On Wednesday, I went to see my surgeon to go over the results of my mammogram and to have him take a look at my breast implants and surgery site from my surgery that was just about four months ago. When he came into the exam room, he said that yes, I have some small cysts in my right breast, but that he is 0% concerned about them. I asked him if the cysts could turn into cancer, and he said no, they wouldn’t as they are benign. I asked him if anything needs to be done about the cysts, and he said that we do not need to do anything concerning them; they will most likely go away with time. He said that he is very pleased with the images from my mammogram and ultrasound and that everything is clear and looks great! {He explained to me when he ordered the mammogram that we had to wait for at least six months after finishing my radiation treatments to do it, or the images would be cloudy, so that is why I had to wait so long.}
Next, he took a look at how I have healed from my last surgery and how my breast implants are settling in. Everything is looking good so far, but my chest has not finished settling into place, meaning that the area under my left breast, in particular, has not dropped down and rounded out, it is still somewhat flat. It takes time for the internal part of the chest to heal and for the implant to get into place, so there is nothing to be alarmed about; my body just needs more time.
We do have to watch for a complication from my breast implants. It is called Capsular Contracture, and it is a breast augmentation complication that develops when internal scar tissue forms a tight or constricting capsule around a breast implant, contracting it until it becomes misshapen and hard. When my surgeon put my breast implants in, he added donor tissue to help prevent this complication from happening, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen anyway. He said that if it does happen, I will need to gauge my level of pain, watch for distortion, let him know that I have a problem, and that I am in pain that I can’t bear. He explained that some patients would have a severe case of Capsular Contracture and have very little pain, while others would have a milder case and have horrible pain. He said that if the pain is too much for me, I need to tell him to fix it, meaning I will need to go into surgery and have my implants removed. Whether or not I would need to have a new set of implants put in or have them left out is hard to say; it just depends on the circumstances. Being the excellent surgeon that he is, he told me that this could happen when we were discussing the option of breast implants. I told him that it was worth the risk to me as I was feeling very out of proportion after my first reconstruction surgery. I wanted to feel like me again and not the stranger staring back at me in the mirror.
The reason why we were even discussing this horrible complication on Wednesday was that he pointed out that the implant in my left breast is much firmer than the implant in my right breast during my exam. The firmness is caused by the 25 radiation treatments that were part of the breast cancer treatment performed on my left breast. So, it is already firm, and I need to watch it and check to make sure that I don’t have any harder areas that could indicate a problem is developing.
Unless I notice anything in the meantime, I will not go back to follow-up with him until six months from now. I have fewer appointments with my oncologist and surgeon these days, a real sign that I am healing and adjusting to life after breast cancer. 💕