Lumpectomy or mastectomy?
I have just been diagnosed with invasive carcinoma grade 1, small (about 1) at 2 0’clock and have to decide pretty quickly whether to have just a lumpectomy or mastectomy. I am terrified of radiother...
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I went for a mastectomy. I had my surgery in April. Microcalcifications on the mamogram suggested an area of around 10mm, but the MRI showed it was 35mm at it's largest. This was still fine for a lumpectomy, but if I hadn't had the MRI they would not have got clear margins.
I have anxiety and my surgeon was very supportive of my reasons for a mastectomy. As it meant I would most likely not need radiotherapy, I could have the reconstruction in the one surgery. I chose an implant for the shorter recovery/only one area to recover. If my nodes had not come back clear, I would have required radio at the risk of causing capsular contracture.
The public hospital wait was a bit longer due to getting the recon at the same time (about 4 weeks). I'm very happy with the result and have posted in the Choosing Breast Reconstruction group if you want to check it out.
I live about 75km from Melbourne, 35 minutes drive from the nearest location for radiotherapy (but 50 minutes from where I work) and I'm a primary teacher. So it's not the sort of job you can leave early, switch to flexi time, take 2 hour lunch breaks etc. Which meant radiotherapy would require multiple weeks off from work. So I took my 'weeks off' at the start to recover from surgery (7 weeks).
I was also a candidate for oncotype testing to see if chemo would be effective. It cost $3000 but, since I've no sick leave left now, paid for itself when it showed chemo would not be recommended. Mine was hormone positive and I am now on tamoxifen. I plan to stay on that for 5 years, then switch to an AI for another 5 years. I'm 46, so fairly 'young' in the BC world.
I'm very happy with my decision. I know it's what I needed to do for my anxiety.
I have anxiety and my surgeon was very supportive of my reasons for a mastectomy. As it meant I would most likely not need radiotherapy, I could have the reconstruction in the one surgery. I chose an implant for the shorter recovery/only one area to recover. If my nodes had not come back clear, I would have required radio at the risk of causing capsular contracture.
The public hospital wait was a bit longer due to getting the recon at the same time (about 4 weeks). I'm very happy with the result and have posted in the Choosing Breast Reconstruction group if you want to check it out.
I live about 75km from Melbourne, 35 minutes drive from the nearest location for radiotherapy (but 50 minutes from where I work) and I'm a primary teacher. So it's not the sort of job you can leave early, switch to flexi time, take 2 hour lunch breaks etc. Which meant radiotherapy would require multiple weeks off from work. So I took my 'weeks off' at the start to recover from surgery (7 weeks).
I was also a candidate for oncotype testing to see if chemo would be effective. It cost $3000 but, since I've no sick leave left now, paid for itself when it showed chemo would not be recommended. Mine was hormone positive and I am now on tamoxifen. I plan to stay on that for 5 years, then switch to an AI for another 5 years. I'm 46, so fairly 'young' in the BC world.
I'm very happy with my decision. I know it's what I needed to do for my anxiety.