanta tomorrow as it is, I should make an appointment with Dr. Elliott’s team for while I’m up there. So I emailed Suzanne since I didn’t get to call before 5. I’ll call again tomorrow to make sure she got the email and find out when they can fit me in.

As usual, I’ll update when I know more.

07.09.09

M M M My Seroma

Posted in Drain, Excise, Latissimus flap, Medical, Plastic Surgery Disaster, Recovery, Seroma, Surgery, Surgical complications, Surgical drains, boob job, breast, breast reconstruction, cosmetic surgery, excise fluid, latissimus flap reconstruction, plastic surgery at 8:46 am by Herbwoman

I posted about my check up yesterday. This morning the troubled spot will be left to heal. No more wet to dry dressings. YAY! It’s closing up nicely finally so that’s not an issue any more.

Now since I can’t seem to do anything half-ass-ed, while Dr. Guy was poking around on my back (and I mean that literally…poke…poke…poke) she discovered that the right side had a pretty massive seroma.

A seroma is a pocket of clear serous fluid that sometimes develops in the body after surgery. When small blood vessels are ruptured, blood plasma can seep out; inflammation caused by dying injured cells also contributes to the fluid.

This isn’t a threatening or serious condition, though it could potentially cause complications down the line. The fluid is that yellowish slightly sticky stuff that bubbles up when you scrape your knee before the scab forms. A good idea of what a seroma looks like is here: http://tinyurl.com/n8ne2

It is evident the bruising is the skin is also distended and there is a large, softball sized lump where the fluid has collected. I was unable to find a photo of a seroma on the back. With a Latissimus Flap breast reconstruction, seromas are VERY common. From what Dr. Guy said, basically the pocket it causes makes the skin separate from the muscle. Until the fluid is drained or reabsorbed back into the body, the skin cannot reattach itself to the muscle. Basically the right side of my back from below the shoulder blade to my waist and in towards my spine was one gigantic seroma.

After giving me a local anesthetic, Dr. Guy excised the fluid by sucking it out with a needle the size of a harpoon. At least that’s what it seemed like. Ken says it was only an inch or two long and pretty small in diameter.

The Doc removed 455ccs of fluid. That is very nearly half a liter of fluid. She showed Ken how to tell if it builds up again. Basically he has to poke my back. If it ripples like a waterbed, there’s a buildup of fluid.

I have another check up in two weeks. I’m really hoping there will be no more fluid build up. As usual I’ll keep you all posted.