I look at boobs a lot more now....LOL

Since my mastectomy in January 2011, I find I notice other womens boobs all the time. I know I'm just jealous. :-) I think....hold on to them as long as you can girl and take good care of them, you just don't know when you might lose them. LOL

Although I've always been a very modest person in my dress, I've never tried to show cleavage, I still miss the one I've lost, even though it was a bit old and saggy. :-) I've started reconstruction but it'll never be the same as we all know. We can try and make ourselves look and feel the same as before, but of course it'll always really just be wishful thinking !!

Cheers, Annie :-)
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Comments

  • Melaniedoingwell
    Melaniedoingwell Member Posts: 80
    boob obsession
    hahahahaha

    I had bi-lat 2/16/2011. For a while I would type breast instead of best, tit instead of it, etc.

    Let's face it - our society is SUPER breast oriented and tells us in movies, TV, print ads that feminine beauty is defined by our breasts. That is not actually TRUE, however!

    They are simply the most obvious physical representation of our femininity.

    You know, I hope, that you are so much more than breasts!

    chin up, hon - you're on the right side of the grass!
    Melanie
  • SIROD
    SIROD Member Posts: 2,194 Member
    Outlook...
    Annie,

    As time goes by, you will forget all about the lost. I didn't believe the friend who told me she never thinks about it at the time I had a mastectomy. Today, I believe she was 100% correct. I never think of the lost breast.

    I work in a school, I remember a young man who developed osteosarcoma and had a cadaver bone graft replace the one he lost to cancer. He had one infection after another and finally agreed to have his leg amputated after a long struggle. There was a young lady who was briefly at our school and as I was helping her, I noticed her prosthetic arm. When I see how brave these young people are, those who struggle to adjust to their lost limb, dealing with other serious cancer or medical issues that require wheelchairs. My lost of a breast was easy to adjust.

    Not trying to diminish the lost of loosing a breast. In due time, it isn't the biggest adjustment one needs to make in life, we will all encounter lost which will make this encounter not so bad. I do understand how you feel as I have been there. I can write now from a viewpoint of many years.

    Wishing you the best on this journey,

    Doris
  • AnnieTherese
    AnnieTherese Member Posts: 67
    SIROD said:

    Outlook...
    Annie,

    As time goes by, you will forget all about the lost. I didn't believe the friend who told me she never thinks about it at the time I had a mastectomy. Today, I believe she was 100% correct. I never think of the lost breast.

    I work in a school, I remember a young man who developed osteosarcoma and had a cadaver bone graft replace the one he lost to cancer. He had one infection after another and finally agreed to have his leg amputated after a long struggle. There was a young lady who was briefly at our school and as I was helping her, I noticed her prosthetic arm. When I see how brave these young people are, those who struggle to adjust to their lost limb, dealing with other serious cancer or medical issues that require wheelchairs. My lost of a breast was easy to adjust.

    Not trying to diminish the lost of loosing a breast. In due time, it isn't the biggest adjustment one needs to make in life, we will all encounter lost which will make this encounter not so bad. I do understand how you feel as I have been there. I can write now from a viewpoint of many years.

    Wishing you the best on this journey,

    Doris

    Actually it's rather funny
    Actually it's rather funny sometimes when I hear of someone just being diagnosed with BC, I say and think...oh how sad, how awful for them....then after a few seconds I think...hang on a minute...I had that too. LOL. You're right, it does become kind of ordinary after a while. And although I've started the reconstruction process, I still wonder if I should have bothered, but it's begun now, and is costing me nothing, as long as it keeps going smoothly, I'll continue till it's finished in a couple of months, hopefully before Christmas.

    People often ask me how I am...and I think for a second...well, I'm fine, why shouldn't I be....then I realise they mean...about the cancer...like...has it come back yet !! I feel perfectly NORMAL and healthy and act like I did before I was diagnosed.

    Just after I had my mastectomy I saw a 3 oncologists...one youngish woman I saw, wore a very revealing dress...had BEAUTIFUL BOOBS...and I thought it was really very insensitive for an oncologist to wear such a revealing garment to work when dealing all day with women who had mastectomies. I complained about her to the hospital. :-)
  • AnnieTherese
    AnnieTherese Member Posts: 67
    SIROD said:

    Outlook...
    Annie,

    As time goes by, you will forget all about the lost. I didn't believe the friend who told me she never thinks about it at the time I had a mastectomy. Today, I believe she was 100% correct. I never think of the lost breast.

    I work in a school, I remember a young man who developed osteosarcoma and had a cadaver bone graft replace the one he lost to cancer. He had one infection after another and finally agreed to have his leg amputated after a long struggle. There was a young lady who was briefly at our school and as I was helping her, I noticed her prosthetic arm. When I see how brave these young people are, those who struggle to adjust to their lost limb, dealing with other serious cancer or medical issues that require wheelchairs. My lost of a breast was easy to adjust.

    Not trying to diminish the lost of loosing a breast. In due time, it isn't the biggest adjustment one needs to make in life, we will all encounter lost which will make this encounter not so bad. I do understand how you feel as I have been there. I can write now from a viewpoint of many years.

    Wishing you the best on this journey,

    Doris

    Actually it's rather funny
    Actually it's rather funny sometimes when I hear of someone just being diagnosed with BC, I say and think...oh how sad, how awful for them....then after a few seconds I think...hang on a minute...I had that too. LOL. You're right, it does become kind of ordinary after a while. And although I've started the reconstruction process, I still wonder if I should have bothered, but it's begun now, and is costing me nothing, as long as it keeps going smoothly, I'll continue till it's finished in a couple of months, hopefully before Christmas.

    People often ask me how I am...and I think for a second...well, I'm fine, why shouldn't I be....then I realise they mean...about the cancer...like...has it come back yet !! I feel perfectly NORMAL and healthy and act like I did before I was diagnosed.

    Just after I had my mastectomy I saw a 3 oncologists...one youngish woman I saw, wore a very revealing dress...had BEAUTIFUL BOOBS...and I thought it was really very insensitive for an oncologist to wear such a revealing garment to work when dealing all day with women who had mastectomies. I complained about her to the hospital. :-)
  • Gabe N Abby Mom
    Gabe N Abby Mom Member Posts: 2,413
    I can't say I notice them
    I can't say I notice them all the time. But yes, I do sometimes feel that little pang of jealousy and wish I still had clevage...sigh.

    Hugs,

    Linda
  • Lynn Smith
    Lynn Smith Member Posts: 1,264 Member

    Actually it's rather funny
    Actually it's rather funny sometimes when I hear of someone just being diagnosed with BC, I say and think...oh how sad, how awful for them....then after a few seconds I think...hang on a minute...I had that too. LOL. You're right, it does become kind of ordinary after a while. And although I've started the reconstruction process, I still wonder if I should have bothered, but it's begun now, and is costing me nothing, as long as it keeps going smoothly, I'll continue till it's finished in a couple of months, hopefully before Christmas.

    People often ask me how I am...and I think for a second...well, I'm fine, why shouldn't I be....then I realise they mean...about the cancer...like...has it come back yet !! I feel perfectly NORMAL and healthy and act like I did before I was diagnosed.

    Just after I had my mastectomy I saw a 3 oncologists...one youngish woman I saw, wore a very revealing dress...had BEAUTIFUL BOOBS...and I thought it was really very insensitive for an oncologist to wear such a revealing garment to work when dealing all day with women who had mastectomies. I complained about her to the hospital. :-)

    I was big
    I was big breasted all my life.I gained 25 lbs once and was even larger.I was happy.I stayed that weight and breast size for 18 years.Just before the cancer hit I was under stress.Lost some weight and lost just a little bit of my breast size.Then the cancer.Didn't loose any but stress hit again and now I am down that full 25 lbs I gained years ago.Still have breasts for my size but not like before. I'm depressed.I want to be bigger more than ever now.It's teh cancer thing.

    I guess I would also feel kinda put off when someone lets it all out and working with breast cancer patients.I don't think I ran into that yet.I would think she was rubbing it in.Esp like those who've had masectomies.Those of us who've had lumpectomies feel it too.

    I think the one place I've noticed the workers letting it all out is the supermarkets.I am shocked the mamagers let these ladies and younger women show so much.The stores were I live let it happen.Where my husband works it got so bad with low cut tops all of the men and women MUST wear tee shirts and all dress the same tops.It was because women were letting it all hang out.

    Lynn Smith
  • mamolady
    mamolady Member Posts: 796 Member

    I was big
    I was big breasted all my life.I gained 25 lbs once and was even larger.I was happy.I stayed that weight and breast size for 18 years.Just before the cancer hit I was under stress.Lost some weight and lost just a little bit of my breast size.Then the cancer.Didn't loose any but stress hit again and now I am down that full 25 lbs I gained years ago.Still have breasts for my size but not like before. I'm depressed.I want to be bigger more than ever now.It's teh cancer thing.

    I guess I would also feel kinda put off when someone lets it all out and working with breast cancer patients.I don't think I ran into that yet.I would think she was rubbing it in.Esp like those who've had masectomies.Those of us who've had lumpectomies feel it too.

    I think the one place I've noticed the workers letting it all out is the supermarkets.I am shocked the mamagers let these ladies and younger women show so much.The stores were I live let it happen.Where my husband works it got so bad with low cut tops all of the men and women MUST wear tee shirts and all dress the same tops.It was because women were letting it all hang out.

    Lynn Smith

    cleavage
    I have always been small. I could wear a swimsuit cut down to my belly button and not have cleavage! I figure when women have it, it may be hard to not let it show? Some women's boobs just sit higher? My daughter has trouble with some tops because of that. She is very tiny boned but she needs a larger size to accommodate her boobs.
    Funny though, I may have cleavage after my recon!

    Cindy
  • ksf56
    ksf56 Member Posts: 202
    I admit it
    Surprisingly, I've always looked at other women's breasts because I've always been small chested. Yes it's been envy! I only had a cleavage when I was nursing. So...I had a double lumpectomy, on the smaller breast and now, I'm very lopsided and very conscious of it. I know it doesn't measure up to those of you that have had mastectomies but that's where I'm at. I went down 2 bra sizes after going through several different types etc. Oh well! I guess I've got to get used to it like everyone else. I'm better about it than I was early on.

    Thanks for listening!
    Karen
  • AnnieTherese
    AnnieTherese Member Posts: 67
    ksf56 said:

    I admit it
    Surprisingly, I've always looked at other women's breasts because I've always been small chested. Yes it's been envy! I only had a cleavage when I was nursing. So...I had a double lumpectomy, on the smaller breast and now, I'm very lopsided and very conscious of it. I know it doesn't measure up to those of you that have had mastectomies but that's where I'm at. I went down 2 bra sizes after going through several different types etc. Oh well! I guess I've got to get used to it like everyone else. I'm better about it than I was early on.

    Thanks for listening!
    Karen

    When I was talking to the
    When I was talking to the surgeon about my reconstruction, she said, I may make you a little smaller...I said...NO YOU WON'T...I'm a fairly big woman and like the size of my boobs just as they are, I don't want to be smaller thank you !! So we'll see what happens with the reconstruction, I'm only having one side done.
  • AMomNETN
    AMomNETN Member Posts: 242
    GMTA
    Annie,
    I almost started a post like this a couple of weeks ago. I think it is worse in the summer cuz so much is showing. I've had reconstruction but you are right it isn't the same. The only up side is that I don't have to wear a bra. I always wonder if the women realize how lucky they are to still have their breasts. I wouldn't trade my life for them but I can't help but wish I'd never met this cancer. Thanks for the post.

    Janie
  • AnnieTherese
    AnnieTherese Member Posts: 67
    AMomNETN said:

    GMTA
    Annie,
    I almost started a post like this a couple of weeks ago. I think it is worse in the summer cuz so much is showing. I've had reconstruction but you are right it isn't the same. The only up side is that I don't have to wear a bra. I always wonder if the women realize how lucky they are to still have their breasts. I wouldn't trade my life for them but I can't help but wish I'd never met this cancer. Thanks for the post.

    Janie

    It's funny, but I sometimes
    It's funny, but I sometimes give my remaining boob a little poke...and smile and think, well thank God I've still got one left. I think it would be terrible to lose both as many ladies here have done. Mine might be a big old and saggy, but it's still mine and I'm glad I've got it. :-)
  • survivorbc09
    survivorbc09 Member Posts: 4,374 Member

    Actually it's rather funny
    Actually it's rather funny sometimes when I hear of someone just being diagnosed with BC, I say and think...oh how sad, how awful for them....then after a few seconds I think...hang on a minute...I had that too. LOL. You're right, it does become kind of ordinary after a while. And although I've started the reconstruction process, I still wonder if I should have bothered, but it's begun now, and is costing me nothing, as long as it keeps going smoothly, I'll continue till it's finished in a couple of months, hopefully before Christmas.

    People often ask me how I am...and I think for a second...well, I'm fine, why shouldn't I be....then I realise they mean...about the cancer...like...has it come back yet !! I feel perfectly NORMAL and healthy and act like I did before I was diagnosed.

    Just after I had my mastectomy I saw a 3 oncologists...one youngish woman I saw, wore a very revealing dress...had BEAUTIFUL BOOBS...and I thought it was really very insensitive for an oncologist to wear such a revealing garment to work when dealing all day with women who had mastectomies. I complained about her to the hospital. :-)

    I love reading your posts
    I love reading your posts Annie Therese! You really are an inspiration!
  • deerello
    deerello Member Posts: 22

    It's funny, but I sometimes
    It's funny, but I sometimes give my remaining boob a little poke...and smile and think, well thank God I've still got one left. I think it would be terrible to lose both as many ladies here have done. Mine might be a big old and saggy, but it's still mine and I'm glad I've got it. :-)

    Boobs
    Yes, I notice them too. They are everywhere! Even the ladies that work in my plastic surgeons office have had theirs done. (Is that a perk or a prerequisite of the job?)I had a bilateral in 2/2012. My hair and my breasts were two of my best features, and they are both gone! My hair will grow back..... Anyway, I am looking at a long road of surgeries in the future but I plan on beating this cancer and getting back to some semblance of life as I knew it, and that includes breasts. My plastic surgeon does not talk about size because that is a ways down the road, but finally he told me he would make them as big as he could. I would like to at least have the size God gave me, although I can't imagine what they will feel like. It was my choice to have mine both removed as the chances were good the cancer would return. At least they will match, but I still miss the old ones. Amazing what you wake up every morning and take for granted!
  • AnnieTherese
    AnnieTherese Member Posts: 67
    deerello said:

    Boobs
    Yes, I notice them too. They are everywhere! Even the ladies that work in my plastic surgeons office have had theirs done. (Is that a perk or a prerequisite of the job?)I had a bilateral in 2/2012. My hair and my breasts were two of my best features, and they are both gone! My hair will grow back..... Anyway, I am looking at a long road of surgeries in the future but I plan on beating this cancer and getting back to some semblance of life as I knew it, and that includes breasts. My plastic surgeon does not talk about size because that is a ways down the road, but finally he told me he would make them as big as he could. I would like to at least have the size God gave me, although I can't imagine what they will feel like. It was my choice to have mine both removed as the chances were good the cancer would return. At least they will match, but I still miss the old ones. Amazing what you wake up every morning and take for granted!

    Yes Deerello, it is amazing
    Yes Deerello, it is amazing what we take for granted, as they say, you don't know what you miss until it's gone. BUT...today, I had my second infusion and now have 200ml in my right breast and I actually have a teeny weeny bit of baby cleavage again. :-) :-) I can hardly believe it. I have to have at least 600ml put in or they may even take it to 700, so by Christmas with a bit of luck I might be finished. I'm really looking forward to it, I just hope the infusions keep going well. Good luck with all of what you're doing.
  • VickiSam
    VickiSam Member Posts: 9,079 Member

    Yes Deerello, it is amazing
    Yes Deerello, it is amazing what we take for granted, as they say, you don't know what you miss until it's gone. BUT...today, I had my second infusion and now have 200ml in my right breast and I actually have a teeny weeny bit of baby cleavage again. :-) :-) I can hardly believe it. I have to have at least 600ml put in or they may even take it to 700, so by Christmas with a bit of luck I might be finished. I'm really looking forward to it, I just hope the infusions keep going well. Good luck with all of what you're doing.

    I will admit that I too, admired breasts more on
    Women after my bilateral mastectomy .. I guess, I was a bit envious of them -- not
    having to go thru the twisted roads of breast cancer. The chemo, the surgeries,
    the uncertainty of our future. I can go on, but I won't.

    Funny thing .. after I lost my hair .. I looked at women's hair in a new light ..color,
    texture, length etc.

    Nature of the beast, I guess.

    Vicki Sam
  • AnnieTherese
    AnnieTherese Member Posts: 67
    VickiSam said:

    I will admit that I too, admired breasts more on
    Women after my bilateral mastectomy .. I guess, I was a bit envious of them -- not
    having to go thru the twisted roads of breast cancer. The chemo, the surgeries,
    the uncertainty of our future. I can go on, but I won't.

    Funny thing .. after I lost my hair .. I looked at women's hair in a new light ..color,
    texture, length etc.

    Nature of the beast, I guess.

    Vicki Sam

    I remember a few years ago
    I remember a few years ago there was an Irish singer, I think her name was Senaid O'Connor, and she had a shaved head, on purpose, and I thought she looked BEAUTIFUL..bald really suited her. I have friends who have very small breasts naturally, and they seem quite happy with the way they are. They look like me after my mastectomy. I'm not exactlyl small. I'm looking forward to when my "new boob" is finished at the end of the year. :-)
  • Angie2U
    Angie2U Member Posts: 2,991

    Yes Deerello, it is amazing
    Yes Deerello, it is amazing what we take for granted, as they say, you don't know what you miss until it's gone. BUT...today, I had my second infusion and now have 200ml in my right breast and I actually have a teeny weeny bit of baby cleavage again. :-) :-) I can hardly believe it. I have to have at least 600ml put in or they may even take it to 700, so by Christmas with a bit of luck I might be finished. I'm really looking forward to it, I just hope the infusions keep going well. Good luck with all of what you're doing.

    Hooray for your cleavage
    Hooray for your cleavage Annie! Praying the infusions continue to go well for you too!
  • AnnieTherese
    AnnieTherese Member Posts: 67
    Angie2U said:

    Hooray for your cleavage
    Hooray for your cleavage Annie! Praying the infusions continue to go well for you too!

    My sister is coming to my
    My sister is coming to my place for lunch on Wednesday.....can't wait to show her my...baby boob !! :-)

    Thanks for your comments Angie. xx
  • Nina B
    Nina B Member Posts: 6

    My sister is coming to my
    My sister is coming to my place for lunch on Wednesday.....can't wait to show her my...baby boob !! :-)

    Thanks for your comments Angie. xx

    Silly question
    You admit your have 1 old, saggy breast and 1 new one on the way. Will the new 1 match the old one? Will it be new and saggy or new and perky?
  • 24242
    24242 Member Posts: 1,398
    Nina B said:

    Silly question
    You admit your have 1 old, saggy breast and 1 new one on the way. Will the new 1 match the old one? Will it be new and saggy or new and perky?

    I need to add
    I was not like most women who had some attachment to their breasts. Actually after working in male oriented carrers it is refreshing to have men look me in the eye now that I am a flat liner. I have looked back on my life only to be reminded of how we should be careful what we wish for. I always hated having breasts because that always meant that I had to wear a shirt while my brother ran around half naked. I also use to pray to be the one to bear such pain as breast cancer only because I would only want to spare the people I love from what my grandmother had to go through. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm I might of thought of praying about something different like money that my friends seem to pray for.

    My chest is distorted since not doing reconstruction and I don't even notice or care more interested in sparing myself from more pain that is all...

    Great Posts
    Tara