recently diagnosed--in next few weeks need to decide

[Dizzybee]

Hi Margaret

I think the question about what you'll be left with after a WLE is one for your surgeon, but I don't think they'd offer it if they didn't think you would get a reasonable cosmetic outcome. That's what they told me anyway. I was fairly well endowed, but had a big area, 5cm, so they said it was up to me to choose between a WLE and a mastectomy. I did have a WLE, and didn't get clear margins. But to be honest, it was okay having a 're excision, I didn't find either operation too bad, and was pretty quickly back to normal.

As for what I was left with, its fine, I have scars but they're not noticeable. I had high grade DCIS so not having surgery wasn't really an option, I also had radiotherapy and tamoxifen. 

I can recommend a book about DCIS if you think more information would help. I wish I'd had it at the time. It has useful sections on the pros and cons of the various options. It's called DCIS of the Breast, Taking Control by John Boyages, and it's available from Amazon.

Good luck with your decision, I hope everything goes well for you. 

[margaret.hood2]

Hello everyone

I was called for mammogram as part of a random selection of women who are outside of the normal catchment age range.  I will be 71 next month. I was called back for a repeat--had a biopsy under mammogram control(really uncomfortable at the time but no pain after just bruising). I then returned to clinic this week to be told I have low grade DCIS. Told protocol is to carry out WLE--done under general anathesitic as a day case--that is good but the odds of getting a clear boundary is 9 in 10 which means 1 out of 10 will need to be repeated (WLE or mastectomy)

I am now trying to decide what to do --in one sense if the pathology had been different i.e. high so greater chance of becoming invasive --it would have been a simple decision to have surgery--but at the present time I am tending towards leaving it and perhaps having another mammogram in the next year or two.

One consideration is that I am not well endowed and I'm not sure what I will be left with after a WLE

I would welcome comments from anyone who has chosen surgery and anyone who has decided to leave well enough alone