Decisions on surgery
Hello Thank you for accepting me. I've just been diagnosed with ER+, PR+, HER2-. Absolutely devastated and am in shock. No signs, no symptoms, nothing on the breast on the mammogram - only 2 lymphs...
Forum Discussion
Hi @KimF
This is a hard one and only you can decide , with the guidance of your medical team .
I had a large tumour so was heading for a mastectomy not a lumpectomy.
It was my breast surgeon who raised the question with me if I wanted a double as I was planning DIEP reconstruction .
I had never thought of a double but talked it through with my GP, breast care nurse and spoke to a friend of a friend who had a double mastectomy and double DIEP flap reconstruction and in the end I decided to do it.
The main reasons were the anxiety of wondering if I would get cancer in the other breast and have to go through the whole roller coaster again ( my surgeon said the odds were 10%) and also that you can only do the DIEP surgery once.
If I was only having a lumpectomy or getting implants ( or going flat) that may have changed my thinking.
I didn’t have any genetic predisposition to breast cancer.
The arguments for and against are completely valid and that’s why it is a hard decision.
I am content with the decision I made .
This is a hard one and only you can decide , with the guidance of your medical team .
I had a large tumour so was heading for a mastectomy not a lumpectomy.
It was my breast surgeon who raised the question with me if I wanted a double as I was planning DIEP reconstruction .
I had never thought of a double but talked it through with my GP, breast care nurse and spoke to a friend of a friend who had a double mastectomy and double DIEP flap reconstruction and in the end I decided to do it.
The main reasons were the anxiety of wondering if I would get cancer in the other breast and have to go through the whole roller coaster again ( my surgeon said the odds were 10%) and also that you can only do the DIEP surgery once.
If I was only having a lumpectomy or getting implants ( or going flat) that may have changed my thinking.
I didn’t have any genetic predisposition to breast cancer.
The arguments for and against are completely valid and that’s why it is a hard decision.
I am content with the decision I made .