Forum Discussion
Breast tissue left behind
I had a double skin and nipple saving mastectomy last year, just about to start reconstrucion and there seems to be an amount of breast tissue left behind. Has this happened to anyone else and if so h...
Hi @"Bon Bon" - I also had a skin-sparing, nipple sacrificing double mastectomy. I had bilateral lobular carcinoma - and lots of it! So I had no option but to have the double, which I was actually quite happy about for the same reasons as you made your decision.
I also had a full axillary node clearance on one side.
Both my breast surgeon and plastic surgeon told me that with the skin-sparing mastectomy, they remove as much breast tissue as possible - as close to 100% of it as possible - but that there is always a minimal amount of tissue that is adhered to the skin that's basically impossible to remove without making your skin so thin that a reconstruction would not be possible.
They told me that decades ago, a mastectomy was brutal - removing absolutely everything, all tissue, skin everthing - and leaving women quite disfigured. These days, they are much more aware that many (definitely note all) women want a good reconstruction, and even those that are happy to be flat and fabulous, want to have a 'kinder' result.
You'd really need to talk to your breast surgeon about why he/she has left so much breast tissue. I would hope that it would be a conscious decision taking into account your type of breast cancer, the chances of recurrence and your choice of reconstruction.
Are you going to have any follow-up treatment? Chemo, radio or hormone therapy?
All the best,
xxxxxxxx
I also had a full axillary node clearance on one side.
Both my breast surgeon and plastic surgeon told me that with the skin-sparing mastectomy, they remove as much breast tissue as possible - as close to 100% of it as possible - but that there is always a minimal amount of tissue that is adhered to the skin that's basically impossible to remove without making your skin so thin that a reconstruction would not be possible.
They told me that decades ago, a mastectomy was brutal - removing absolutely everything, all tissue, skin everthing - and leaving women quite disfigured. These days, they are much more aware that many (definitely note all) women want a good reconstruction, and even those that are happy to be flat and fabulous, want to have a 'kinder' result.
You'd really need to talk to your breast surgeon about why he/she has left so much breast tissue. I would hope that it would be a conscious decision taking into account your type of breast cancer, the chances of recurrence and your choice of reconstruction.
Are you going to have any follow-up treatment? Chemo, radio or hormone therapy?
All the best,
xxxxxxxx