Finished chemo today

I finished chemo this week and am going in for a tissue-sparing mastectomy next week. I am going to have reconstruction after radiotherapy. I feel comfortable with a single breast reconstruction. It may not be matched, but I'm happy to keep an original. Your circumstances may be different but here are my reasons:

- I feel that the risk of cancer arriving in the unaffected breast will be low, lower in any case compared to the risk of recurrence that I've already got. My family does not have any history of breast cancer.

-I'm having a modified TRAM and not implants due to radiotherapy, so there's plenty of tissue and less likelihood of one side of the reconstruction not actually taking.

-There's probably a good reason why surgeons don't want to encourage bilateral mastectomies except where there's a good case for it. I assume it's because of reduced operating times, quicker recovery, higher success rates. 

-I have low anxiety about recurrence.

-I really want to minimise surgery even though I'm going ahead with reconstruction which will involve more than one op.

-I don't mind that the breasts will have differences, I kind of just want them evenly weighted, evenly shaped so I can return to an active lifestyle without worrying about prostheses. 

In saying all of this, I have had some really anxious weeks worrying about the physical consequences of having multiple ops and residual scar tissue and potential pain or stiffness and annoying tummy weakness, but now that I've made my decision, I will go with the flow now and manage whatever comes.

I hope you get good advice from the women who have gone with the bilateral reconstruction. I met with a group of BC women last week and those who have had reconstruction are happy that they did. I'm also sure that those who haven't are also happy with how they are going too! :)

ETA: And congratulations on finishing chemo! Yay! Wow and with a new baby too!

Cheers, Meg xxx