tattoos and nipples?

Ltalcott said:

to be normal
I had a bilateral mastecomy in March with immediate DIEP reconstruction, and nipple construction and tatooing on August 4th. I am so pleased with the nipples and tatooing.

I am actually going to look normal. My breasts are a little bigger than they were before. I'm petite, about 120 pounds, 5'1" tall, and I had been 34C. I'm wearing 36C bras now--the shape is a little different than before--not as droopy, and the base is bigger.

I had 'eye-shaped' scars on the center of the breasts, where the surgeon had cut and scooped out all the breast tissues--the skin from my tummy being the center. The new nipples were put on the area of the breast that protrudded the most, and then the surgeon used one of the circle-shape tape-on electrodes to draw a circle to mark where to tatoo for the aerola.

The new areola and nipple are within the 'eye' and make the scars seems less noticeable. (The surgeon tells me the scar will fade a lot, probably between 6-12 months post-surgery.)

But I am actually going to look normal!

Lisa

Ltalcott said:

bilateral mastectomy
They found IDC in my left breast, and when I was talking to the surgeon he must have said something about having both breasts removed, because I clearly remember saying, "I could have both removed????" I have had cystic breast disease, with lumpy breasts, six or seven biopsies, so I had been waiting for 15 years to hear I had cancer. To have both breasts removed and not worry about any new cancers seemed like the only way to go.

The MRI that showed the cancer on the left also showed a tiny spot on the other breast, which they decided to biopsy--it came back IDC too! Not spread from the other side, just another primary site. Knocked me on my a**--even thought it changed nothing since I'd already scheduled the bilateral. (Did mean a sentinel node biopsy on both sides.)

I have told many people--other than it being cancer--everything about my diagnosis was positive. IDC, most common kind of breast cancer, which means most research. They know what works. My tumors were small, 1.4 and .6 cm, with clean margins, no lymph node involvement. I had no complications of the really complicated surgery--17 hours long!--except a hematoma that caused me to keep that one drain maybe a week longer than the others. ER+, PR+, and HER2-, Oncotype DX scores of 9 and 16. Because of my family history, they did the genetic testing, and it came back negative.

I'm taking tamoxifen, having no side effects. I'm frequently warmer than I normally would be, but if that's a hot flash, it's real easy to cope with.

No radiation, no chemo. My oncologist said she would give me chemo if I wanted it. My husband and I poured over the stats, and because my chance of recurrance was so very, very low, the chemo would do me no good, and the potential side effects of chemo were bigger than the advantages.

I went back to work half-time at just over 5 weeks (I have a desk job) and back to work full-time two weeks after that. And I crashed at 8 pm I was so tired for a long time.

I am done with cancer--ha, ha. (I do know that's not true, but still....)

It's scary when you don't know what's going on. Before surgery, you don't know the size, the margins, the grade, Oncotype DX, what the surgery will be like, what the tests ahead of time will be like, how sick you will be, who will keep supporting you, which of your friends will act like a**holes and need to be purged--there are just too many things you don't know. You are not in control. Everyone here will echo that the waiting is the worst part.

My nipples are going to stick out--it's like I'm always cold. A molded cup bra will probably cover them, except for in the smoothest, tightest of T-shirts. So yes that can be an issue. I've looked online at gel petals, that you can stick on--not really yet for that.

I'm not sure what you mean about the increased risk of tamoxifen with a bilateral?

Lisa