Point of View #9: Isabelle

Welcome to my second Non-One Step photo gallery.

Unlike the others, this gallery (plus Helen's also) was volunteered by a woman who had a double mastectomy with immediate expander placement.

So why did I decide to post a photo gallery of expanders? I thought to myself: why not post them? I'm sure some women would love to see examples of expander surgeries, whether or not they opt for the One Step or One Stage reconstruction, just so they can compare and contrast the two implant techniques for themselves, and vice versa. Why not?

Here is what Isabelle had to say about her own circumstances and her volunteered photos:

"OK, finally got around to getting all pictures on my computer. Here are the pictures I have. Somehow I thought I took more, but I guess the time was flying.

So my story goes like this... I found out I was BRCA1+ in February 2009. I knew that I would do the BPM, but wasn't sure of all the options. After researching, I decided I wanted skin/nipple sparing with implants. My surgeons down here don't offer the One Step and my insurance required me to have the surgery in my own city. I met with two plastic surgeons and decided to go with the one that I was most comfortable with. I wanted to wait until fall for surgery because I did not want to deal with reconstruction over the summer. So...I had BPM in the fall and the PS put in expanders at the same time. The surgery took almost 8 hours and no complications whatsoever. I am about 5'4" and weighed about 150 pounds. They took out about 450 grams of tissue from each breast. I was originally a 36B. After surgery, I was awake and eating a ham and cheese omelet by dinner time, and once the anesthesia wore off (about 10 pm or so), I was able to get myself out of bed to go to the bathroom without assistance (but I was really slow and used the hospital bed a lot)."

Isabelle then went on to tell me that she is planning on running a couple of races in spring and fall of 2010 to get her moving again, and that she can't wait. I know how she feels!

Isabelle has her own photo gallery of six very good photos with extensive captions in her own words, spanning from only 1 day after surgery to 3 months post-op, showing her inframammary incisions, drains, surgical bra, antibiotic tape, and her nipple-sparing expander surgery (with expanders still in). She's due for exchange surgery in a few months.

To view Isabelle's and others' photo galleries, you will need the URL and password.

If you don't have them, please email me at: rebecca (at) onestepscoop (dot) com.