Advice on Nhs referals/fundings/times etc

Hey!! Aww thank you, honestly just receiving letters makes me feel one step closer, I'm genuinely grateful to the NHS and am over the moon! What were/are your stats? Sorry don't mean to sound weird but your boobs look great! Lol! Where abouts are you from? How far post surgery are you now?
I just need one question answering lol... How long til you can have sex after surgery? Obviously I know touching is limited but how long? Lol xx thanks again Hun :) I think this forum is great, how people can advise etc is great!!

Hey claire, had my scan yesterday, all went well fingers crossed, now just waiting for the results to meet my consultant then will have another appt to find out hopefully how big the implants will be and how long i have to wear the expanders for and have a booking date for my op! god I cant wait, its been too long and i should have done something sooner! not sure about the sex question, i would imagine it would depend on how u feel!

:D Tasha!! Really pleased for you!! I'm ringing the clinic at 2 to make an appointment!! Excited!! Hehe!!
I thought that there was a certain time with sex coz I've seen a few other people asking about it but if that's the case ;-) lol!!
Well done Hun so pleased for you xx

Hi, well as u can tell from the rest of my story, fundings dealt with, I've seen my surgeon and I've had my scan to find out about my assymetry. Well it seems that its not a muscle problem its a rib problem. I have uneven ribs making my muscle lie flatter causing assymetry. Has anyone had this problem? I'm so upset that there's a slight chance my surgery won't happen now. My surgeon has sent details off to another hospital for what I'm guessing is for rob reconstruction before breast surgerym. How can this be? I can't afford to be off my feet, this will be major surgery and I have two girls one almost 5 and the other just 1! Please can anyone help, have you had this problem and was able to have surgery without the ribs being touched? Its all I think about and I'm gutted he wants this sorted first! Can they not just do a list with implants or maybe put a plate in or something so there's an even platform? Argghh please help me!

Hi tashab! I had a similar problem - I've got an underlying medical condition which means that my whole ribcage is a weird shape, and my boobs didn't grow properly. My surgeon asked how badly the ribcage shape bothered me, and said that I could probably have surgery on it if I wanted, but a lot of it would probably look better just with implants. I didn't fancy MORE surgery so said implants would be fine! (Waiting on my second funding request to be processed as I've just moved). I think it probably depends how severe the problem is though? My surgeon said if mine was any worse than it is, he'd be wanting to do rib surgery AND implants, but I guess it depends on the individual case. My be worth phoning your surgeon and explaining how worried you are about it? xxx

Aww thanks for the reply, wasn't expecting one that quick, so glad I'm not the only one, I'm not bothered about the difference in my rib cage, its never caused me any trouble, I knew I had a curve on my backbone as was told that when I had an epidural which didn't work, anyway is your surgeon happy to go ahead without rib surgery? Mine is quite keen on me having it done, I'm just hoping the specialist will see it as too much work and unnecessary hassle and will decline his referral, otherwise I'm worried they'll say yes we can sort it and then I'd have to say I don't want it and my surgeon will refuse breast surgery! It all seems really complicated now and I'm soo worried! I only want to do normal every day things with the kids like swimming and things, I just can't manage it now unless I'm allowed to wear a tshirt! I can't imagine how much stress that would put on my family! Sorry I'm babbling but everyone I speak to just say its ok they'll work round it which I have everything crossed for!

Aw bless you! The NHS are really pushing this 'patient choice' thing, so, as long as it's not likely to cause you any other long term problems hopefully they'd listen to you if you said you didn't want it hun! My original PS was happy not to do the ribcage stuff, as it would mean more work & expense that I didn't especially want. Since I've moved I'll be getting a new surgeon if funding is approved, so hopefully they'll agree the same! x

Thanks, I'm hoping he will listen, I know he's being thorough which should make him a very good surgeon so pleased about that just hoping I don't have my op refused!

Tasha sorry to hear about the delay in your op I hope it all works out for you and it doesn't take too long for you and hopefully you don't have an operation you don't even want! Good luck though and keep me posted xx

right, i saw the surgeon about the rib problem, hes saying it would be better to put in plates on my ribs to make the platform even for the implants to go ontop! has anybody had this done, i'm worried as its a 4 day stay in hospital and I have two children at home both under 4 and my husband will have to take quite a bit more time off because of this extra op which he has to speak to work about. why can't things be easier?? i'm not sure about having this done, is there anything else i could mention? I really want my assymettry sorted but feel this is a very long and painful route to be going down now! help :(

It may be worth asking one of the surgeons on here hun, I really dont know much about it. If it was me, I would have done whatever it took to get the boobs I wanted.

thanks for the reply, I really want it done no matter what but I have my kids and husband to think of and dont want to loose my family over looking normal, its soo hard! Soo should have done this years ago but never mind, was thinking about waiting until the girls were older but then theres no guarantee I would be accepted again. I dont understand the plate procedure though, i've been googling and not finding much, i'm not sure if they will break some ribs and attach plates to pull them out a bit or whether they will just put plates ontop to even out the chest wall as he said thats something they can't really tell until i'm on the operating table! arrghh how can I be organised when even the surgeon dont know what they wanna do. I think i'm gonna have to go back to my breast surgeon and see if there is any other option and if not go back to the thoracic surgeon and get him to walk me through the procedure I suppose. this is taking soo much longer then expected.

Hi the underlying thing with ribs could be Polands Syndrome. I was diagnosed oct/nov2011 and have just had BA on NHS, without any problems what-so-ever. I would be interested in finding out how many on here have this prob with ribs and poss missing muscle as sooo little is known about Polands, it would be interesting to find more peeps with it.

x

update: I've had my rib surgery, was nowhere near as bas as I thought it was gonna be, i'm now 2 1/2 weeks in recovery and although am suffering with slight backache and find it difficult to breathe sometimes when my body gets tired i'm ok. Next step is now seeing my breast surgeon who can hopefully now decide on overs or unders and have me put on the waiting list for expanders!!! Even thats been a process in itself, been trying to see my breast surgeon since January to talk about the rib surgery and his thoughts and just couldnt get to see him as he had no appointments. Well its taken me 2 weeks of constantly phoning them to get an appt to see him again and move the process forward more quickly as although the rib surgery has done its job, I now look worse then what I did before, well my nipples are now even which they have never been but my smaller side is now even smaller and I probably wont even be able to hide it with a padded bra now like I did before, even the sports bras i'm wearing do not fit properly and are quite uncomfortable. Anyway fingers crossed the next step isn't tooo far away :)

yippee! finally got a date for my breast expanders!! 29th October, i'm soo excited and soo nervous all at the same time! Can't believe its finally happening!

Yay that fantastic new Tasha!!!!! made up for you lovely. Xx

thank you, I know the expanders hes ordered are 300ccs do you think that will take me up to d's? i'm a b/c on my left but aa on my right, really hoping it will

I can't say for sure lovely. It's a good size though so you should get plenty of boobage! xx

OOO thats made me feel so much better, was worried it would be 2 small, i want my pregnancy boobies back! I loved them!! lol!

Hahaha awww this is so great for you babe - you should pop your date in the calendar Entries section (not the actual Calendar) so we can all follow your progress xxx

ok will hunt for it! lol

xx

Hey Tashab!


I went go my gp about a year and a half ago and got refered to the
hospital i first had an appointment with a psychologist then a few
months later an appointment with a surgeon,i then went back to see the
psychologist in December and she told me there and then her and the
surgeon both agreed i was suitable for surgery she then told me i would
get an appointment for a pre op then get my op date which would be
within 12 weeks of my preop i just recieved my letter this week for my
pre op date in 4 weeks!

at the psychologist appointment she just asked me questions about how i felt and why i wanted the op and just went over the procedure, risks etc. then the surgeon just had a look at my breasts and i got my height and weight taken. it was nowhere near as bad as i thought it was going to be

I didn't have a physcologist appointment, its been a bloody long road - i'm two ops down (bars on my ribs to create a chest wall on my right side) and now my expanders, i'm now currently at 350cc in my right and 250 in my left - will be having another 100ccs next wednesday which will be my last expansion - i'm now booked back in to see the surgeon at the end of april to get booked in to have the proper implants in and im then done!! phew - will be over 2 years from seeing the doctor to actually being completely finished! long road, but so pleased soo far with how they look, they are now even and i'm currently 34ds not sure how big the last expansion will take me to as i've got a small frame so may be dd/e ish! good luck, i've had a struggle but looks like yours is going very smoothly :) oh and the ops a doodle!!! I couldn't believe how well I felt after!