Mastectomy v breast reduction

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This is my first post so please excuse me if it gets long-winded.

 

I was diagnosed with multi focal invasive ducal cancer last Sept which resulted in mastectomy. Got through that fine & everything has healed really well. Had 4 rounds of chemotherapy which finished in Feb and am now looking at reconstruction.

 

Am planning on having tissue expander on mastectomy side.

 

surgeon says they won’t be able to match the other breast size so I will require breast reduction on “healthy” side later. I said I would rather have mastectomy & immediate reconstruction. My logic is that if you have to operate on it, you may as well get rid of it to eradicate any problem for the future. Surgeon was shocked by this & said I need to see a psychologist first. 

 

Has as anyone else had mastectomy on “healthy” side and if so what was the emotional impact like?

 

I would love to hear true accounts of what tissue expander is really like so that I know exactly what to expect. how uncomfortable are they??? I can’t beleive how long the whole process takes :frowning:

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi, I had a mastectomy with an immediate reconstruction with an expander implant 30/10 last year. I’ve not found it too uncomfortable, I’ve only had it expanded once about 2 weeks after the operation I didn’t feel anything. It’s obviously not like a normal breast bit of an odd shape, I was given a chicken fillet type thing to wear to even out both sides until next op,  in May when  the expander will be replaced with a permanent implant, at the same time I’m having the other side reduced & uplifted. 

I had 8mm invasive ducal G3, after the Oncotype test my score was 38 so chemo recommended 4 sessions of DC last one was 22/2. I spoke to my BCN about having a double mastectomy she said that most surgeons would not recommend removing a healthy breast.

Hope this makes sense and helps.

 

Ann xx