Breast removal after lumpectomy & radiation

[Maggie]

I had quite a large lumpectomy with chemo and rads. After my surgery, I went to a speciality bra shop and was fitted with a partial breast form. You place it wherever you need it in your bra. When I had healed enough to wear it, it worked out just fine.
From rads, my breast became swollen and to this day it still is and I finished rads 12/23/04.. I now wear the form in the other (good) side of my bra, to make it them equal and it's working fine!!!!
For me, this is not a problem at all. In fact, it's so simple and easy.
I look quite good, too!

Maggie

[mts]

Michelle-
Its just that having dense breast tissue worries me. My 1st lumpectomy was based off mammo and ultrasound. I had a breast MRI AFTER my lumpectomy and more cancer was found adjacent to the lumpectomy site...leading to another lumpectomy! Both lumpectomies showed clean margins. I was also checked for the BRCA gene and I am not a "carrier".
Anyway, my thoughts regarding removing them altogether stems from the fact that I have dense breast tissue and the breast MR is the only modality that works for me. I feel that any scar tissue from a lift would mimic cancer on a MRI... With all ther other caca going on, I want one less thing to worry about. In this case two less things...

I know this boils down to personal choice -it's just so difficult trying to figure out what choice is the right one. Ya' know what I mean?
maria

[Ginagce]

Dear Mts,

I was diagnosed with bilateral LCIS and DCIS in left breast in 1997. I had lumpectomies and radiation on left breast. After that my left breast was misshapen and smaller than right. At the time I was so happy that they had found cancer early I didn't care much about breast shape.

In 2004, I was diagnosed with tumor in right breast, no node involvement. My oncologists recommended a lumpectomy and radiation to right breast. Nothing showed up in my left breast at that time.

I tossed and turned and did a lot of research and finally came to the conclusion that against recommendation, I wanted bilateral mastectomies with same day DIEP reconstruction. My oncologisy team thought that I was going overboard with the bilats and that I would be just fine with lump/rads.

But I too had dense breasts and every time I went for a mammogram, there seemed to be some question about what was seen. Additional tests were often required and it was all very unsettling.

It was a difficult decision to make, and one of the factors was that I knew I was giving up the protection of mammograms. Ultimatley, I decided I didn't want to be doing this dance for the rest of my life and I wanted to just be rid of them. But for me, having breast was important too so I researched reconstruction methods. Ultimately I decided that the DIEP method was for me.

DIEP is like tranflap but no stomach muscle is used at all. it is done by using microsurgery to reattach blood vessels in breast versus tunneling tissue along with muscle through body.

For me it was the best decision I could have made. When they did the mastectomies, I requested biopsy of the "unaffected breast" and my surgeon also did a sentinel node biopsy.

Well it turned out that not only did I have a small tumor in my left breast, it was very aggressive and had spread to my lymph nodes on that side.

The reconstruction went fine but it did take me a while to heal as I started chemo about 8 weeks after surgery. Obviously the chemo was a surprise to all and I would not have had reconstruction at the time had I known.

I live in Philadelphia and went to Baltimore for my DIEP surgery as I found a Plastic Surgeon there who had substantial experience in this type of surgery....something noone in Philadelphia had.

A year later I am happy with my decision. Yes, I need additional surgery to refine my breasts but I will have that when and if I decide that it is not too dangerous.

I know how hard this decision is. In fact, for me, making the decision to have the bilaterals was harder than having them.

I am glad I did what I did and at peace with my decision. Obviously I am deeply thankful that I made the decision I did or we would not have found the left breast tumor when we did.

So, I can only say that sometimes we have to do our research, make the tough decisions, and then just pray that we have chosen well and move on with our decision.

My wish for you is that whatever you decide to do, you are at peace with it.

Prayers for you on your path.

Ginagce

[lu ann]

look at my reply to mastectomy vs. lumpectomy, feb. 16, 2006. lu ann.