March 11, 2026 • 40 mins
Women diagnosed with breast cancer have many decisions to make about their surgeries and treatment options. This includes choosing whether to reconstruct their breasts or not. Fearless Fabulous You Host Melanie Young initially chose breast implants after her double mastectomy in 2009. In 2025 Young chose to remove her implants and undergo Diep Flap natural tissue breast restoration. She shares her firsthand experience as a patient and advice to those facing their own decisions.
Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
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Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello, and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young, and it's good to be back. I've taken
a few weeks off, so if I sound look different,
or sound a little husky in my voice, or take
time to cough, it's because I recently had two surgeries,
well a recent one in the past two weeks to
(01:04):
finish my hopefully my final surgery for breast reconstruction. And
that's what we're going to talk about today, my first
day back on Fearless Fabulous You. I've had four sets
of breasts. I don't know if it's something to be
proud about, but that's the truth. Why because in two
(01:27):
thousand and nine, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in
both breasts August twenty, two thousand and nine, and I
underwent a double messectomy at memorials Loan Couttering about the
time I was choosing my breast surgeon, I was asked,
(01:48):
what are your plans for reconstruction? Why? I had no idea,
because I've just been diagnosed with breast cancer and I
always alreadys gobsmacked about that. And suddenly I had to
make this major decision about whether I was going to
get new breasts or not. Well, I wanted new breasts.
I didn't want to. I just did when I have
(02:08):
not had breasts. It was at that point a very
busy time of the year in my public relations business.
I mean, I had so many events to produce around
the country. I was like, how am I going to
fit breast cancer into my busy business and work schedule,
traveling and jetting and doing and eating and drinking. It
(02:32):
was overwhelming. So I didn't do that much homework. I
just asked my girlfriend Melanie what she did. She had
had breast cancer there before, and she had had breast implants,
so I was like, Okay, I'll do breast implants. Sounds
easy er because my other option was natural tissue restoration,
and that I was told would be a surgery that
(02:54):
would follow my mess sact to me, and it would
be eight hours in a longer downtime, and it sounded
very complicated and scary because the word downtime. Then I
wasn't going to be running my business and making any
money to pay for all this. Virtually, insurance pay for it,
but I still had to earn a living to pay
my bills. If you are anyone who has a job
(03:16):
a career of business and you're watching or listening to this,
you know how I was feeling, like, how am I
going to do all this? So I chose to get implants.
And then I learned I could pit my own breasts.
So my husband and I went to we interviewed different
plastic surgeons or they call them reconstructive surgeons and insurance,
(03:38):
and I chose a wonderful guy, doctor Joseph Deese memorial
Sloan kettering. He's I have now I learned one of
the great implant rest implant czars of all times. He's
just a master, and I just immediately clicked with him.
He liked wine. I liked wine. He liked Brunello demundl Chino.
I like Brunellaino, and I liked just handiwork. So I
got to pick my breasts so outcomes doctor's aid with
(04:02):
all these implants hanging from their fingertips, and I got
to squeeze them and touch them and look at them.
So I chose these ones that looked like brask because
some of them didn't call the four tens. They were
also called Goomi bears because they felt like those gummies
that you buy, you know, at the store, or if
(04:22):
you're a pot a gummy. They had that texture. So
I chose those and for the next ten months ten
months after my mass sectomy, while I was going through
six months or eight months a chemo of lost track,
I would go and get my chest pumped up with
(04:43):
some kind of solution that would basically expand my chest
boom boom boom to be able to have inserts put in.
No one never told me that that whole expansion time
would be painful. I felt like every time they were
blowing me up, it was like boom boom, and it
(05:03):
really hurt, really hurt, and I was just walking around
like this, you know, with these like blow ups on
my chest. They were hard as rocks. One of my
fellow survivors from my book Getting Things Off My Chest
Right recount this entire scenario. There's the copy. We're going
(05:23):
to leave it up, third edition, long, new edition with
reconstruction based on what I'm talking about. It felt like
coconuts coming off her forehead. It was really hard. So
finally the day of reckoning came. It was like I
think August, no rain, October twenty ten, and they put
(05:44):
the implants in. Boom boom. It was another surgery. Boom boom.
They sewed me up and off I went with new breasts.
They were hard at rocks always, and they were made
of silicone. They were shape like the shape I picked.
They were hard as rocks. I couldn't sleep on my
(06:05):
chest when it was cold, they got cold. They were
temperature sensitive. So if I go at a grocery store
in the summer, I was freezing from the air conditioning.
If I went swimming in a cold swimming pool, I
was freezing. If it was snowing and cold outside, which
it was where I was living in the Hudson Valley,
I was freezing. Not only was I freezing in my chest,
but it would go down my arms and my hands,
(06:25):
and I developed rainos. This went on for years. Okay,
I just endure these and preyed that this would all dissipate,
but it didn't. Moreover, the implants were under my chest
muscle because I had thin chest skin, and I couldn't move.
I couldn't do anything. I had to use my elbow
to get in a car. Everything was just numb all
(06:48):
the time. If I was gripping too much, raising a
wine bottel was hard. Figure that one out. Anyway, flash forward,
it's the pandemic twenty the early part of twenty twenty,
or maybe twenty nineteen, early twenty twenty before the pandemic,
(07:09):
and I get this letter from my surgeon, the great
doctor Joseph Deesus, saying that my implants, the four ten
gummy bears as we call them, had been were called
by the Food and Drug Administration. Yeah, the FDA. Why
because they were linked potentially to a rare form of lymphoma. Well,
(07:31):
the last thing I wanted to get was lymphoma. I
didn't want to have cancer anymore. I also didn't want
any more surgery, but I was given the option to
have the implants removed so I didn't have that constant
worry and have them replaced with another type of implant. Well,
that said two things. One I could get rid of
(07:53):
the risk of a foreign body is a substance in
my body, giving me more cancer insurance would cover this
and health insurance. And I could get new breasts and
maybe they'd be more comfortable. So I went back in
and May twenty twenty, in the middle of or April
twenty twenty, in the middle of the pandemic, I go
(08:15):
down to meet with doctor Tza. The city's shut down.
I'm wearing a mask. We're all super careful. And I
picked saline impants. Why because saline are a little squish
ear and feel more breasty versus hard rocks. They were
not going to be temperature sensitive, which means that I
hopefully would eliminate the constant freezing I was having. Anytime
(08:38):
somebody would give me iced tea. It was an air conditioning.
It was cold, constant shivering. So I chose saline im pants.
So in June twenty twenty, my husband and I took
a car service social actually a social worker at memorial.
Slan Kettering was great help. Always consult with a social worker.
(08:59):
They can get you help. And one of the things
they did was give me a complimentary car service to
come into the city from New York City from the
Hudson Valley so I could safely without contamination by anybody,
go straight to surgery. I had the surgery, I stayed overnight.
I had these new implants. They were softer er. They
(09:21):
were still hard, but they were soft er, and I
didn't have as much temperature sensitive but I still had some. However,
Doctor Deza said, I'm sorry, but I still had to
put them under your chest muscle because you have really
thin breast skin and we're afraid it could rip. Well, okay, fine,
(09:42):
except I still had mobility issues because I couldn't move
the dang breasts were under my chest muscle. Years went on.
We moved from the Hudson Valley. We lived on the road.
If you follow me a Melanie Fabulous or the Connected
Table our saga. We sold everything to get out of debt,
(10:04):
left the Hudson Valley, lived on the road, debt free
during the pandemic, just lived like no mass. It was
a care free time and everything was Lotti DA, and
then we had to move home to take care of
my mother, and everything was Lotti DA. But when we
around twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, we started to notice.
(10:26):
I started to notice it every time I flexed my
chest or try to do anything. I was still having
trouble with mobility issues. I could have difficulty riding a bike,
lifting the wine bottle, using a knife, you name it.
And then over time we noticed that my right implant
(10:46):
was shrinking. Yeah, it was kind of going and it
was also shifting going up a little here. So I
was starting to look a little lopside. I asked my
I said, I asked my husband. I said, do you
think brest I got a lopsided? And he said yeah,
they started to look lip sided. And I was like,
do you think is it possible that one of my
(11:09):
implants sprung a leak? Because that could happen. So it's
July twenty twenty five. Now this all started back in
two thousand and nine. Remember, so we're fifteen years No,
I can't collt, I don't have any math. Whatever. It
is twenty and nine to twenty twenty five. I'd already
(11:32):
written my book Getting Things Off My Chest, A Survivor's
Guide to Staying Fearless and Fabulous and Face of Breast Cancer.
I had already updated my book twice. The third division
not only discussed the whole episode with getting my implants
exchanged from silicon to sale, but I also added a
entire section on choosing to not reconstruct at all, which
(11:54):
many women are choosing not to do because they don't
want anything artificial in there. They want any more surgery,
or they don't want any more artificial things in their body,
or maybe they're having their breast implants removed because they're
having discomfort or issues like I did. It's July twenty.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Twenty five, and I'm now living in New Orleans, where
I still am in love, and it so happens there
is a hospital here.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Dedicated to breast reconstruction. That's all they do, natural tissue
breast reconstruction. Now, if you remember when the beginning of
the show started, I said I was given an option
of natural tissue breast reconstruction, but dismissed it because it
involved a lot of time under surgery and a lot
(12:45):
of time for recovery. But what I did mention is
I was also a little skinny mini back then, and
I didn't have a lot of body fat or tissue
to take from my torso and hips and thighs to
create breast, so they it would have evolved more work
to find the fat in my body, which meant more
sutures and whatnot, and I just didn't want any of it.
(13:07):
By twenty twenty five, you know, well over a decade later,
I had put on some weight, so I had the fat.
So I scheduled a consultation with a doctor, a surgeon
at the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery here in New Orleans.
They are specialists, in fact, they're pioneers underscore in the
(13:31):
process of deep flat and other types tram flat and
other types of natural tissue breast restoration. What does that mean.
It means taking your own bodies fat and tissue, healthy tissue,
and they lipposucked it. They take it out surgically, and
(13:53):
they build new breasts, so you basically have new breasts.
It's a very intricate surgery of your own body tissue.
So when you gain weight, they gain weight. When you
lose weight, they lose weight. They feel natural, they move,
they're not artificial. They're your own body. It's a very specialized,
intricate surgery that takes like eight hours. So during my consult,
(14:19):
they took lots of pictures of me. I'm so used
to being photographed and they get I don't care anymore.
They took lots of pictures. They zeroed in on my
muffin top and my thighs and hips, where I was told, Josh,
you have enough fat tissue, but you could actually use more.
So hey, I was given a license to eat and
drink more, which was just great. It's like, sure, I
(14:41):
can do that. I can keep eating and drinking to
put on more weight, to get more fat. What a
great assignment. Anyway, Seriously, I loved my doctor, who was wise.
My girlfriend Julie had also gone to him after she'd
had a double my sect and natural tissue restoration. So
(15:02):
I went. I did the console, and I decided after
talking it over with my husband David and giving it
some thought and doing my research and reading breastcenter dot
COM's extensive and helpful website, I decided to schedule surgery
for October twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. This was July,
so that gave me plenty of time to get all
(15:24):
my traveling in allow and schedule downtime because I was
told I would need a good six to eight weeks
downtime and eat drink to gain more weight. I wouldn't
normally recommend that, but I didn't go crazy, but I
didn't hold back either. Anyway, I went in for the surgery.
(15:46):
The center is so detailed and special. Here's an interesting fact.
Seventy percent of the patients who come to have surgery
at the center for a store of breast surgery. I'm
out of state. That's how warlwarllnown they are. But they
kept asking me where I lived, and they were always
always surprised. I said, I'm local, I'm New Orleans, I'm here. Anyway,
(16:09):
I went in, I was for any surgery, You've got
to prepare your body. So here are a couple of tips.
Start sooner than later, like at minimum two to three weeks,
better four, getting your diet into shape, getting your body
into shape, stop drinking alcohol, tape or at least taper down,
(16:33):
and get good, nice sleep and make sure you are
in good shape physically and mentally. For surgery. You will
get a detailed list of things to do and not
to do, like don't take ibrewprofen because it could it's
not great for healing and cause proving that also as
if you get botox and other directions. And then the
(16:54):
night before the surgery, I ate a healthy meal, I
did not drink wine. I'd been off wine, and I
bathed in this antibacteria called hibbeclins. It was the same
antibacterial wash I use for my double misectomy and my
other surgeries. And then after eleven PM a night no
(17:17):
more eating and drinking, got a good night's sleep. The
next day we went to the hospital where I was
marked up all over the place to show where they
were going to cut and take that. And I just
look like a giant map. And I was given an
ived that hurts that I never seem to have. You know,
(17:37):
when you don't eat and drink a lot in the morning,
you also don't have good veins. I still have bruises
on my arm from the last surgery. Anyway, they got
me in. I consulted with the anesthesiologist. Now, mind you,
I neglect to say, I did a lot of pre
surgical testing, which you will be asked to do. You
will do pre surgical testing within four weeks of your surgery.
(17:58):
Do it, get your EKG, make sure your blood work
is in, make sure there are no red flags, and
make sure that your primary care physician is on board
all the way so he or she knows what's going on. Okay,
So I had done my pre surgical testing. Everything tested
(18:19):
out great. I had gone off vitamins, I'd gone off viberprobe,
I'd gone off everything. No pills except for my blood pressure,
my gastro esophagal reflux, and my cholesterol medicine. I was
okay to take those as directed, but nothing else. You
have to have all that information on a list when
you go in to make sure you do not hold
(18:43):
anything back. Big, big, big underscore is do not smoke.
If you smoke, stop period Don't smoke. If you smoke
and you don't want to stop, stop at least six
to eight weeks before you're searched. I'm telling you that
is a big problem in the healing process smoking, So
(19:05):
stop periods. You really increase your risk. So I felt
good going in surgery. I was in a good mood.
I lay in the gurney, my husband was allowed to
come in. I had the IVY fluids going in the
doctor came in, and the nurse came in, Another nurse
came in, the whole team came in. Everybody came in,
(19:27):
and then they wheeled me into surgery. They started administrating
my general anesthesia, and I can't tell you anything else
because I was out, But I can tell you that
with general anesthesia you get a breathing to and I
could play around with your vocal cords, because after my surgeries,
all of them, I have lost my voice and I
(19:48):
still am a little scratchy if you can tell, which
is why I haven't been doing any live shows and
why I'm gonna take a blass of water. That's very
common with general anthesia. I woke up totally grogging. On
the other side, I was told the surgery went well.
I stayed two nights in the hospital. I had these
(20:09):
much like with my double my sectomy. I had these
pressure socks on that were mechanized and they were squeezing
my calves to make sure that I didn't get a
blood clot. Because a big high high risk of all surgeries,
particular gender anesesia, is the risk of the pneumonia, pulmonary embolism,
(20:31):
or a blood clot. You're not moving, you're lying down,
you've been pumped with anesthesia, your body's in a very
super weak point, you've lost blood, and you were at
high risk for those things. My mother actually got double
pneumonia and a pulmonary embolism after her hip surgery to
replace a broken fractured hip, and it was scary, really scary.
(20:55):
She'd end up in the hospital and the er and
take all these pills because the pulmonary embolism can be fatal.
So I left the hospital totally woozy and so weak
after the second day of my first surgery. Now let
me just stop here. Natural tissue restoration is a two
(21:19):
part surgery. First of all, there's different kinds of natural
tissue restoration, and you will discuss with your surgeon what
is best for you. I'm just going to refer to
the book here. My section here, by the way, is
called My Road to Reconstruction, and it was a road
(21:39):
because it has a long, long, long section. So the
pros for a natural tissue and why I decided to
remove my amplants, besides the fact one was shrinking and
potentially leaking, is that you are using your own skin
and tissue and fat versus implanting a foreign object your body.
(22:03):
This is important. Your body can reject an implant, but
your body cannot reject its natural tissue. That's important. Your
breast look and feel natural. I get attest to that.
I can't keep my hands off of them. They feels
so good. Your breast will regain this is important normal
(22:24):
sensation once your nerves regenerate. I can tell you now
I have more sensation in my breast for the first
sign in almost fifteen years than before there was no sensation.
With implants, you also get the bonus of a butt,
a tummy tuck, or a butt tuck. It's a bonus,
but it is painful because that's where they're gonna take
most of your fat from your tummy or your butt,
(22:46):
depending on the procedure. If you gain a loose weight,
your breast will adapt as well, so you're natural. The
cons it's a more complicated surgery with additional risk I
eat infection, blood clots, necrosis. So the transfer tissue. That
one was a scary one for me, and I'll discuss
it later. Your recovery town would be longer and you
(23:06):
will have more drains to deal with. I had four
drains for the first surgery, and then as I said,
it's a two part surgery. For the second surgery, which
I had quite recently, it was one drain. I'll get
to that. There's additional scarring on your body. Yes, I
have a bikini scar. The doctors and surgeons at the
Center for Restore Breast Surgery specialized in having the best
(23:30):
bikini scar possible as and they make it refined so
you don't see it, and you'll probably and you will
have some scars on your breasts with the surgery. You
may have weaker stomach muscles, so you'll need to undergo
physical therapy, which I will be doing to strengthen your core. However,
(23:52):
I had bad core muscles beforehand and a bad back,
which actually they repaired as part of my second surgery,
which I'll get into. Most of these surgeries cannot be redone,
so for me, this is my last surgery. So the
deep flap is the one I had, which was abdominal
(24:13):
skin and fat to reconstruct, but leaves the muscle in place.
Very important. There's also sea a flap superficial in fear
epigeograstic artery, which is used as skin fat and tissue
from the abdomen, and then there's also you can take
fat from your butt and your back and your sides.
(24:38):
Unfortunately for me, I had enough fat my stomach. We
also for the second surgery took some out of my
thighs okay recovery so from the first surgery in October, unfortunately,
I developed the dreaded necrosis and infection in my infection
in my future, it's rare. I got it. I probably
(25:01):
did something I don't know. I mean, you have to
be really careful after surgery. I took a long walk
one day I noticed it was kind of crusty on
my sweatpants from my decision. Maybe something got infected that way.
I'll never know, but I had to have an emergency
(25:21):
surgery opened up all the mess and infection removed resown up.
That added another two weeks to my recovery. It was
not good, but I knew to take a picture of
what I suspected was an infection. I emailed it to
my surgeon's nurse. She said, we're gonna put you on
antibiotics immediately, don't eat anything after eleven PM, and you
(25:44):
come in in the morning and we're gonna look at
this and decide what to do, and the decision was
to have a quick emergency surgery. Fortunately not anything. I'm okay.
I took time to recover. It took a long time.
I could barely walk, I could barely stand up because
I was hunched over because there was this suture was
killing me. It took a while to sit up straight
(26:09):
and be able to walk straight and get my voice back,
which brings me to and then of the second surgery.
My second surgery, which you could do three months after
the first. I scheduled after Marty Grass and after a
major trip to Tuscany for the end of February twenty
twenty six. That surgery was roughly four hours. They went in,
(26:34):
They lippo sucked my stomach and sides and thighs and
filled out my upper breasts and any indentations to make
them look even better, more full and more natural. They
look gorgeous. Nope cutting or anything up here. They also,
my surgeon noticed that my stomach had some like They
did something called the stomach abdominal plication to tighten up
(26:57):
the muscles in my stomach, and they also found an
umbilical nia which they removed. So there was a mess
down there. And they said that was probably what was
causing a lot of my back issues for all this time.
So guess what, I don't seem to have anywhere back pain.
I have a lot of pain right now which I'll
get into, but not a lot of back pain. So
(27:17):
that surgery was February twenty six. I had a lot
of breathing issues. I had developed a little bit of
it had just flown. Okay, Number one, don't fly before
your surgery or after. Don't move On my part. I
gone to Italy for a wine program and I didn't
know enough time between the trip coming back and surgery.
(27:39):
I think because I had a little bit of a
head stuffed head. When I went in. I got tested
for COVID. I got tested for everything. Everything was negative.
But I did discuss with my nithesiologists. I said, I'm
still okay to do the surgery. They said fine. This
surgery went fine, except I had a lot of respiratory
issues afterward, which can happen after a general athesia. So
(28:06):
with an abundance of caution I was given. You're given
a sparometer which you breathe into. It's like a breathing machine.
You have to take deep breaths. You have to do
that ten times every hour to get your lungs moving again.
After lying flat and being under for so long, I
became more diligent about doing it the second after the
(28:26):
second surgery, and I didn't do so well the first surgery,
but I also had lost my voice and I was coughing.
So for abundance of caution, I went and had a
chest X ray and I had some a little bit
of what they call plural emissions on my lungs, which
is some water on the lungs, which is very common
after a general athesia, but as a fun as a caution,
(28:46):
I went to the er and had a cat scan
of my chest to make sure I did not have
the dreaded pulmonary analysm of blood cloth. By then I
was scared shitless and just said, well can I do
and not get a blood clot or pumony analysm? So
I follow the rules, slept, doubled my protein intake, did
(29:08):
my birometer machinede what you got to do, started walking
a little bit, but also rested a lot. As of yesterday,
I've stopped coughing. It's almost two weeks. Two weeks surgery
out will be tomorrow. There say today, I actually have
(29:30):
a voice, and this is my first show. I'm still
scratchy in the throat, but it also gonna become spring allergies,
which you're also exacerbating everything here in New Orleans. The
bottom line is, I'm still quite fatigued and quite weak,
and I know it, and I am taking the time
needed to heal, following the rules to the tee, and
(29:53):
I'm not going out. I'm just resting. I'm doing this
show as a test to see how I hold up.
I think I'm holding up okay, even though my voice
is going. But I'll see my doctor for my two
week post off. Now here's the thing, and I have
enough time. In the second surgery, there's a lot of
(30:16):
liposuction and you're probably thinking, Wow, tell me how great
all the No, you know that just sounds it's like
a Mommy makeover. But let me give you four warning.
You will wear a tight, very tight corset. It's not
a spank spanks, It's a black, tight, thick corset. For
(30:40):
six weeks. David has to help me get dressed every morning.
It kind of goes like this, I have this corset
I can only take it off to shower maximum forty
five minutes after wear it round the clock for six weeks,
and they hate New Orleans. He has to help me
into it. It's tighter than you can even imagine. It's
(31:01):
making me sit up straight. I will send This is
probably helping my back. It's crotchless because when you have
to do your business, you can't take it off. I
can't even take it off. David has to help me.
It is not comfortable, but I'm learning to adapt and
use humor to deal with it, particularly when I have
to do my business. I have an extra extra large
(31:22):
one because the other one was just really cramping me
and making me cough more. And now I'm wearying my
small one, which is probably getting hoarse. I have to
wear for six weeks. I have to wear compression garments
on my legs for two weeks. I'm almost done and
I'll go in. No exercise, absolutely no exercise, no lifting
of anything over ten pounds. I won't lift ver or five.
(31:45):
You can do anything that will aggravate this area. The
breasts are awesome. I have to wear a masectomy bra,
which I'm wearing for I guess six weeks. Also, I'll
learn more when I go in from my postop, when
they look at how my sutures are healing, how the
areas that they liposector healing, et cetera. You will be
(32:07):
bruised like you. I look like a battered wife. My
bruises are still there. I'm so bruised, it's unbelievable. The
compression garment helps with the bruising, but you're still bruised,
and parts of you are yellow. Parts of your bruised.
Hopefully by March seventeenth. That's my gay. That's David in
(32:27):
my nineteenth wedding anniversary. I sure him hoping I could
go out have lunch. We are going to Commander's Palace
where we were married. Get dressed is something that will
actually fit. I had to buy all new garments because
nothing fits over this corset. So I went online and
bought all these Maxi dresses for like nothing, including this one,
to wear while I heal, and hopefully after they'll be
(32:47):
like beach cover ups. And then after the six weeks,
I may have to wear spanks for some indefinite number
of time. So it is a process. But I'm going
to tell you that my breasts feel awesome, and I
(33:08):
already feel like I have so much mobility. I can't
wait to exercise again. I'm going to follow my surgeon's
recommendation and go to a physical therapist that specializes in
pilates moves. I'm going to follow the surgeon's recommendations to
a t becase I want to heal healthfully, and it's
(33:29):
really important if you do any certain Now that is
my experience. Am I glad I made the decision to
take the implants out? Yes, what I have done anything
differently with my natural tissue restoration surgery and recovery. No.
The only thing I would have done differently is one
I would have not flown to Italy and back and
(33:51):
allowed only five minutes in between. I thought I could
do it. I had done it before this sub it
didn't work so well. I would recognize and listen to
my body and realize that surgery is a major thing,
whether you're having a baby and a cesarean. And this
isn't much. This I've been told as similar to a cesarean.
I don't know, because I didn't have a baby. Any
(34:13):
kind of surgery is serious. You cannot bounce back anyone
that talks about she bounced back after surgery. Oh shit.
You have to be in the best health possible before
the surgery, unless you're sick and you're going in for
the surgery. But you have to take super good care,
(34:34):
follow the surgeons recommendations after, and allow at least eight
weeks to heal. Listen to your body. Don't try to
exert if you're not ready right now. For me, walking
a flu few blocks is enough. I'm not ready to
do much more, and I know it. Another thing, narcotics
(34:54):
make you constipate it. I can't imagine being a drug addic.
I don't like needles. I don't like narcotics. I don't
like anything in the place of my head. I got
off all the narcotics as soon as I was able to,
and approve too, so I could loosen up, as I say,
And now I only take like I've seen a menifit
(35:16):
or tiltel for pain. I take a muscle relaxer to
deal with the pain from the corset. Because when you
heal your body itches, there's some pain. It will be uncomfortable,
and you just had to grant and bear it. I
don't tell you much else. I really don't. I haven't
started taking multi vitamins again, and because I want to
(35:36):
make sure my doctor says it's time, because any kind
of vitamin or supplement can play around with your healing.
So that's my story about why I remove my breast
implants and underwent natural tissue breast restoration. Would I recommend it? Yes?
Would I have done it if I know know now?
Speaker 2 (35:56):
No?
Speaker 3 (35:56):
And then what I know now? So if I knew
then when I had my double myself to me what
I know now, I would have chosen natural tissue breast restoration.
Then why because I wouldn't have had the two other
surgeries that put in and remove implants and all that
discomfort that came with it. So I do recommend it,
(36:17):
but you have to listen to your body and know
your body and understand are you ready to go through
the process. Are you going to allow yourself the time?
And are you in the good health and do you
have enough fat tissue? Find a great surgeon. You can
come to the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery. As I said,
seventy percent of their patients from out of state or
(36:40):
in the city or town where you live. There may
be an excellent breast restoration specialists talk to several of them.
Make a decision based on how they make you feel
as a patient, how well they explain the procedure to you,
how much time they spend answering your questions. They don't
brush you off, they don't just give you a power point.
(37:02):
Has to see before and afters. Has to talk to
patients if the patients will allow it. Many patients are private.
I was actually allowed to talk to a patient the
first time around. In fact, we actually went into the
bathroom and she took her shirt off and let me
feel her breast, and that was helpful. It sounds weird,
but I want to know what the breasts felt like
before I got new ones. My girlfriend did that with
(37:25):
me with a natural tissue. She was so cute. She
took me in the bathroom and said here they are.
I was like, wow, they look great. So you'll find
yourself doing goofy things. But it's all because you want
to have the best body you want and being the
best health. So I hope this show is helpful for
anyone who is facing a mes ectomy and restoration and
(37:45):
making this very very big decision that will unpact the
body for probably the rest of their life. And if
you have a friend or a loved one who's facing it,
please share this show with them. I do recommend my book.
I'm not always salesy, but I recommend my book Getting
Things Off my Chest, The Survivor's Guide to Staying Fearless
and Fabulous in the Face of Breast Cancer. You'll see
(38:06):
it when someone wars. You can find it on Amazon,
or you can write me at Melanie at melanieion dot
com and order it for me and then an autograph version. Anyway,
the key is I want you to be in the
best health, with the best breast health possible. Always get
a mammogram. If you have your breast, schedule your annual mammogram.
(38:30):
Do it diligently. I always did it well, Thanks Halloween,
scary right Halloween mammogram. Always did it. Always give yourself
a manual breast examination every month. Even as someone who's
had a double mess ectomy, I still fill around my
breast because there can always be a recurrence in my
chest muscle. Scary, but probably less likely now with all
(38:51):
the surgeries I've had and the chemo. Always listen to
your body. Always talk to other survivors. I recommend share
Cancer Support dot org is a nonprofit based in New York,
all where they actually will pair you with other cancer
survivors who can tell you their story. It's for breast
an ovarian cancer Shared Cancer Support dot org. Share. There
(39:13):
are many other wonderful organizations and you can find them
all in the back of my book. So I hope
this is helpful. I hope that you never have to
face this decision, but if you do, I hope I
can be a source to you of help. I'm Melandy
and I always try to be fearless fabulous in every
(39:33):
stage and age of my life, and I want you
to as well. Just remember, you have a choice in
life on how you choose to live it. Choose to
live life on your terms, answer your own needs, listen
to your own body, and always be the person you
want to be, not what others expect and want of you,
(39:54):
and always choose to be fearless and fabulous. Thank you.
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We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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(00:20):
be directed to those show hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello, and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young, and it's good to be back. I've taken
a few weeks off, so if I sound look different,
or sound a little husky in my voice, or take
time to cough, it's because I recently had two surgeries,
well a recent one in the past two weeks to
(01:04):
finish my hopefully my final surgery for breast reconstruction. And
that's what we're going to talk about today, my first
day back on Fearless Fabulous You. I've had four sets
of breasts. I don't know if it's something to be
proud about, but that's the truth. Why because in two
(01:27):
thousand and nine, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in
both breasts August twenty, two thousand and nine, and I
underwent a double messectomy at memorials Loan Couttering about the
time I was choosing my breast surgeon, I was asked,
(01:48):
what are your plans for reconstruction? Why? I had no idea,
because I've just been diagnosed with breast cancer and I
always alreadys gobsmacked about that. And suddenly I had to
make this major decision about whether I was going to
get new breasts or not. Well, I wanted new breasts.
I didn't want to. I just did when I have
(02:08):
not had breasts. It was at that point a very
busy time of the year in my public relations business.
I mean, I had so many events to produce around
the country. I was like, how am I going to
fit breast cancer into my busy business and work schedule,
traveling and jetting and doing and eating and drinking. It
(02:32):
was overwhelming. So I didn't do that much homework. I
just asked my girlfriend Melanie what she did. She had
had breast cancer there before, and she had had breast implants,
so I was like, Okay, I'll do breast implants. Sounds
easy er because my other option was natural tissue restoration,
and that I was told would be a surgery that
(02:54):
would follow my mess sact to me, and it would
be eight hours in a longer downtime, and it sounded
very complicated and scary because the word downtime. Then I
wasn't going to be running my business and making any
money to pay for all this. Virtually, insurance pay for it,
but I still had to earn a living to pay
my bills. If you are anyone who has a job
(03:16):
a career of business and you're watching or listening to this,
you know how I was feeling, like, how am I
going to do all this? So I chose to get implants.
And then I learned I could pit my own breasts.
So my husband and I went to we interviewed different
plastic surgeons or they call them reconstructive surgeons and insurance,
(03:38):
and I chose a wonderful guy, doctor Joseph Deese memorial
Sloan kettering. He's I have now I learned one of
the great implant rest implant czars of all times. He's
just a master, and I just immediately clicked with him.
He liked wine. I liked wine. He liked Brunello demundl Chino.
I like Brunellaino, and I liked just handiwork. So I
got to pick my breasts so outcomes doctor's aid with
(04:02):
all these implants hanging from their fingertips, and I got
to squeeze them and touch them and look at them.
So I chose these ones that looked like brask because
some of them didn't call the four tens. They were
also called Goomi bears because they felt like those gummies
that you buy, you know, at the store, or if
(04:22):
you're a pot a gummy. They had that texture. So
I chose those and for the next ten months ten
months after my mass sectomy, while I was going through
six months or eight months a chemo of lost track,
I would go and get my chest pumped up with
(04:43):
some kind of solution that would basically expand my chest
boom boom boom to be able to have inserts put in.
No one never told me that that whole expansion time
would be painful. I felt like every time they were
blowing me up, it was like boom boom, and it
(05:03):
really hurt, really hurt, and I was just walking around
like this, you know, with these like blow ups on
my chest. They were hard as rocks. One of my
fellow survivors from my book Getting Things Off My Chest
Right recount this entire scenario. There's the copy. We're going
(05:23):
to leave it up, third edition, long, new edition with
reconstruction based on what I'm talking about. It felt like
coconuts coming off her forehead. It was really hard. So
finally the day of reckoning came. It was like I
think August, no rain, October twenty ten, and they put
(05:44):
the implants in. Boom boom. It was another surgery. Boom boom.
They sewed me up and off I went with new breasts.
They were hard at rocks always, and they were made
of silicone. They were shape like the shape I picked.
They were hard as rocks. I couldn't sleep on my
(06:05):
chest when it was cold, they got cold. They were
temperature sensitive. So if I go at a grocery store
in the summer, I was freezing from the air conditioning.
If I went swimming in a cold swimming pool, I
was freezing. If it was snowing and cold outside, which
it was where I was living in the Hudson Valley,
I was freezing. Not only was I freezing in my chest,
but it would go down my arms and my hands,
(06:25):
and I developed rainos. This went on for years. Okay,
I just endure these and preyed that this would all dissipate,
but it didn't. Moreover, the implants were under my chest
muscle because I had thin chest skin, and I couldn't move.
I couldn't do anything. I had to use my elbow
to get in a car. Everything was just numb all
(06:48):
the time. If I was gripping too much, raising a
wine bottel was hard. Figure that one out. Anyway, flash forward,
it's the pandemic twenty the early part of twenty twenty,
or maybe twenty nineteen, early twenty twenty before the pandemic,
(07:09):
and I get this letter from my surgeon, the great
doctor Joseph Deesus, saying that my implants, the four ten
gummy bears as we call them, had been were called
by the Food and Drug Administration. Yeah, the FDA. Why
because they were linked potentially to a rare form of lymphoma. Well,
(07:31):
the last thing I wanted to get was lymphoma. I
didn't want to have cancer anymore. I also didn't want
any more surgery, but I was given the option to
have the implants removed so I didn't have that constant
worry and have them replaced with another type of implant. Well,
that said two things. One I could get rid of
(07:53):
the risk of a foreign body is a substance in
my body, giving me more cancer insurance would cover this
and health insurance. And I could get new breasts and
maybe they'd be more comfortable. So I went back in
and May twenty twenty, in the middle of or April
twenty twenty, in the middle of the pandemic, I go
(08:15):
down to meet with doctor Tza. The city's shut down.
I'm wearing a mask. We're all super careful. And I
picked saline impants. Why because saline are a little squish
ear and feel more breasty versus hard rocks. They were
not going to be temperature sensitive, which means that I
hopefully would eliminate the constant freezing I was having. Anytime
(08:38):
somebody would give me iced tea. It was an air conditioning.
It was cold, constant shivering. So I chose saline im pants.
So in June twenty twenty, my husband and I took
a car service social actually a social worker at memorial.
Slan Kettering was great help. Always consult with a social worker.
(08:59):
They can get you help. And one of the things
they did was give me a complimentary car service to
come into the city from New York City from the
Hudson Valley so I could safely without contamination by anybody,
go straight to surgery. I had the surgery, I stayed overnight.
I had these new implants. They were softer er. They
(09:21):
were still hard, but they were soft er, and I
didn't have as much temperature sensitive but I still had some. However,
Doctor Deza said, I'm sorry, but I still had to
put them under your chest muscle because you have really
thin breast skin and we're afraid it could rip. Well, okay, fine,
(09:42):
except I still had mobility issues because I couldn't move
the dang breasts were under my chest muscle. Years went on.
We moved from the Hudson Valley. We lived on the road.
If you follow me a Melanie Fabulous or the Connected
Table our saga. We sold everything to get out of debt,
(10:04):
left the Hudson Valley, lived on the road, debt free
during the pandemic, just lived like no mass. It was
a care free time and everything was Lotti DA, and
then we had to move home to take care of
my mother, and everything was Lotti DA. But when we
around twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, we started to notice.
(10:26):
I started to notice it every time I flexed my
chest or try to do anything. I was still having
trouble with mobility issues. I could have difficulty riding a bike,
lifting the wine bottle, using a knife, you name it.
And then over time we noticed that my right implant
(10:46):
was shrinking. Yeah, it was kind of going and it
was also shifting going up a little here. So I
was starting to look a little lopside. I asked my
I said, I asked my husband. I said, do you
think brest I got a lopsided? And he said yeah,
they started to look lip sided. And I was like,
do you think is it possible that one of my
(11:09):
implants sprung a leak? Because that could happen. So it's
July twenty twenty five. Now this all started back in
two thousand and nine. Remember, so we're fifteen years No,
I can't collt, I don't have any math. Whatever. It
is twenty and nine to twenty twenty five. I'd already
(11:32):
written my book Getting Things Off My Chest, A Survivor's
Guide to Staying Fearless and Fabulous and Face of Breast Cancer.
I had already updated my book twice. The third division
not only discussed the whole episode with getting my implants
exchanged from silicon to sale, but I also added a
entire section on choosing to not reconstruct at all, which
(11:54):
many women are choosing not to do because they don't
want anything artificial in there. They want any more surgery,
or they don't want any more artificial things in their body,
or maybe they're having their breast implants removed because they're
having discomfort or issues like I did. It's July twenty.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Twenty five, and I'm now living in New Orleans, where
I still am in love, and it so happens there
is a hospital here.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Dedicated to breast reconstruction. That's all they do, natural tissue
breast reconstruction. Now, if you remember when the beginning of
the show started, I said I was given an option
of natural tissue breast reconstruction, but dismissed it because it
involved a lot of time under surgery and a lot
(12:45):
of time for recovery. But what I did mention is
I was also a little skinny mini back then, and
I didn't have a lot of body fat or tissue
to take from my torso and hips and thighs to
create breast, so they it would have evolved more work
to find the fat in my body, which meant more
sutures and whatnot, and I just didn't want any of it.
(13:07):
By twenty twenty five, you know, well over a decade later,
I had put on some weight, so I had the fat.
So I scheduled a consultation with a doctor, a surgeon
at the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery here in New Orleans.
They are specialists, in fact, they're pioneers underscore in the
(13:31):
process of deep flat and other types tram flat and
other types of natural tissue breast restoration. What does that mean.
It means taking your own bodies fat and tissue, healthy tissue,
and they lipposucked it. They take it out surgically, and
(13:53):
they build new breasts, so you basically have new breasts.
It's a very intricate surgery of your own body tissue.
So when you gain weight, they gain weight. When you
lose weight, they lose weight. They feel natural, they move,
they're not artificial. They're your own body. It's a very specialized,
intricate surgery that takes like eight hours. So during my consult,
(14:19):
they took lots of pictures of me. I'm so used
to being photographed and they get I don't care anymore.
They took lots of pictures. They zeroed in on my
muffin top and my thighs and hips, where I was told, Josh,
you have enough fat tissue, but you could actually use more.
So hey, I was given a license to eat and
drink more, which was just great. It's like, sure, I
(14:41):
can do that. I can keep eating and drinking to
put on more weight, to get more fat. What a
great assignment. Anyway, Seriously, I loved my doctor, who was wise.
My girlfriend Julie had also gone to him after she'd
had a double my sect and natural tissue restoration. So
(15:02):
I went. I did the console, and I decided after
talking it over with my husband David and giving it
some thought and doing my research and reading breastcenter dot
COM's extensive and helpful website, I decided to schedule surgery
for October twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. This was July,
so that gave me plenty of time to get all
(15:24):
my traveling in allow and schedule downtime because I was
told I would need a good six to eight weeks
downtime and eat drink to gain more weight. I wouldn't
normally recommend that, but I didn't go crazy, but I
didn't hold back either. Anyway, I went in for the surgery.
(15:46):
The center is so detailed and special. Here's an interesting fact.
Seventy percent of the patients who come to have surgery
at the center for a store of breast surgery. I'm
out of state. That's how warlwarllnown they are. But they
kept asking me where I lived, and they were always
always surprised. I said, I'm local, I'm New Orleans, I'm here. Anyway,
(16:09):
I went in, I was for any surgery, You've got
to prepare your body. So here are a couple of tips.
Start sooner than later, like at minimum two to three weeks,
better four, getting your diet into shape, getting your body
into shape, stop drinking alcohol, tape or at least taper down,
(16:33):
and get good, nice sleep and make sure you are
in good shape physically and mentally. For surgery. You will
get a detailed list of things to do and not
to do, like don't take ibrewprofen because it could it's
not great for healing and cause proving that also as
if you get botox and other directions. And then the
(16:54):
night before the surgery, I ate a healthy meal, I
did not drink wine. I'd been off wine, and I
bathed in this antibacteria called hibbeclins. It was the same
antibacterial wash I use for my double misectomy and my
other surgeries. And then after eleven PM a night no
(17:17):
more eating and drinking, got a good night's sleep. The
next day we went to the hospital where I was
marked up all over the place to show where they
were going to cut and take that. And I just
look like a giant map. And I was given an
ived that hurts that I never seem to have. You know,
(17:37):
when you don't eat and drink a lot in the morning,
you also don't have good veins. I still have bruises
on my arm from the last surgery. Anyway, they got
me in. I consulted with the anesthesiologist. Now, mind you,
I neglect to say, I did a lot of pre
surgical testing, which you will be asked to do. You
will do pre surgical testing within four weeks of your surgery.
(17:58):
Do it, get your EKG, make sure your blood work
is in, make sure there are no red flags, and
make sure that your primary care physician is on board
all the way so he or she knows what's going on. Okay,
So I had done my pre surgical testing. Everything tested
(18:19):
out great. I had gone off vitamins, I'd gone off viberprobe,
I'd gone off everything. No pills except for my blood pressure,
my gastro esophagal reflux, and my cholesterol medicine. I was
okay to take those as directed, but nothing else. You
have to have all that information on a list when
you go in to make sure you do not hold
(18:43):
anything back. Big, big, big underscore is do not smoke.
If you smoke, stop period Don't smoke. If you smoke
and you don't want to stop, stop at least six
to eight weeks before you're searched. I'm telling you that
is a big problem in the healing process smoking, So
(19:05):
stop periods. You really increase your risk. So I felt
good going in surgery. I was in a good mood.
I lay in the gurney, my husband was allowed to
come in. I had the IVY fluids going in the
doctor came in, and the nurse came in, Another nurse
came in, the whole team came in. Everybody came in,
(19:27):
and then they wheeled me into surgery. They started administrating
my general anesthesia, and I can't tell you anything else
because I was out, But I can tell you that
with general anesthesia you get a breathing to and I
could play around with your vocal cords, because after my surgeries,
all of them, I have lost my voice and I
(19:48):
still am a little scratchy if you can tell, which
is why I haven't been doing any live shows and
why I'm gonna take a blass of water. That's very
common with general anthesia. I woke up totally grogging. On
the other side, I was told the surgery went well.
I stayed two nights in the hospital. I had these
(20:09):
much like with my double my sectomy. I had these
pressure socks on that were mechanized and they were squeezing
my calves to make sure that I didn't get a
blood clot. Because a big high high risk of all surgeries,
particular gender anesesia, is the risk of the pneumonia, pulmonary embolism,
(20:31):
or a blood clot. You're not moving, you're lying down,
you've been pumped with anesthesia, your body's in a very
super weak point, you've lost blood, and you were at
high risk for those things. My mother actually got double
pneumonia and a pulmonary embolism after her hip surgery to
replace a broken fractured hip, and it was scary, really scary.
(20:55):
She'd end up in the hospital and the er and
take all these pills because the pulmonary embolism can be fatal.
So I left the hospital totally woozy and so weak
after the second day of my first surgery. Now let
me just stop here. Natural tissue restoration is a two
(21:19):
part surgery. First of all, there's different kinds of natural
tissue restoration, and you will discuss with your surgeon what
is best for you. I'm just going to refer to
the book here. My section here, by the way, is
called My Road to Reconstruction, and it was a road
(21:39):
because it has a long, long, long section. So the
pros for a natural tissue and why I decided to
remove my amplants, besides the fact one was shrinking and
potentially leaking, is that you are using your own skin
and tissue and fat versus implanting a foreign object your body.
(22:03):
This is important. Your body can reject an implant, but
your body cannot reject its natural tissue. That's important. Your
breast look and feel natural. I get attest to that.
I can't keep my hands off of them. They feels
so good. Your breast will regain this is important normal
(22:24):
sensation once your nerves regenerate. I can tell you now
I have more sensation in my breast for the first
sign in almost fifteen years than before there was no sensation.
With implants, you also get the bonus of a butt,
a tummy tuck, or a butt tuck. It's a bonus,
but it is painful because that's where they're gonna take
most of your fat from your tummy or your butt,
(22:46):
depending on the procedure. If you gain a loose weight,
your breast will adapt as well, so you're natural. The
cons it's a more complicated surgery with additional risk I
eat infection, blood clots, necrosis. So the transfer tissue. That
one was a scary one for me, and I'll discuss
it later. Your recovery town would be longer and you
(23:06):
will have more drains to deal with. I had four
drains for the first surgery, and then as I said,
it's a two part surgery. For the second surgery, which
I had quite recently, it was one drain. I'll get
to that. There's additional scarring on your body. Yes, I
have a bikini scar. The doctors and surgeons at the
Center for Restore Breast Surgery specialized in having the best
(23:30):
bikini scar possible as and they make it refined so
you don't see it, and you'll probably and you will
have some scars on your breasts with the surgery. You
may have weaker stomach muscles, so you'll need to undergo
physical therapy, which I will be doing to strengthen your core. However,
(23:52):
I had bad core muscles beforehand and a bad back,
which actually they repaired as part of my second surgery,
which I'll get into. Most of these surgeries cannot be redone,
so for me, this is my last surgery. So the
deep flap is the one I had, which was abdominal
(24:13):
skin and fat to reconstruct, but leaves the muscle in place.
Very important. There's also sea a flap superficial in fear
epigeograstic artery, which is used as skin fat and tissue
from the abdomen, and then there's also you can take
fat from your butt and your back and your sides.
(24:38):
Unfortunately for me, I had enough fat my stomach. We
also for the second surgery took some out of my
thighs okay recovery so from the first surgery in October, unfortunately,
I developed the dreaded necrosis and infection in my infection
in my future, it's rare. I got it. I probably
(25:01):
did something I don't know. I mean, you have to
be really careful after surgery. I took a long walk
one day I noticed it was kind of crusty on
my sweatpants from my decision. Maybe something got infected that way.
I'll never know, but I had to have an emergency
(25:21):
surgery opened up all the mess and infection removed resown up.
That added another two weeks to my recovery. It was
not good, but I knew to take a picture of
what I suspected was an infection. I emailed it to
my surgeon's nurse. She said, we're gonna put you on
antibiotics immediately, don't eat anything after eleven PM, and you
(25:44):
come in in the morning and we're gonna look at
this and decide what to do, and the decision was
to have a quick emergency surgery. Fortunately not anything. I'm okay.
I took time to recover. It took a long time.
I could barely walk, I could barely stand up because
I was hunched over because there was this suture was
killing me. It took a while to sit up straight
(26:09):
and be able to walk straight and get my voice back,
which brings me to and then of the second surgery.
My second surgery, which you could do three months after
the first. I scheduled after Marty Grass and after a
major trip to Tuscany for the end of February twenty
twenty six. That surgery was roughly four hours. They went in,
(26:34):
They lippo sucked my stomach and sides and thighs and
filled out my upper breasts and any indentations to make
them look even better, more full and more natural. They
look gorgeous. Nope cutting or anything up here. They also,
my surgeon noticed that my stomach had some like They
did something called the stomach abdominal plication to tighten up
(26:57):
the muscles in my stomach, and they also found an
umbilical nia which they removed. So there was a mess
down there. And they said that was probably what was
causing a lot of my back issues for all this time.
So guess what, I don't seem to have anywhere back pain.
I have a lot of pain right now which I'll
get into, but not a lot of back pain. So
(27:17):
that surgery was February twenty six. I had a lot
of breathing issues. I had developed a little bit of
it had just flown. Okay, Number one, don't fly before
your surgery or after. Don't move On my part. I
gone to Italy for a wine program and I didn't
know enough time between the trip coming back and surgery.
(27:39):
I think because I had a little bit of a
head stuffed head. When I went in. I got tested
for COVID. I got tested for everything. Everything was negative.
But I did discuss with my nithesiologists. I said, I'm
still okay to do the surgery. They said fine. This
surgery went fine, except I had a lot of respiratory
issues afterward, which can happen after a general athesia. So
(28:06):
with an abundance of caution I was given. You're given
a sparometer which you breathe into. It's like a breathing machine.
You have to take deep breaths. You have to do
that ten times every hour to get your lungs moving again.
After lying flat and being under for so long, I
became more diligent about doing it the second after the
(28:26):
second surgery, and I didn't do so well the first surgery,
but I also had lost my voice and I was coughing.
So for abundance of caution, I went and had a
chest X ray and I had some a little bit
of what they call plural emissions on my lungs, which
is some water on the lungs, which is very common
after a general athesia, but as a fun as a caution,
(28:46):
I went to the er and had a cat scan
of my chest to make sure I did not have
the dreaded pulmonary analysm of blood cloth. By then I
was scared shitless and just said, well can I do
and not get a blood clot or pumony analysm? So
I follow the rules, slept, doubled my protein intake, did
(29:08):
my birometer machinede what you got to do, started walking
a little bit, but also rested a lot. As of yesterday,
I've stopped coughing. It's almost two weeks. Two weeks surgery
out will be tomorrow. There say today, I actually have
(29:30):
a voice, and this is my first show. I'm still
scratchy in the throat, but it also gonna become spring allergies,
which you're also exacerbating everything here in New Orleans. The
bottom line is, I'm still quite fatigued and quite weak,
and I know it, and I am taking the time
needed to heal, following the rules to the tee, and
(29:53):
I'm not going out. I'm just resting. I'm doing this
show as a test to see how I hold up.
I think I'm holding up okay, even though my voice
is going. But I'll see my doctor for my two
week post off. Now here's the thing, and I have
enough time. In the second surgery, there's a lot of
(30:16):
liposuction and you're probably thinking, Wow, tell me how great
all the No, you know that just sounds it's like
a Mommy makeover. But let me give you four warning.
You will wear a tight, very tight corset. It's not
a spank spanks, It's a black, tight, thick corset. For
(30:40):
six weeks. David has to help me get dressed every morning.
It kind of goes like this, I have this corset
I can only take it off to shower maximum forty
five minutes after wear it round the clock for six weeks,
and they hate New Orleans. He has to help me
into it. It's tighter than you can even imagine. It's
(31:01):
making me sit up straight. I will send This is
probably helping my back. It's crotchless because when you have
to do your business, you can't take it off. I
can't even take it off. David has to help me.
It is not comfortable, but I'm learning to adapt and
use humor to deal with it, particularly when I have
to do my business. I have an extra extra large
(31:22):
one because the other one was just really cramping me
and making me cough more. And now I'm wearying my
small one, which is probably getting hoarse. I have to
wear for six weeks. I have to wear compression garments
on my legs for two weeks. I'm almost done and
I'll go in. No exercise, absolutely no exercise, no lifting
of anything over ten pounds. I won't lift ver or five.
(31:45):
You can do anything that will aggravate this area. The
breasts are awesome. I have to wear a masectomy bra,
which I'm wearing for I guess six weeks. Also, I'll
learn more when I go in from my postop, when
they look at how my sutures are healing, how the
areas that they liposector healing, et cetera. You will be
(32:07):
bruised like you. I look like a battered wife. My
bruises are still there. I'm so bruised, it's unbelievable. The
compression garment helps with the bruising, but you're still bruised,
and parts of you are yellow. Parts of your bruised.
Hopefully by March seventeenth. That's my gay. That's David in
(32:27):
my nineteenth wedding anniversary. I sure him hoping I could
go out have lunch. We are going to Commander's Palace
where we were married. Get dressed is something that will
actually fit. I had to buy all new garments because
nothing fits over this corset. So I went online and
bought all these Maxi dresses for like nothing, including this one,
to wear while I heal, and hopefully after they'll be
(32:47):
like beach cover ups. And then after the six weeks,
I may have to wear spanks for some indefinite number
of time. So it is a process. But I'm going
to tell you that my breasts feel awesome, and I
(33:08):
already feel like I have so much mobility. I can't
wait to exercise again. I'm going to follow my surgeon's
recommendation and go to a physical therapist that specializes in
pilates moves. I'm going to follow the surgeon's recommendations to
a t becase I want to heal healthfully, and it's
(33:29):
really important if you do any certain Now that is
my experience. Am I glad I made the decision to
take the implants out? Yes, what I have done anything
differently with my natural tissue restoration surgery and recovery. No.
The only thing I would have done differently is one
I would have not flown to Italy and back and
(33:51):
allowed only five minutes in between. I thought I could
do it. I had done it before this sub it
didn't work so well. I would recognize and listen to
my body and realize that surgery is a major thing,
whether you're having a baby and a cesarean. And this
isn't much. This I've been told as similar to a cesarean.
I don't know, because I didn't have a baby. Any
(34:13):
kind of surgery is serious. You cannot bounce back anyone
that talks about she bounced back after surgery. Oh shit.
You have to be in the best health possible before
the surgery, unless you're sick and you're going in for
the surgery. But you have to take super good care,
(34:34):
follow the surgeons recommendations after, and allow at least eight
weeks to heal. Listen to your body. Don't try to
exert if you're not ready right now. For me, walking
a flu few blocks is enough. I'm not ready to
do much more, and I know it. Another thing, narcotics
(34:54):
make you constipate it. I can't imagine being a drug addic.
I don't like needles. I don't like narcotics. I don't
like anything in the place of my head. I got
off all the narcotics as soon as I was able to,
and approve too, so I could loosen up, as I say,
And now I only take like I've seen a menifit
(35:16):
or tiltel for pain. I take a muscle relaxer to
deal with the pain from the corset. Because when you
heal your body itches, there's some pain. It will be uncomfortable,
and you just had to grant and bear it. I
don't tell you much else. I really don't. I haven't
started taking multi vitamins again, and because I want to
(35:36):
make sure my doctor says it's time, because any kind
of vitamin or supplement can play around with your healing.
So that's my story about why I remove my breast
implants and underwent natural tissue breast restoration. Would I recommend it? Yes?
Would I have done it if I know know now?
Speaker 2 (35:56):
No?
Speaker 3 (35:56):
And then what I know now? So if I knew
then when I had my double myself to me what
I know now, I would have chosen natural tissue breast restoration.
Then why because I wouldn't have had the two other
surgeries that put in and remove implants and all that
discomfort that came with it. So I do recommend it,
(36:17):
but you have to listen to your body and know
your body and understand are you ready to go through
the process. Are you going to allow yourself the time?
And are you in the good health and do you
have enough fat tissue? Find a great surgeon. You can
come to the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery. As I said,
seventy percent of their patients from out of state or
(36:40):
in the city or town where you live. There may
be an excellent breast restoration specialists talk to several of them.
Make a decision based on how they make you feel
as a patient, how well they explain the procedure to you,
how much time they spend answering your questions. They don't
brush you off, they don't just give you a power point.
(37:02):
Has to see before and afters. Has to talk to
patients if the patients will allow it. Many patients are private.
I was actually allowed to talk to a patient the
first time around. In fact, we actually went into the
bathroom and she took her shirt off and let me
feel her breast, and that was helpful. It sounds weird,
but I want to know what the breasts felt like
before I got new ones. My girlfriend did that with
(37:25):
me with a natural tissue. She was so cute. She
took me in the bathroom and said here they are.
I was like, wow, they look great. So you'll find
yourself doing goofy things. But it's all because you want
to have the best body you want and being the
best health. So I hope this show is helpful for
anyone who is facing a mes ectomy and restoration and
(37:45):
making this very very big decision that will unpact the
body for probably the rest of their life. And if
you have a friend or a loved one who's facing it,
please share this show with them. I do recommend my book.
I'm not always salesy, but I recommend my book Getting
Things Off my Chest, The Survivor's Guide to Staying Fearless
and Fabulous in the Face of Breast Cancer. You'll see
(38:06):
it when someone wars. You can find it on Amazon,
or you can write me at Melanie at melanieion dot
com and order it for me and then an autograph version. Anyway,
the key is I want you to be in the
best health, with the best breast health possible. Always get
a mammogram. If you have your breast, schedule your annual mammogram.
(38:30):
Do it diligently. I always did it well, Thanks Halloween,
scary right Halloween mammogram. Always did it. Always give yourself
a manual breast examination every month. Even as someone who's
had a double mess ectomy, I still fill around my
breast because there can always be a recurrence in my
chest muscle. Scary, but probably less likely now with all
(38:51):
the surgeries I've had and the chemo. Always listen to
your body. Always talk to other survivors. I recommend share
Cancer Support dot org is a nonprofit based in New York,
all where they actually will pair you with other cancer
survivors who can tell you their story. It's for breast
an ovarian cancer Shared Cancer Support dot org. Share. There
(39:13):
are many other wonderful organizations and you can find them
all in the back of my book. So I hope
this is helpful. I hope that you never have to
face this decision, but if you do, I hope I
can be a source to you of help. I'm Melandy
and I always try to be fearless fabulous in every
(39:33):
stage and age of my life, and I want you
to as well. Just remember, you have a choice in
life on how you choose to live it. Choose to
live life on your terms, answer your own needs, listen
to your own body, and always be the person you
want to be, not what others expect and want of you,
(39:54):
and always choose to be fearless and fabulous. Thank you.
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