Plus, I am a registered nurse, and I know that my boobs will not just be "chopped off". In other words, I'm not stupid, naive, so don't send me messages saying that I am not educated, etc... :) .Anyways...They will be sliced into, and whether or not I decide to have the skin sparing mastectomy, which right now I HOPE I can have, the doctors will pretty much scrape all of the tissue from inside my my boobs out...Think of it like Halloween time..(And I guess for me, the pain medication could be considered the candy)....Anyways.....You buy a pumpkin...You cut the stem off...(For that mastectomy, this will be my nipple, areola.) Then, you scrape out all of the seeds and crap out of the pumpkin.....The doctors will pretty much do the same to the boob-scrape the inside of the "boob", and get all of the breast tissue out that they can....Of course, they will take the tissue samples and do pathology reports during the surgery to see if there were any cancer cells or cell dysplasia (changes).......Then, they will put in temporary "expander" implants to gradually fill with saline, every 2 weeks or so, until my boobs are the sizes I feel comfortable with..And hopefully they are both the same sizes, because from what I hear, sometimes it doesn't always turn out like that at first.....Anywho......They will sew my boobs up, well actually "HUMPS" up, and when my humps are big enough, they will put more permanent implants in, and then can create nipples, and even tattoo areolas! Of course, this involves multiple surgeries, but from what I've read, it's about 4-5 months total time.......Not bad, I guess, considering you are losing two parts of yourself...And yes, there are a lot of different surgery options, but that is the procedure I think I am going to do, and this is what I think is right for me. You can do reconstructions where they take fat tissue from your stomach or butt, and instead of putting implants in, they can reconstruct your breasts with your own living tissue....But the downside of that, in my opinion, is that you are not only recovering from the breast surgeries, you are recovering from the surgery from the donor site.And I've heard that it is a very painful recovery....And I am active.. I run, I have two small kids and I am a nurse and I am always out and about.. I don't think I could take months to recover. That's just me, and everyone is different. Some people have great success with those surgeries...Everyone has their own decisions and opinions. Plus, everyone's body is different. So you have to take all kinds of factors into account when trying to make a decision as to what type of procedure you want..
There are also surgeries where they can spare your nipples and sew your own nipples back on, but I have read that it is very risky for BRCA+ patients to do this procedure because this has a high risk of actually getting breast cancer, even after having PBM. (Prophylactic bilateral mastectomy.) Also, once again, decisions!
I read "The Breast Reconstruction Guidebook" by Kathy Steligo and yes, I researched and researched and researched like a freak, (I still am!) just about every night since learning about my BRCA + status, but to be educated is to be empowered. No one else is going to make your decisions for you. That goes for anything in life. We make our own decisions in life, and this is one decision to not take lightly. Become educated, know your stuff, ask questions, follow your instincts. Don't let a doctor talk you into doing something you don't feel right about, and don't go to a doctor you don't feel comfortable with.
Our boobs may be ticking time bombs, but we have the control to decide how to deadinate them. And while we're at it, we can get new boobs in the process!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
-Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr.Seuss
2 comments:
Wow!! I had no idea! I thought they just went in and took the old tissue out, plopped in some implants and that was it. It makes sense now though. My grandpa had breast cancer and had one of his removed and I always wondered why he didn't have a nipple but now I understand! Gosh, what an ordeal! You are a very smart and strong woman!!
Wow...Your grandpa had breast cancer? That just goes to show everyone that, yes, even men can get breast cancer. It doesn't discriminate!
Yea, it's crazy. And me, being a morbid nurse, I get on the internet and have found a site where you can actually view the surgery. It's interesting. Once you see it being done, it makes a lot more sense. But after the surgery, I will have nipple-less boobs for a while....Now talk about interesting! Haha! That'll be some good conversation starters, huh!
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