Breast Reconstruction Testimonial: Mindy

Video Transcription

Three years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast: DCIS. And I elected to have a bilateral mastectomy with implants, because I didn't know about Dr. Khouri then.But as time went by, I wasn't really happy with the implants. The left breast, whenever I moved my arm, would sort of constrict and look strange, and I just was not thrilled,and I started researching, trying to find an alternative to what I had done and I found Dr. Khouri and came down here and was really intrigued. The first surgery, in December of 2010, when Dr. Khouri took out my implants, was certainly not as traumatic as the bilateral mastectomy has been three years ago when the implants were first placed.

Because I was in a hurry to get done, my son was getting married in April of 2011, and I wanted to be finished and look beautiful for the wedding, the first procedure in December of 2010, Dr. Khouri did fat grafting and also took out my implants and I was amazed at how relieved I was to have them out. I didn't realize how much they bothered me, but it just felt so nice not to have anything foreign in my body. While the procedure itself is a surgery, you know, it's general anesthesia, thank goodness, and there are sort of puncture wounds wherever he's done the liposuction. And he did an incision under my breast so that he didn't have to go through my original mastectomy scars to get the implants out. And then I had a second fat grafting in February of 2011.

Both that scar and the original scars are almost completely faded. It's amazing. The original mastectomy scars look so much better now after this procedure than they did when the implants were in, and I don't know why but they do. I don't think it's just time, because there's just a very dramatic difference between how they look now and how they looked right before the first surgery in December with Dr. Khouri. You know, there's a lot of oozing and bleeding and you wear the big girdle for a few weeks afterwards and that kind of keeps everything tight and keeps it from oozing too badly. I was back to work; I had the first surgery on a Thursday; I was back to work on Monday. So . . . Or maybe Tuesday, I think.

But, you know, not a bad recovery at all. And I had a nurse the first night and the first day, and the second night, and only the second night because my husband went out of town and I would have been alone in the house. So, but, after that I was fine. I was on my own and I was good to go. So, really, no big complications, no problems. I feel good. I got back to yoga pretty quickly after both procedures and felt good about that. And I'm able to do everything I could always do, and better than I was doing it before, because I had really restricted range of motion in my arms when I had the implants, and that has completely resolved, because the pec muscles are back where they belong against my chest wall.

The pectoral muscles, the chest muscles, when they put in the implants, they stretch the pectoral muscle in front of the implant, and that makes it really tight. And I had bunch of physical therapy and everything, but they were still really, really tight. And that's completely resolved because that muscle is now back where it belongs. So, that's a really big side benefit for me, because I can move my arms again without any pain and with a much stronger range of motion; much broader range of motion. I felt so wonderful at my son's wedding. I felt more beautiful than I have ever felt, and I was just so glad to be in that kind of shape for this amazing event in our family. It was wonderful.

I wish I had known about this surgery at the time of my original mastectomies. I think I would have been much happier with the results and I could have had two surgeries as opposed to five surgeries, which is what it ended up being with the implants and everything. And I'm just very grateful that I found Dr. Khouri when I did and that I have it all behind me now, and that's a wonderful thing. And anybody who's considering either a prophylactic mastectomy, because you're BRCA positive, or who needs a mastectomy or would like to maybe think about getting rid of their implants, I would strongly encourage them to consult with Dr. Khouri and see what they can do.

I'm done. I am finished, and everything is wonderful. All I need to do now is get nipples and an areola tattooed on and I will be good to go. And I'm thrilled with the results. I looked gorgeous for my son's wedding, better than I've ever looked in my life, and I'm just really grateful to have found Dr. Khouri and to have had this procedure done.