From the first moment my wife discovered she
had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones
whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a
gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble
about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That
was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across
my blog and checked out what I had to say. The following entry first appeared in
May of 2013.
It appears that
the next event is breast reconstruction!
It’s been two
years now since the double mastectomy and shortly, it will be two years since
chemotherapy began. My wife now has an appointment to begin the next phase:
breast reconstruction.
As is my wont, I
am going to ONLY cover the medical side of reconstruction. I WILL tell you that
the ultimate choice is your own. We discussed for nearly a year the different
types of reconstruction, we researched, my wife talked to dozens of people both
online and face-to-face. We consulted half a dozen doctors, changed clinics and
changed clinics then went back to the second clinic again. Breast
reconstruction is not a decision to be made lightly nor is it to be made
quickly. There are ramifications, risks, and considerations; soul-searching and
God-seeking. All of these should be part of the decision to yes or no as well
as the decision of which or what.
So…I am not
endorsing or advising any of the methods I will write on here. I will translate
the doctors – as I’ve tried to do all along. This week: Implant-based
reconstruction.
First, a clear
definition: “Breast reconstruction is a surgical procedure that restores shape
to your breast after mastectomy (surgery that removes [one or both] breast[s]
to treat or prevent breast cancer).”
The first step
after the mastectomy – which may also happen during the mastectomy itself or
years later – is that the surgeon lays down a device called a tissue expander.
The expander is
basically a balloon that the clinic will fill with salt water a little bit at a
time. The surgeon puts it under BOTH the skin and the muscle and leaves it
there. After the surgery to put it in, the person visits the doctor for an
appointment where some salt water is injected into it and then left there. It
stretches the skin and muscle a little bit. Then the person waits while until
the next appointment. Obviously, there will be feelings of the skin being stretched;
I IMAGINE that the feeling would be similar to what happens when you get a
sting of some sort and your knuckle swells a bit.
In my wife’s case,
the surgeon will add something fairly new to support the expander – a “donated
human skin scaffold” which will go along the bottom side of the expander.
“Lab-made skin and
soft tissue substitutes (in this case) is made from donated skin but it has all
the living cells taken out. What’s left is collagen – the same stuff that makes
up tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bone, and intervertebral discs (as in “I
slipped a disc!”)…Tissue-engineered
skin...can be used as either temporary or permanent wound coverings. Other
situations in which bio-engineered skin products might substitute for living
skin grafts include certain post-surgical states such as breast
reconstruction…”
“AlloDerm is a soft-tissue implant fabricated by a proprietary method...”
The surgery to
place the expanders and the AlloDerm will take two to four hours and includes
new drains to reduce uncontrolled swelling.
In the interest of
keeping the posts readably short, I’m going to stop for now and continue next
week!
https://securews.bsneny.com/web/content/dam/BSNENY/Provider/Protocols/B/prov_prot_701113.pdf,
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/879007-overview
Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg
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