First anniversary
I am new to this group... can't beleive it has taken me 12months to find this platform. Possibly wasn't really looking. I was diagnosed with Invasive Duct Carcinoma (no special type) Grade 3, Hormone + HER2 - on the 1st of Nov 2022. I have had a lumpectomy, chemo, radiation, currently taking anastozole 1mg & a hystorectomy. No breast cancer or any cancer (except my sister) on either side of my family. I chose to do a gene test to see if there was genetic link between my younger sister's sarcoma diagnosis 8 years ago & my BC. Curiosity killed the cat and I have the BRCA 2 gene mutation. Unfortunately so does my sister. They are suggesting a bilateral mastectomy. I am unsure whether I should go flat or have reconstruction. I would love to hear how people have made this decision and how their surgeries went. Thank you for reading.
Double Masectomy or radiation
Hi, I'm new to this forum, I'm 42 and was diagnosed with early breast cancer 7 weeks ago. Hormone +ve herceptin -ve I had a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy and am healing well. The nodes came back clear (yay what a relief) but the lumpectomy showed 2 additional smaller tumors that the original MRI didn't pick up. (I have dense breasts so Mammogram/ ultrasound didn't pick up anything). I've been having yearly MRI for 15 years. I have a family history of breast cancer, my mum and 2 aunties and possibly my grandmother. All diagnosed below 50. I don't have a breast cancer gene. I have to decide (quickly) either to go ahead with radiation or have a double masectomy to reduce my future risk. I had basically decided on masectomy but then the gene test came back clear and threw my decision making process into disarray. Has anyone on here, at high risk decided to have a double masectomy (with implant reconstruction) even when they didn't need it to treat their cancer? I'm wondering how you made your final decision? A few things holding me back from making the big decision, is the -numbness across my chest after the masectomy (did ladies find this hard to get used too)? - with the under muscle implants, did ladies find they caused any muscle weakness long term? I'm finding it a really hard decision. My mum fought hard to keep her breasts (and so far is still clear 18 years later) and I'm leaning towards the full masectomy, as I'm a single mum with a 4yo and the weight of another cancer weighs on me. Sorry for the long ramble 😁