Hello, I'm a new member of the Royal Order of TNBC Princesses

TNBC Princess
Hi Amy. I am also a member of the Royal Order of TNBC Princesses. I love that designation. At the time of my diagnosis I was married, age 51, and had a daughter who was a high school senior and a son who was a college sophmore. That was 3 years ago. I had a complete axillary dissection followed by a right mastectomy (with tissue expander placed) and then came 4 rounds of A/C and 12 rounds of Taxotere. When all my treatment was over I had my expander replaced by a saline implant. I had a breast reduction/lift on the opposite/non-cancer side. I was extremely dissatisfied with the initial reconstruction result and had it redone 6 months later by a different surgeon. I went with a silicone implant the second time around. Surgeon #2 did a great job in my opinion.

There are so many decisions to make when it comes to breast cancer. It can be overwhelming. My dad is a doctor (although not an oncologist) and when he said he and my mom would fly out to see me I knew I had hit the medical jackpot. As far as reconstruction is concerned, you really cannot make a wrong decision. In fact, you don't even have to make that decision now. You can wait years if you so choose. My husband didn't care one way or another if I had reconstruction. I simply wanted to look "normal" in clothes. I will never look normal unclothed - I have some wicked scars. I am not sorry I did it. As to whether to get a single or double mastectomy versus a lumpectomy, I suggest you have a lengthy discussion with your oncologist and surgeon. You might want to consider talking to a second surgeon to get that opinion, also. Family history is a consideration for some folks as well as size and location of the mass. It is your life and you have to feel comfortable with the decision before you do the surgery.

This Board is a wealth of support and information. Glad you took the step of joining us but obviously not glad for the reason.

IRENE

I was diagnosed in Feb of 2011. I was 56 or 57 (I tend to ignore age). I had a lumpectomy for the following reason. The older you are when you have a lumpectomy the safer it is. The odds of getting cancer in the same breast after a lumpectomy increase over years. The way the doctor explained it was this. By the time my chance of getting cancer equalled that of having a masectomy I would be so old that I would probably be dead from something else anyway. So I opted for the lumpectomy. You however are much younger, so take that into consideration. With the lumpectomy I have one full breast and one that is about 75 to 80% of the size of the other. So I have a prostesis but often do not need to wear it. It is more for formal occasions or if I get a better job where people will be interested in my appearance being more perfect.

The surgeon thought the tumor was about 2-3 cm. Once he got in there he found out it's largest dimension was 6.6cm. I also had two positive lymphnodes. So he was wrong about it's size but still I am not too worried having had a lumpectomy becaused the older we are at the age of diagnosis the better our chances of survival. I had done a lot of research on TNBC while off after the lumpectomy and the chemo doctor confirmed that some of the research I had done was right on. If you have no lymphnodes come out positive you will be in very good shape. I remained at stage 2 because of only 2 lymph nodes, and the character of the cells found by the pathologist. So size of the tumor is not the only indicator of what puts one at a certain stage. Good luck with your decision.