Hi Dizi,
I just posted a question about whether to reconstruct or not after a bilateral mastectomy. So that's obviously what I chose! My story is this. I am 34 and had approx 3cm of DCIS in each breast, after surgery they found 2.5mm of invasive. For me the double mastectomy was a "no brainer" because with DCIS so widespread, I felt something had gone really wrong with my tissue and I wanted it gone. I also thought it would be easy to miss something if I had lumpectomy. I also was able to avoid radiation (which I think would have had to be across both sides if I'd kept the breasts). One of the DCIS areas was very close to a nipple. Although I was thinking about mastectomy already, once the surgeon told me the nipple was going, there was no way I was going to go through all the rigamarole of radiotherapy for nipple-less boobs. Although I am feeling weird about the aesthetic result of the recon at the moment (I'm only half-way through the recon and tissue expanders are quite different sizes at the moment!), I don't regret doing the big surgery at all.
All the best with your decision making and I am sorry you've had to join these forums.
Jen :)
