Are you happy with your breast 's appearance after the lumpectomy?

ms.sunshine said:

I struggled with the same decision
I know the stress your under. No one can and will tell you what to do this decision is ALL yours. The day I saw my surgeon I still hadn't decided. I said God you better do something I'm down to the wire. I decided then I for some reason whole heartedly trust this dr. I ask him what he thought. He told me, he ask me if I was having a hard time deciding told me it was fear and ask me to talk to him about it. When I did the answer came.

I had a lumpectomy. Isn't perfect, but not to bad. I think it depends on how much he has to remove. He removed some tissue from my right breast also just to even me up. It sure did make a difference since then I haven't suffered with back aches. I wish he would have removed more. Afterwards you can still see a plastic surgeon. I'm going to give myself a break, then talk to a PS I would like to get a lift, and maybe a little more taken out.

My doc said you didn't get cancer because you have breast. Your body made cancer, and it settled in the breast. There's no guarantee that it will or won't come back. If your body makes cancer it has to go somewhere. That's why people have recurrences. No one wants to go thru the treatments again, but if the cancer comes back with breasts more than likely it will return to the breast and we can deal with it again. If no breast it will go elsewhere. Of course there is no guarantees when dealing with cancer.

Talk to your surgeon be bold and ask questions. Let us know what decision you made, and be at peace. Take care.
Jennifer

2Floridiansisters said:

I swear this whole cancer mess is driving me nuts.....
One day I'm all for the double mastectomy and now I'm being told "start out small and go from there, why do something so drastic if you don't realy have to". uuuggghhhhhh

I was hoping to get out of doing radiation, I have no idea why but it just sounds so scary to me. And he told me he would stsrt me out with 33 treatments, and he said the double mastectomy with tissue expanders would be a long drawn out process. uuuugggghhhh

Why do we have to do anything........he said think of my breast as a muffin, I can go in there and pick at it little by little until it's all gone but there would be crumbs sitting there when I was done, he said those crumbs are like the cancer cells that an MRI can't detect, that's why we have to move forward no matter how scared we feel. uuuggghhhh

Hck yes I'm scared but I just want to do the process that's the lesser of two evils as far as reovery. The radiation sounds horrible.


I'm going crazy,

webbwife50 said:

HI
I have worn your shoes girl! I'm 51 and June 09, was diagnosed with an agressive mature tumor in my right breast. It was triple negative so chemo was it. Lumpectomy was an option but I too had DD boobies, and was terrified I would go through all the treatments and then it would return in the other breast. I opted for biloateral mastectomy. It has been quite a year!! But I'm am on the mend now. I have two nice barbie boobs, quite small, close to a B cup. When I am ready my doc is going to even up the few inperfection and start the nipples. The truth is I'm really very happy with the results of my tram flap reconstruction. I had a fabulous plastic sugeon, with the highest recommendatios. I didn't have to do radiation. Nor do I have to wear a bra, or get mamograms, or worry much about whats on my chest. If you'd like to talk you can e-mail me at webbwife50@yahoo.com . I know for myself I knew deep down what treatment plan was best for me based on all, not just one, of the professionals who advised me. God Bless You!
Alison

jo jo said:

I had the lumpectomy then
I had the lumpectomy then got a mastectomy and it was a good thing i did cuz they discovered my cancer had spread more than they thought...So in my case im sooo thankful i did get the mastectomy or id be doing this all over again.
Good luck in your decision, i know its going to be a hard one to make.
Keep us posted on what you decide.

m_azingrace said:

One hung low
I had a lumpectomy last July, and now my girls are no longer twins. The lumpectomy one is a little higher and firmer than her lazy sister, but she also looks a little mashed in. It's not noticeable when I'm fully dressed. I felt very deformed until I went for a mammogram the first week of July, and the technician asked which one had the lumpectomy. After I told her, she said that it was one of the best lumpectomies she's seen in the 20-something years she'd been doing mammograms. I do think that in the past year, it has filled in quite a bit, but they still don't match. However, the results of the mammogram were good, so I'm not complaining at all! Hugs to you all. Gracie

Jean 0609 said:

I know what you are going through
I originally had a lumpectomy and no my boob (DD) was not disfigured. Actually, it didn't look bad at all. Like I stated before, my margins weren't clear, and that is when I opted for the mastectomy (left breast with reduction of right breast). The mastectomy was my decision. I'm the one that had to live with it and others can give you advice, however, in the end...it's all up to you. Hang in there. You will be fine, whichever road you choose and remember we are all here for you. Big hugs, Jean

summerautumn said:

been there
I had breast cancer at 33 and they told me a lumpectomy would work fine with 8 weeks of radiation. That was the oncologist recommendations in the 90. I was tired with radiation but I went to work almost everyday and was the last patient of the day at the clinic.

It has been 12 years I am now 46 and I have breast cancer again, same breast different kind of cancer this only happens in 3% or less of patients. We'll we now have to ask ourselves I don't want to be worrying about it showing up in the other one in the next couple of years.

I decided to had a double masectomy in March with tram flam skin from under your shoulder blades pulled around front to conform breast then they put expanders inside, then add saline till you get to the size you want I was a 40DD and I think I will go a little smaller this time. Once your saline is where you want it to be they put the implants in.
Note all of these procedures take months some up to 18 months to complete I am in for the long all.
Listen very carefully. The breast I had radiation on in 97 was really bad burnt tissue and the plastic doctor said everything would be great. When they pulled the flap from the back and attached it to a small portion of my original breast after about a week that
area was not circulating and I had to have a surgery to remove the dead tissue and then he had to pull what skin he was working with together. Two weeks later it started to come apart. We had to take a skin graph off of my leg to put on my breast to have more good skin. So after all of this I would say if you have a high change to get it in the other breast do the masectomy and reconstruction if you want nice breast again. Once that skin is radiated you can't really use it for anything good later on.
Hope this help and doesn't scare you. Listen to what they say but ask questions and if you need to get more than one opionin then do so we did. And we went with the second doctor and we are really happy. I am taking chemo now that most of my masectomy has healed and the drains are gone I take number 4 chemo tomorrow, I can never sleep the night before. Prayers to you and you will make the right choice but it has to be yours*