This entry was posted on January 6, 2010. It was filed under Full Blog, Medical Updates, Personal Updates, Videos and was tagged with breast cancer, implants, mastectomy, reconstruction.

2 Responses

1. 

   Tricia

   Hi Michelle,

   I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have discovered your web site. I so much admire your courage and generosity. I was diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks ago in my right breast and thus am flooded with many decisions to make. It’s been difficult to get actual photos to prepare myself for what’s ahead, so I can’t thank you enough for what you have done to help women in my position. You are a dear, and I love you even though I haven’t met you. What spirit you have! How I feel comforted by you!

   I’m a psychologist and a college professor, with an abundance of supportive people around me, so I’m grateful for that! Also, since I get yearly mammograms, supposedly my two tumors were found early. Still, I won’t feel safe until after my surgery. I have been given the choice of having a lumpectomy and ending up with a misshapen and small breast or getting a mastectomy. I’m leaning toward a mastectomy with reconstruction, since my breast are already rather petite, so taking anything out of them is nearly disastrous. What I don’t know is whether to have a double mastectomy or to save my cancer-free breast.

   I wish I could find out whether any feeling of having a breast returns. You mentioned that the nerves are supposed to grow back. Is it your understanding that you will once again experience your chest as a part of your body?

   Tricia

   November 14, 2010 at 6:27 pm
   
2. 

   Lori

   THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I am in the process of making a decision about my breasts. I do not have BC, but I have a family history of BC and I am beginning to form lumps and cysts and this makes it hard to stay safe. I am leaning towards the double mas and reconstruction. I feel that your videos and blog are giving me the tools that I need to make a well informed decision. How do you know what is right? I am just so emotional and scared and I want to make sure that I make the right decision. How did you come to the conclusion to have the surgery? Also, I am a mother to four girls between the ages of 10 and 3. I do not know how to talk to them about this or how to prepare them? Any advice on that?

   Thank you again…you have made me feel a little less alone during this rollercoaster. xoxo ~Lori

   November 14, 2010 at 10:04 pm