Ok Girls I Need A Rant
Ok Girls I Need A Rant I am not posting a question , I need a rant.
Quite frankly I am disgusted with what I read and what I hear from my BC pals.
Ladies please never forget, it is your body and your life you have an absolute right to ask questions. If you have an unsympathetic surgeon/ oncologist, for goodness sake, ask for a second opinion.
Surgeons/oncologists are not gods, they are human beings, very bright ones, it’s a given, but they are still human beings.I am not for one second suggesting that the people in charge of our treatments are malicious, only that they may forget that we are individuals.
You are the one who has to live with your body after your treatment, so please, be demanding.
Fact:- there are VERY, VERY, few cases where a skin sparing mastectomy is not appropriate and where the nipples can not be kept (although there are some). If that is what you want then demand it, or at least research the possibilities!
Fact: there are very few surgeons in this country prepared to save the nipples, NOT because there is any evidence to prove that this is dangerous but because they do not have the skills to do it. The more women who demand to be as complete as is as aesthetically possible, the more normal this kind of surgery will become. In Russia this type of surgery is normal, they do not remove the nipples unless it is a necessity and their reoccurrence rates are equivalent to ours.
Be demanding, ask questions, do not settle., search until you are as satisfied as you can be, (given the circumstances) be pro-active, stand up for yourself.
Do not let the shock lead to regrets.
Thinking of you all
Love and Hugs
Mrs S xxxx
Good for you Hi Mrs. S.
My first question when told I had to have a mastectomy was will I be able to keep my nipple? I was answered with a very emphatic NO as there was a strong possibility that there could be some cancer cells lurking in the milk ducts. It seemed really important to me at the time, I wasn’t worried about loosing my skin that had been ruined years ago with radiotherapy but my nipple seemed important. I did have an immediate LD reconstruction and have since had a nipple reconstructed and tattooed, not as good as the real thing but I can live with it. (Not that I have any choice),
I do understand what you are saying but surely the consultants know best and what if I had insisted on keeping my nipple and it had been infected the whole mastectomy and reconstruction would have been a waste of time.
I know a lot of the treatment is preventative and maybe we would be perfectly all right without it, but I have tended to go along with the advice I have been given at the hospital, after all what do I know, albeit a lot more than I did 2 years ago.
Interesting to hear your views though.
Best wishes.
Jan
Hello Mrs Salmon
I’m also in the south of England.
Is it possible for you to give us the name and location of the surgeon who did your surgery and kept your nipples?
Many thanks
Anthi
I switched surgeons Hi Jan,
The first surgeon I had told me it was impossible to keep my nipples and gave me the exact same answer that yours did. When she showed me pictures of recon, I was horrified (although I have seen a reconstructed nipple since that was truly amazing).
What bothered me the most was not the absence of nipple but the horizontal scaring. THAT is when I started doing some research. I discovered that if the tumour is more than 2.5cm away from the nipple then keeping it shouldn’t be a problem, especially as what is left is scrapped back and is purely aesthetic anyway.
The surgeon who I went with, and I cannot praise him highly enough, is a professor in breast surgery and has recently published a report in the Lancet saying that there is absolutely no evidence that keeping the nipple (in most cases ) is more likely to cause a reoccurrence. He has saved the nipples of literally thousands of women and he says he has never had a single one with a reoccurrence in the nipples.
What he does is remove the nipple during the mastectomy, sends it to the pathology lab for testing. If there are DCIS cells, he can actually radiate the nipple before stitching them back on. (I told him to bin them if he found anything, he didn’t)
The reason I feel compelled to rant is that I just don’t feel that many women know all their options. When my first surgeon told me it was impossible, she lied to me. She knows my professor surgeon personally she must have known that for him saving the nipple is the norm.
I have recently come across really young women who were never offered skin sparing mastectomies and didn’t even know what they were, they just had their breasts hacked off.
When we are dx, we are extremely vulnerable. We look to those treating us for advice and we are put in a position where we are forced to trust them. I feel that some women are being failed.
I am extremely glad I was demanding, my breasts are fantastic and I want everyone to be as satisfied as I am.
Hi Anthi Of course I would be delighted to.
His name is Professor Kefah Mokbel.
He works privately at the following hospitals;-
Parkside (Wimbledon)
Lister (Chealsea)
Princess Grace (Marylebone)
And on the NHS at:- St George’s in Tooting - where he also teaches.
tel:- 0208 7908 2040 sec is Nicki
If you do not have insurance, book a consultation privately, explain your situation and he will pass you on to one of his star students if he can 't get you on his own NHS list quickly enough.
All the best and keep me informed.
Mrs S xxx
Very many thanks. I should tell you that I don’t actually need this at the moment as I was able to have a lumpectomy. But I have a very great fear of a recurrence and possibly needing a mastectomy in the future so am keeping well informed about the various options.
Best wishes
Anthi