Sandy Keller (00:05):
My name is Sandy Keller and I live in Los Angeles, California, and I’m a breast cancer survivor. I was diagnosed in May of 2007 and at the time that I was diagnosed, I was told that the treatment for my particular cancer was lumpectomy with radiation. Due to family history, my mother had passed away from breast cancer at age 48 and my own previous history of three other biopsies on the opposite breast, I decided that I did not want just lumpectomy, that I wanted to have a double mastectomy and it was a difficult decision to make, but I did some research online and once I found that deep reconstruction left a very natural shaped breast and very minimal scarring compared to other techniques, that was the route I decided I wanted to pursue.

(01:04):
Living in Los Angeles, I assumed that we would have access to the top plastic and reconstructive surgeons in the world with local university teaching hospitals and actually the surgeon that I chose was chief of plastic surgery at a major teaching hospital. But what I discovered through this journey was that it doesn’t just take the technical aspect of creating a flap that survives. The other thing that’s important is that the surgeon has the artistic skill to make a breast that’s shaped like a normal breast and feels like a normal breast and not just a slab of tissue that’s been transplanted onto your chest. It’s important to realize that there are plastic surgeons and there are reconstructive surgeons and a surgeon that’s experienced with doing cosmetic implants may not be the best choice for reconstructive surgery. I did have several issues with that surgery and with the hospital where I had my operation.

(02:15):
It was 14 hours long and I found out later that my head had never been turned during my surgery, so I lost some hair on the back of my head. I woke up from surgery and my sister noticed that I did not have the sequential compression devices on my legs, which would help prevent blood clots, which was disturbing because I was supposed to be in bed for two more days after my surgery. So I was at high risk for a blood clot. There were other little breaches of care. I was actually burned during my surgery accidentally on my chest and the doctor had to cut out tissue and suture it to close the hole. And then basically four days later I was released and after being around the fistula hospital, I went to go for a walk two days later and the next morning I woke up and the flap had turned on the left side.

(03:15):
The flap had turned dusky and cold. So I contacted my surgeon’s office and he wasn’t in, but I saw his associate and I was told that the flap could die. So he wanted me flat on my back for an extended period of time and I went home. The next day I went back for a checkup with my surgeon and he put me on a Doppler monitor and said I could be on my back as long as 30 days trying to keep this flap alive. So I took the monitor home and I lived with that for three days on my back and by the end of the third day when I stood up, the readings stayed good. So at that point he decided that he could remove the monitor and that things would be fine. And from that point forward, the flap did survive. About six weeks post-op, a hole opened up into my abdomen and started draining and we were trying to investigate what was wrong and I really never did receive an answer other than I was having suture reactions.

(04:22):
So I became uncomfortable with that because I was worsening every day and becoming more uncomfortable and he was saying that they should get better and I was headed in the opposite direction. So I decided that I was going to look for another opinion and I talked to my surgical oncologist and she said that it was possible there was something besides the suture reactions that he was claiming it was. And I started doing research online because I think I felt like I was in trouble, that I was not getting the right answers. I had lost confidence in my doctor. I went on some bulletin boards and researched. I wanted to find the best expert there was because I knew I was going to need some extra special care. The doctors at the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery were mentioned over and over and over again in testimonials by other women that had been here.

(05:22):
And so I actually contacted the center and I spoke to Liz and I told her what was going on and she said that she wanted me to send him pictures and my history and so I wrote a summary for her, I sent my photos and then I had about two weeks of waiting wondering if he was going to be able to help me or not. And then I got this joyous news that Dr. DellaCroce had agreed to accept my care and that he disagreed with the diagnosis I’d received about the sutures, that he felt it was something that was different. And so I scheduled surgery for about six weeks later. I arrived in New Orleans and the next morning I had my appointment with Dr. DellaCroce for my pre-op and he began drawing on me with some blue marking pens and I could just tell by the way that he was holding one breast and then the other and drawing underneath them and drawing to the sides and then thinking that he understood the mechanics of what he was going to have to do to fix the problems that I had.

(06:33):
And one of the issues was that the breast flaps that had been created had slipped down on my chest over the first 14 weeks. And so later I found out that they had been inadequately sutured and he had to completely detach them and reattach them again and put them where they belonged. And we talked about eliminating the scars that I had and getting closer to a result that I would have had if I’d started off here and how long my surgery would be. And he said it would be 3.25 hours and then basically we said, “Okay, well see you tomorrow.” Well, I had my surgery the next day and when I woke up, my friend was waiting for me and I said, “So how long was my surgery?” She said, “It was three hours and 15 minutes.” I was just stunned that it had taken exactly the same amount of time as what Dr. DellaCroce had estimated.

(07:31):
It was amazing. Upon waking him up from my surgery, I noticed that not only had Dr. DellaCroce opened my abdomen and fixed the complication that I originally consulted him for, but that he had also lifted both breasts and corrected the shape and he had also redone my belly button, which was crooked from the first surgery and had no contour at all. Dr. DellaCroce had created a little hood, a very natural shape for it, and had contoured around it to make it look like a real belly button and not just a hole in a wall. Now I’m ecstatic with my result. Every time that I left New Orleans after a surgery, it was with an improved body and I went home elated, just one that the physical improvements have been made, but also that I had a doctor that cared enough to pursue perfection or as close to it as he could get, which is something I didn’t have at home.

(08:38):
Having arrived in New Orleans, previously being emotionally battered by my surgeon as well as having kind of a rough start physically with what he had done, and then finding the care that I found here, not only with the doctors, but also with their staff and how they, over the months that I’ve been coming here, more or less become like a second family while I’m here, has just been a huge emotional lift to my spirits. When you know that somebody cares about you and wants their very best for you, there’s just no other feeling like that. Since having my reconstruction completed in New Orleans and getting back to normal life again, one of the things that I’ve decided is that it’s time to have more fun. So my husband and I went out and bought a Shelby and that’s my second car that I take out on days when I feel like I want to just have some fun and just race around a little bit.

(09:46):
And we’ve taken it to a couple of tracks and my plan is to take some driving lessons and just do some things I haven’t done before. I think I have new confidence in myself with an improved body image and just a desire to make the most of life.

(10:08):
My message to other women would be, first of all, when you are diagnosed that you need to research all of your options. You need to know everything that’s available to you and that’s not only surgically, but also with your reconstruction. There’s so many methods and there are so many different doctors and philosophies about what can be done. So you really need to know everything that’s available to you and the pros and cons before you decide, which means visiting multiple surgeons because you may see one surgeon and he may specialize in implants and that’s all he offers you. And he may discard flap surgeries saying, “That’s too long of a surgery. It’s too involved.” But thousands of us have lived through it and are happy with our results because it’s so natural. So to be limited by one doctor’s experience with one procedure is really a disservice to you when you’re doing your research.

(11:08):
And then also that once this journey is over, there’s so much more to life again. I think you can face it with a renewed sense of strength, knowing what you’ve been through, that you got through this and you did it and that life goes on and then it becomes about encouraging other women, that you can do the same thing, that it may take a year or two of your life to go through these surgeries, but that once it’s over, then you can even feel better about yourself and move on and have a very happy life.