Surgeons for Prophylactic Bilateral Mastectomy

Ladybug77

Hello,

I am new, but have been lurking since April. I think I have become a bit of a hermit with all of this, but I am getting better. I really appreciate all of the information you have here. It has helped me tremendously! I'm having a problem that I have been trying to solve for the last couple of months and I'm hoping someone on the boards can help me? I have decided to do a bilateral mastectomy and I live just outside of Pensacola, FL. I do not want to have my surgery here due to bad experiences, professional opinions that I trust not to have it done here and other personal reasons I don't want to get into at this time. I have already decided that I want to do fat grafting with the BRAVA system for my reconstruction and that I will have to travel for this. I cannot start the fat grafting until one month after I finish my Herceptin. This will be sometime late summer or in the fall of 2015. I do not want to travel too far for my bilateral mastectomy. I do not want skin sparing due to having elongated breasts and I am planning to correct this with the reconstruction and I do not want nipple sparing because of being HER2+. I need a traditional type mastectomy. I need to be flat. I would be fine to go to NOLA because it is only 3 1/2 hours away and therefore just a day trip. This would also make it easier to drive back to have my drains pulled a week later, so this is my best choice. I called the breast center and asked for a referral for a surgeon there in NOLA to do this and they referred me to their website. Their website only addresses nipple sparing/skin sparing. I could also go to Jacksonville, it is 5 1/2 hours away. It would still be a day trip...just a long one. Every time I hear of someone it is always a plastic surgeon and they only want to discuss reconstruction and, of course the kind that they perform. If I travel down to South FL for this I will have to stay longer and I just don't want to deal with all of that while still doing my Herceptin treatments. If anyone has used any surgeons in either of these two areas I would really appreciate a referral or any information you could give me? I just need to get this done and over with. Thanks in advance.

dlb823

Ladybug, I'm sorry no one's so far been able to come up with specific recommendations for you, but I thought I would stop and bump your thread so that it remains on the actives list another day. In the mean time, I would strongly suggest that you not try to decide on a surgeon from their website alone, but use information on the website to decide who to get actual appointments with. That way you can get all of your questions answered, see actual photos of their work, and decide if they are worth the drive. Many women here on BCO rave about NOLA, and I think you're fortunate to be within a 3.5 hr. drive of them. They are known for a wide range of reconstructive surgeries, but any surgeon would need to see you in person to give you specific advice for your body, situation and preferences. I am strongly in favor of getting at least two opinions, just so that you have a point of comparison re. facilities and surgeon personalities. Plus you will glean little tidbits of information from each one that will help you make decisions and hopefully get the outcome you're after.

Glad you've found BCO and stopped lurking! Let us know what you decide! (((Hugs))) Deanna