Helle, I’m Libby and I’m 22 years old.
My mother, her mother and both of my aunts have suffered Breast Cancer and I recently found out that both me and my two sisters have discovered we have the PALB2 gene defect.
Sorry for the long question, I’m just hoping that someone has had a similar experience to me/understands what I’m asking!
My older sister has already had a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery and I have decided to have the same next year, but there are some questions that she can’t answer for me regarding reconstruction (because she is much much smaller than me, in every sense!)
For context, I am about 5’6, a dress size 10/12, but I do have a large bust, I’m a size 32F.
I had a short video consultation with a nurse about the surgery and something that really upset me about the conversation was that she said that I wouldn’t be able to have reconstruction for breasts the same size that I have now and that I could only possibly go up to a 32C (this nurse hasn’t been very factually correct in the past when dealing with my sister so I’m not sure how much to trust). I thought at the time that this doesn’t make sense as women have breast enhancements to be a very large size, and for my own mental health and self confidence I am certain that I would like reconstruction to be as similar to my own shape and size as possible. I understand that I don’t have very much knowledge on this area and I will be meeting my surgeon to discuss this very soon, but it is something that I am thinking about a lot recently and I would really like to put my mind at ease one way or another!
Would someone have any advice on this please and let me know if it is possible to have reconstruction to my own size?
Thank you in advance,
xxx
