Mastectomy, again!

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Hi!  I'm 36 and was diagnosed with DCIS which turned out to be over a large area (100mm). 

As the DCIS area was so large and covered  75% of the breast a single mastectomy was the only option. I went for skin converserving (no option to conserve nipple), with immediate implant reconstruction. That was 2 weeks ago and its still very sore and swollen. 

This week I got the lab results post the op. On a positive note the lymph nodes were clear. On a less positive note  the DCIS area had no margin in parts. Meaning there is possibility the DCIS is in the skin that we conserved. 

The doc is now reccomending we remove the implant and the skin to give us the safest outcome. 

Having been through the surgery and finally got my head around the implant idea, I am now gutted to be having to do it again and have a result of a flat chest on one side. 

Anyway the surgery date is tbc, but I would like to have it asap ro reduce overall recovery time.

Doc says after that there will be possible radio therapy afterwards too. Although I'm not clear on why radio is needed if they think they have all the cancer out? 

Has anyone else gone through anything similar? 

I have 3 young kids at home, so I'm trying to keep it all together but it's hard at times. 

Thanks for listening Blush

  • Hi  I am so sorry you are going through this.  It must be really tough to have to prepare yourself for a second surgery and to accept being flat on one side at such a young age.  The priority though is to get you cancer free so try and hang onto that.  There was a great online article by cosmo where women showed off and celebrated their mastectomy scars and being flat - it was really beautiful and well done.  You might want to look it up to help prepare you.  

    Some advice someone once posted was to make sure you look at your mastectomy site as soon as possible after surgery before your mind gets a chance to build it up into something big and scary.

    The need for radiotherapy afterwards is probably because cancer was found so near the chest wall and getting clear margins is difficult as there is only so much skin they can remove and so to be sure they get any possible stray cells of cancer they use radiotherapy.  It's an extra precaution just to be safe. 

    Wishing you all the best with your treatment.