There are many reconstruction options after having a double mastectomy. Usually, the plastic surgeon you are dealing with prefers to do one type or another. Some are very invasive and complicated and others not as much. I feel my type was the easier of the options. Many women stay flat and are perfectly fine with that, for me, that would have been more upsetting, so I chose to do what is called, delayed implant reconstruction.
I had expanders (an inflatable breast implant designed to stretch the skin and muscle) placed during my first surgery with a dermal matrix (alloderm) which essentially forms a “sling” that helps form a pocket and support the lower portion of the implant, holding it in position. The breast surgeon removed my breasts and then the plastic surgeon placed the expanders. The surgeons worked one after the other and surgery was about 6 hours long. I woke up with the expanders filled with some air but still very flat. After the dreaded drains were removed (two weeks for me) I went to my plastic surgeon about once a week to have the expanders slowly filled with saline. This has to be done slowly to stretch the skin (because it hurts like hell if it’s done too quickly) to fit an actual implant. Once the skin stretching was complete, I had another surgery to replace the tissue expanders with an implant. The implant placement is below & under the pectoral muscle which requires partial detachment of the muscle, which is usually limited to a specific part of the muscle.
At first my implants felt very heavy but with time I’ve adjusted and they now feel more like a part of my body. I’m happy I decided to do it and pleased with my overall results.
