Pregnancy after Double mastectomy

Hi Suemaree,

I'm usually more of a lurker than a poster, but I also was diagnosed with DCIS when I was trying to conceive my first so I wanted you to know that you weren't alone.

I actually had a pretty good experience with recovery.  I had the DM in early Nov and my implant exchange in late March.  I had tissue expanders placed during my mastectomy and my plastic surgeon rushed me a bit through the expansion process because she knew my hubby and I were trying to conceive and I wasn't a spring chicken (I'm 37).  I saw an oncologist a few weeks after my mastectomy and she said that I would be able to start trying once I healed from my exchange.  All in all, I only lost 6 months of time, which wasn't so bad.  My periods did get a little wacky after each of the two surgeries, but within a cycle or two I was back to normal.  The mastectomy messed me up for a bit longer than the exchange, but at its worst, I only had two disrupted cycles.  I found that using those ovulation strips helped to really track down my most fertile time, which you may want to consider if your cycles get a bit "off".

I have read so many posts on this board when I was getting a sense of what to expect, and frankly some of them scared me.  Some people said they lost all feeling across their chest and back after the mastectomy - I didn't.  In fact, I only have numbness around the incision line for the most part.  Others have said they lost tons of arm strength - I only have problems with pushups feeling strange, but everything else has become more or less normal.  I also had a sentinel node biopsy done and have no limitation in range of motion from that.  However, I must say that the recovery from the snb was worse than the mastectomy because I kept having phantom twinges.  Those only lasted for a couple of months and now I have no side effects whatsoever from that.

I have to admit that it does stink to know that I can't breast feed, but I have accepted that as a tradeoff for being here for my child.  My husband and I did start trying in May, and lo and behold, I was pregnant after the first month of trying.  I'm currently 14.5 weeks pregnant and looking forward to holding my little girl in my arms in Feb. and feeding her the best formula I can find.  It's a small sacrifice that I'm willing in order to be there for her for a very, very long time.

Best of luck to you!

Jen