Sizing questions and saying hello!
Is anyone still on this thread? The last ones I saw were from 2014.. anyway hello anyone who’s there! I’m 38yrs old diagnosed with triple neg stage 3 grade 3 , going through neoadjuvant chemo and immunotherapy abs almost done. I have met with my bs, meeting with PS this Thursday. I’m a 36A/34B 5’6 130lbs so I’m pretty small and I’ve always wanted boobs since I’ve been a little girl.. 😂 so I want to go bigger like a full C but I don’t want the big round fake looking boobs .. I have pictures to show my PS of what I’m wanting and the before pics look similar to my breasts .. I’m willing to do diep flap with implants since I don’t think I have enough fat just got diep flat and going bigger... I do have five children and I actually found the breast lump when I was pregnant with my fifth child so she is now seven months old and I’m not sure how it’ll be with trying to heal after a double mastectomy, bilateral mastectomy rather and then radiation and reconstruction surgery. Obviously those will be two different healing times. I’m so excited to be at this stage finally but I know I still have a lot longer to go.. it’s a marathon, not a sprint, but if anybody has any insight on the fill I should get and the profile please let me know!
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Hi! I have no insight, but thought I’d comment to get some activity on this post.
so many threads are so old, but I’ve had some great great people comment on the couple of threads I’ve posted.
I have to do a bilateral mastectomy. Meet with my PS in the morning to find out the plan.
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Hello @ksharlee. Welcome! I had typed up a long reply then second guessed myself and deleted it, but then saw that @skyefall kindly posted so I’m rewriting this because it can’t hurt to say hello and welcome!! I’m sorry you find yourself here but we’re glad you joined. Reading through the many posts has been a comfort through many anxious moments. Sometimes it’s quiet here but there are some pretty experienced posters who will reply and give great advice or direction to older threads with good advice. I’m still navigating my way around here!
I also am a newbie with very limited knowledge and experience, only my own to go on. But I’m happy to share for whatever it’s worth. I’m sort of opposite you … age 49, 5’9”, 185lbs and size 38H. Married, no children, just cats (that sounds dull 😁)
I used to wear a nice full C cup, back in my teens and 20’s. The good old days! Sadly I never appreciated my figure when I was 5’10” (I’ve shrunk an inch) and weighed about 150lbs. No one warned me all my weight gain in life was going to be mostly in my breasts!!
So anyhow, I recently had a single mastectomy with tissue expander and eventually I’ll get an implant, followed by a welcome reduction on the ‘healthy’ side. Because I was in a state of shock and hating all my options, I wasn’t prepared when I met my plastic surgeon. Thankfully he is wonderful and quietly confident in his skills. Right away I asked him his honest opinion of what was going to work best for me.
He was honest about how DIEP flap would achieve the nicest looking breast but was not going to get a very large breast because ironically I don’t have much usable belly tissue/fat due to an old appendectomy scar. It seems like plenty to me but he says it’s not. Yes a tummy tuck at my age sounds nice and having the most natural breast appeals but I was nervous about the surgery itself. It also couldn’t happen all in one surgery for me, I think partly due to not knowing if I would need radiation and maybe scheduling issues. I can’t remember exactly what he said. So in either case, whether I was going with an implant or DIEP flap I was going to start with a tissue expander at the time of mastectomy and need a second surgery later.
I also wonder suspiciously about my left side - when will it go bad too? Sigh. Maybe never. I know my PS would have done his very best to get me as symmetrical as possible, even using fat grafting to help with DIEP flap but in my state of shock I decided to just go with the implant and reduction. I don’t even know what size I’ll end up but I trust he will improve me greatly in the end. That is a small consolation for going through breast cancer.
You are smart to have pictures of what you want! And asking about the recovery time frames and restrictions for each type of reconstruction will help you weigh out which one will suit you best. I liked the thought of the DIEP flap being a once and done surgery and that it gains or loses weight with you, compared to needing the implants checked and replaced down the road, and not gaining or losing weight with you which hopefully won’t become an issue of strangeness for me later. I do feel at peace with my decision, even if it was not made in the most logical way.
I hope your appointment goes really well and that you’ll have clarity with what will be best for you!
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Thank both of you for responding! both your responses are very helpful. Yes I had a very complicated large lump, thank the Lord it has shrunk now after half of chemo. My lump was 6cmx7cmx6cm (LWH), it was actually very small when I first found it, like the size of a dime, but my OB/GYN at the time of my pregnancy wouldn’t give me further testing. I kept asking for an ultrasound on the lump, and he kept refusing, telling me we would do it after the baby was born.. So after the baby was born, the lump tripled in size, to the size I showed above and so I got a new doctor! Went through the whole biopsy thing and found out it was cancer triple negative stage three grade 3 and also that I was BRCA2.. so I will be getting bilateral mastectomy because of that and a hysterectomy not only that but that same OB/GYN also caused a heart condition during that same pregnancy because he didn’t put me on any blood pressure medicine. I am looking for an attorney, but beside the point. My onc breast surgeon wants to do single mastectomy on the cancer side first and then do the healthy breast during or right before the reconstruction surgery and I’m unclear on kind of what she was specifically wanting to do. She wants to do that though because she wants to lessen the complications to one breast instead of two just in case there are any complications, so I only have to worry about the one side, and quite a few lymph node dissection‘s and also drains that’s my other question if anyone had it down this way the part of doing the single mastectomy, and then doing the other breast during the reconstruction? And I do know the DIEP FLAP SURGERY IS A LONGER HEALING PROCESS BUT YES, LIKE YOU SAID YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO OR CHECK IT OR WORRY ABOUT GETTING THEM REPLACED 10 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD SO I’M WEIGHING THAT AND I ALSO WOULDN’T MIND IMPLANTS ALTHOUGH MY BS DID SAY THAT WOMEN THAT HAVE RECONSTRUCTIONS TO SAY THE IMPLANTS FEEL COLD BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE BREAST TISSUE ANYMORE AROUND IT. Sorry not sure why that was in all caps..
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@ksharlee wow! That’s a lot to process and make plans for - all while taking care of your new baby!!
I wish I knew more to answer your questions intelligently. I have a feeling your plastic surgeon can explain why you might want to consider staggering the surgeries as your breast surgeon is suggesting. That would actually be a great question to ask him/her. And certainly ask that again of your breast surgeon for clarification. Sometimes they have all the notes posted in your patient portal in the After Visit Notes section and it might describe her conversation in detail with you.
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Welcome, @ksharlee! We're so sorry you find yourself here, but we hope this can be a source of support for you. We second @needs.a.nap, that is so much to process! THIS THREAD in the recon forum is a wonderful place to read through some other member's experiences and questions re: sizing of your implants, we highly recommend reading through from the beginning.
The Mods
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Thank you, I will ask my PS tomorrow when I meet her, that is a good idea I forgot to look on my after appt summary to see if she had put any specifics in there.
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