Foob Update
Originally published at bcvsbc.blogspot.com on 01/24/2019
I have been waiting to do this post until I was done with all the post op appointments to make sure everything was good with the new foobs. Last week we met with my plastic surgeon for the last time. I have to say I am going to miss him and his nurse so much. I told Scott I might need to start thinking about actually getting plastic surgery so I can keep seeing them because they are the greatest team I have worked with.
Just know there are a few foob pictures in this post at the bottom so if you don't want to see them feel free to skip this one. They will probably be the last pictures I post of my physical foobs because I think Scott is uncomfortable with them being on the internet. Well unless I decide to do the nipple tattooing which at this point I haven't decided. It is just more doctor visits and possible complications.
Foobs are really odd appendage. Where breasts made me feel like a woman, attractive, and attached to my sexuality I don't get any of those feelings with the fake things. What I don't think anyone understands but me and my fellow breast cancer survivors is that there is absolutely nothing sexual about my foobs. First they are 100% fake. Every part of what looks like boob is completely man made, not created by God. There is 0 breast tissue left in my body. In fact my friend said my plastic surgeon is a "breast architect" and that is about as accurate a statement as I can come up with for what is sitting on my chest. It is really astonishing what science and medicine is capable of these days.
I have had my breast skin, tissue, and nipples fully removed. The expansion process then allowed my skin to stretch enough to make room for the plastic surgeon to have space to put something in to create the shape of a breast. I opted for silicone implants and my only request was that we get as close to what I had before and make them softer than the expanders. Those bad boys were HARD!
Due in part to my age I was able to get my skin stretched pretty close to the size of breast I had before cancer. Once you get rid of all your breast and associated boob stuff (tissue etc) nothing is referred to in cup size. You don't have boobs so it is all medical terminology. My expanders were filled to 485 cc's. To buy a sports bra to fit them I needed a 36DD. I was not a 36DD before cancer. I was a 34C. So they seemed enormous. Remember I had this hard circle like expander inside my body that needed to stay in place to stretch the skin so there is no "squwishing" your expander into a bra.
Going into the exchange surgery you don't know what size implant is going to fit, it is an estimate and you have a range of sizes that enter the room with you. When it was all said and done I had 500cc silicone implants put in plus fat grafting to create a more natural looking shape. For now I don't really know what size they are. That sounds odd, I know, but you have to wait about three months for everything to settle and swelling to go down after the exchange surgery. Judging by looks and feel they seem close to my size before cancer.
It could be my memories of the expanders are too fresh but the foobs look real. They don't look like fake boobs to me. Never planning to have a boob job I had some very real fears that I was going to look very unnatural. It was irrational but I didn't want to look like I had fake boobs or was a pornstar. It is just not me. My plastic surgeon really listened to what I wanted and did a job better than I could have hoped for. When I see women that have had breast implants their boobs look enormous. Very wide, very high, very hard. I guess sort of how I felt my expanders looked. I think this is because they have actual breast tissue inside still. Since I have none of that and the implant is under the muscle the foob really does look more natural. I don't know. This is a completely stupid trivial "thing" to have been worried about...but I lost sleep over what the foobs were going to look like. My advice if you are going through this is to make sure you are very vocal with your plastic surgeon so he or she knows what you are hoping to achieve.
I was very lucky that I didn't have any complications but it is is also due to following the restrictions and having such a big family to help me out. Though I am still not cleared for full activity I am able to do a little more than walk and am back to doing all my stretches again! As of today I do not have my full range of motion back but I am getting closer each day. Hopefully I will be able to start swimming in about six months which should help a ton because my chest muscles are so weak (they did cut into them twice so I shouldn't be surprised but I am).
Side note. If you are wondering why my implants are under the muscle and not sitting on top it is because this pushes everything closer to the skin. As life goes on and we continue to monitor my breasts for cancer recurrence it allows any new tumors to be closer to the skin therefor easier to detect. Because I have no more breast tissue I can not have mammograms, all of my exams will be physical exams with my general surgeon and oncologist.
Alright time for the pictures.
First is the picture before I went back to surgery. My doctor had marks all over my body. Like everywhere. Remember all the bruising from the fat grafting a few posts back? Yeah there was marks all over my thighs and lower abs too but I feel like you get the gist with this one image. Look at those expanders! I do not miss them. Loved having them so I could have a foob but good riddance. Can you see how far over towards the outside of my body those rock hard rounds are? This is part of the reason I had so much anxiety about the foobs looking super unnatural. My old cancer infused breasts did not hang to stick out to the side of my body.
This is about two weeks after surgery. You can see they look softer, smaller, and are less towards the edge of my body. I still had bandages on them because they just glue you back together in hopes of minimizing scaring.
