mastectomy remove the "tail of breast"

sunnyhou

I had skin sparing on 9/1 of this year. I was wondering if anyone knows if the tail of the breast is removed? I did not even know what that was until today. Apparently we have breast tissue in our arm pits. I know I do because my armpits filled up after I gave birth a year ago to my son. I think I might ask my BS if he removed it. I just do not want any breast tissue left. ( i know it is impossible to remove all of it). Just thought I would ask in case someone on here knew.

Hope everyone is well..

Jelson

Your question intrigued me, I had never heard that term before either. I thought it might be covered in a currently active thread "mastectomy bulges under arms" in the prothesis and reconstruction alternatives board. These are called dog ears or in one case, the surgeon called them dog tails. In another thread on that board it was called the tail of the breast. In the discussion I read, noone seemed concerned about breast tissue being left behind, they were concerned about unsightly and annoying bulges and they would have preferred that this tissue/fat? had been removed at the time of the mastectomy. It doesn't seem to be as much a problem if you are going for reconstruction. I also tried the search function under the discussion boards, I just searched  the word tail and of course got mostly, but not only pony tails and pet tails, but I think you might find something that way, I think you are wise to talk to your breast surgeon about breast tissue left behind and, if so, what type of monitoring you might need.Hope this helps and also that you are healing well!

Julie E

roseg

If the guy was a good surgeon he did.

When you ask I'm sure the BS will equivocate. They remove everything, plus a little extra but you can't ever be 1000% certain about these things. 

So don't worry if you don't get an absolute answer.

barbe1958

My path report led me to understand that the tail portion of the breast is taken. It talks about nodes it found in the "tail portion which was identified with 2 sutures". I guess the pathologist needs to know where the tissue came from.

Dog's ears are just where the surgeon has to stop taking fat. Mine said they have to decide and just do it under the arm as that doesn't normally show. Makes sense.