Hi everyone,
Following two WLE’s (December 07 and Feb 08), I’ve been told that I have a rare cancer called dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (impressive, eh?!), which is a cancer of the connective tissue which just so happens to be in my boob.
So its not what I would call ‘proper’ breast cancer if you like, and it rarely spreads to the rest of the body but it is aggressive and will continue to invade the surrounding tissue if not removed.
My specialist has advised that they are going to take a good chunk to stop it coming back again, which will involve taking a graft of skin and muscle from my back and reconstructing with that.
He has been great at explaining everything, but I would like to hear the real side of what a partial mastectomy is like, and what to expect.
Thanks,
A x
Hi Andrea
Sorry no-one replied to you sooner - think you got bumped to the back.
Well - I know how you feel about being “rare” as I have “medullary” also very rare and no-one else on here appears to have that one either!
I’m not going to be much help to you as I had a parital masectomy and they took out a lot including the margins but managed to save my skin. They filled the hole up with fluid. When I walked around it was all swishy sounding and peculiar - like when you drink lots of water and jump up and down when you are young - I can remember playing that at the school fountain.
Mine is taking about 6 months to get back to normal. I can see the progress (op was end Nov 07).
I think that from what you’ve said you may be losing some skin - so I am SUPPOSING (i.e. guessing) that they are taking skin from somewhere else and can’t fill you up with water as it would not be watertight and would leak out so I presume they are putting muscle in instead.
I am very pleased with mine - I hope that yours goes well.
Hopefully someone else will have an experience that is closer to yours.
Good luck with it
Love FizBix xxx
Hi Andrea,
Like FizBix I’m sorry no one has answered your questions before now. You may find useful BCC’s booklet I have put the link to below, this may answer some of your questions but if not you can always phone the helpline here and have a chat to one of the staff who will be only too pleased to explain things to you. The number for the helpline is 0808 800 6000, open Monday to Friday 9am -5pm and Saturdays 9am - 2pm. The link to the booklet is as follows:
breastcancercare.org.uk/content.php?page_id=661
Hope this helps, kind regards.
Jo, Facilitator
Hi Andrea
have you seen the article written in the daily mail? in it is a woman called Jean Pearce she had a similar op. but taking the muscle and tissue from the abdomen, i have spoken to her and she said its great and its as near as you will get it to the original breast, you can contact her through the bcc helpline.
I am not sure which recon i am having but if I have the tissue transplant mine will also come from the back its called something like latis dorsi flap. I have seen a video of a woman who had both breasts done and they looked great but there is some scarring to the area where the back of the bra would be but hidden by it, usually a straight line and some scarring a sort of oval shape to the breast area. they do say that flesh taken from the back may be lighter that your original breast skin.
silicone is an option if both breasts have it inserted otherwise they cannot be matched effectively.
chris