Breast Reconstruction: Stories

The pros of double mastectomy** Life! I was diagnosised with LCIS stage 0 breast cancer, all I could think about is my family. I had a choice I could do nothing and then one day tell them that I "could have had" a mastectomy to avoid cancer or I could tell them "I am getting rid" of cancer before it can get me...once faced with those options I knew what my answer would be. The cons are really what you make of them. The pain with the expanders has been my biggest obstacle, I was not really informed what or how much pain it would be. I had been on pain meds for 2 months before my exchange surgery, which was just 2 days ago! As soon as they removed the expanders I have had not to take any pain meds and I am sleeping through the night. I would not have known that there was releif at the exchange surgery if not for RealSelf, the discusstions on here is what really saw me throguh.

My goals are to just keep moving forward only now not having to live 6 months at a time (MRI's every 6 months) wondering when the cancer would come for me.....the outcome for me so far is good. I do not have my bandages off from my exchange surgery but I am prepared for whatever they look like! It has given me more confidence in my life, my appearance, I always struggled with my looks, I am 51 and still did. This has made me realize that life is what matters and anyone around you that feels the same is a positive person to have in your life, if the are negative I find I do not want to be around them, I feel sorry for them. I wish I knew about the expanders before hand, neither of my surgeons told me that there could be any pain. I thought I was being a baby about the whole thing but then I googled "pain with expanders" and RealSelf came up and once I started reading the post I found I was not alone. The pain I was having was real, and there would be releif at the end. I would do this again if I had to do it over.....the only thing different would be I would have read up on the expander issue some more.