Confused

Hi Monica,

Welcome to the group that no-one wants to be a member of!  You will find some great support and advice from the lovely ladies on here.

I have had breast cancer twice - once at age 35 and the other at age 42.  I wish that I had had a bilateral mastectomy the first time as I wouldn't have had to go through it all again!  Good on you for making your decision.  Everyone is different though and we have different pain thresholds etc.  If you don't need to have radiation, you can probably get a reconstruction done at the same time as the mastectomy.  This lessens the shock as you don't wake up with no boobs!!  That said though, it depends on how you feel about your boobs anyway.  I just wanted the cancer OUT of my body once I knew that it was there.  If that meant losing my boobs, then cut them off with pleasure!  I know that sounds a little drastic but that was my attitude at the time and I stick by that now.  I don't want to risk my life for the sake of saving my boobs.

The mastectomy operation was not painful for me.  I took panadol after I woke up for a few days but that was all.  I was quite pleasantly surprised at this as I expected to be in a lot of pain.  I lost a lot of sensation in my chest area so I guess that helped!

Do you need to have chemo?  If you don't, your recovery time should be fairly swift.

Good luck with everything and if you have any questions, feel free to post them on here (or just have a vent if you need to!).  We are all here for you,

Louise x