[Debbie L.]

Hi DianneS,

I started a new thread for this (from your question to Catherine in her quarterly scan thread).

I basically agree exactly with Catherine. This is an individual decision with no single right answer. In fact with MANY right answers, as nowadays there are so many choices.

The only people that I know who are unhappy with their choice of reconstruction are a few who now feel they were rushed into immediate reconstruction, making that decision in the heat of a cancer diagnosis and not giving it the separate attention it needed. But that's only a few, out of the many who are quite happy with their choice to reconstruct. I would say that the women I know who are happiest with their choice to reconstruct are the ones who did wait a few years (or more).

I had bilateral mastectomies without reconstruction, thinking that I'd decide what to do later. At first of course, it felt very weird and obvious. But for me, the prostheses made me feel even more weird and obvious (not to mention uncomfortable) so I never wore them. Over time, I got used to being flat and do not really thing about it much anymore, unless trying on clothing that fits badly. I don't think that people notice nearly as much as we think they do.

So that's worked fine for me. I'm glad to be here and to have reasonably normal use of my body. I do miss my breasts, of course. But getting them back was not the offer on the table and for me, it seemed like reconstruction would feel much like wearing prostheses, just more permanent and convenient. Which is a perfectly good thing, if that's what you want.

I think that if I felt that I needed to wear prostheses, I'd be thinking seriously about reconstruction. Prostheses are a pain.

You can probably find other opinions and ideas by searching "reconstruction" in the search options. Or maybe others will chime in here. Again, only you can decide what's right for you, but it does help to hear the reasoning we all used in making our decisions.