Breast mastectomy with implant.

Hi Romance writer

Sorry you're having to have a mastectomy - I am a smaller cup size than you at a B, but had a mastectomy and immediate silicone implant just over two years ago.  Firstly, surgery was ok, in for one night, had implant put under chest wall so that might have been slightly more painful than the usual over chest wall that is done now.  Still very manageable with painkillers and I'd say it was just more incredibly tight than painful, very difficult to to put any weight through the muscles on that side and difficulty straightening up the shoulders when walking.  Drains are in which can be a bit of a hindrance but they are only there for a week or so.  However, within four weeks and with the exercises they give you to do, you're soon feeling better and of course the cancer is gone!  The implant sits higher on your chest wall than the remaining breast, my BCN was very honest with me about this and managed my expectations well so I am happy with the result.  It definitely doesn't move the way a natural breast moves, it stays completely where it is, but mine is a small implant, maybe larger will be different.  It was soft to start with, but unfortunately I had to have radiotherapy unexpectedly and that has definitely tightened everything up and made it firmer, but I'm still happy with it.  Maybe someone who is a larger cup size could come along and give you a better idea of how things worked out for them.  Anyway, good luck and hope you're happy with the outcome xx big hugs xx

Hi, so sorry for the late reply. A friend suggested I get more surgeon opinions as they felt I should look into getting more options. So the last two weeks I’ve been running from one city to another and all four (different) hospitals told me different things. The last surgeon suggested a partial masectomy with breast reconstruction using breast fat left. He said removing 400g wouldn’t change much in size since my breast weighs over 1kg. He said it would look like a reduction and a lift. He also said he would not suggest a mastectomy to any woman with my current diagnosis. So it seems the previous surgeons were a little to radical with their approach. At least going for second, third and fourth opinion saved my breast!

I was a 34H bra size before mastectomy. I had 500ml (grams?) implant and reduction on other boob. So down to a D/E cup. Hadn’t expected radiotherapy but sneaky little cells had migrated to 2/3 lymph nodes so treatment plan changed. It’s now a year later. Boobs look good in a bra but healthy boob had dropped and implant had firmed up and appears a little smaller than before. It’s not perfect but I’m ok with it cosmetically. There’s a photo just post surgery in my bio. It feels a little weird, numb and a less ‘mobile’ than natural boob but most of the time I don’t notice. For me the big positive was to wake up and look down and see ‘cleavage’ I felt that I wasn’t going to let cancer take my curves! 

Recovery wise I was pretty much back to normal after 4-5 weeks but was careful with exercise and heavy lifting for a couple of months. For a couple of weeks post surgery I was sleeping on my back with supporting pillow, and wore a post surgical bra for sleeping too. I found post op pain only lasted a day or so, after that I didn’t need to take anything. 

thank for sharing! Can I ask about your radiotherapy experience? I’m scared stiff about it because it’ll be on my left breast and I’m afraid it may damage my heart leading to other problems down the line. Also I heard the burns can be pretty nasty.