Double Tram Flap Surgery

Hello:

I am having double tram flap surgery in one week.  I would like to know about the recovery and pain of this surgery.  I had a dbl mast 1 1/2 years ago and from what I hear, this surgery is worse??  

Any advise would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!


This discussion is related to Recovery from an TRAM Flap.

[zouzi]

Hi,
I am sending you this link where you will be much better served.It's a Med Help Forum where you can ask the "Experts" about the cosmetic surgery you will be having.Also you can read many posts about women having or will be have your same kind of surgery.

Wishing you all the best..

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Cosmetic-Surgery/show/126

[zouzi]

This is another link on Med help "Expert Forum" that I think is even better.

http://www.medhelp.org/search?query=tram+flap+cosmetic+surgery&camp=top_nav_search

[SueYoung55]

The mastectomy is more of an emotional pain. Reconstruction surgery involving flaps is more of a physical pain. Tram flap is the old style reconstruction where they move muscles up to support the new breast created with your own tissue. There are better surgeries out there such as DIEP, SGAP, IGAP etc that leave the muscle where it belongs, in your stomach, while still giving you newly reconstructed breasts using your own tissue.

I had DIEP and recovery was uneventful. You will have incisions across the breast area and the stomach too so ... it's not a walk in the park but with a fantastic surgeon they will help you manage the pain. My DIEP surgery was performed by two of the worlds best microsurgeons in New Orleans and the surgery took 6 hours. Recovery took 6 weeks. I can still do situps because I still have my stomach muscles.

The beauty now is 11 months later I have soft breasts that you would never know were my stomach tissue and fat unless you saw the scars. www.breastcenter.com Dr. DellaCroce

[rk713]

I had my mastectomy and Diep reconstruction in June. Recovery was very easy because they did not remove any muscle.  I was off pain meds after 2 days in the hospital except fot an occassional pill if I was going to do walking around and of course for the trip home. When I got home I was able to walk stairs slowly, get in and out of chairs and the bed and take care of most of my needs.  Everyone heals differently and tolerance for pain vary.  Just let your body lead you.
Good luck.