Surgeon removing one breast at a time?

Anonymous

Surgeon removing one breast at a time?

Kzambrana

I probably should have started this conversation a month ago but here I am. One week ago I had a mastectomy on my left breast, I asked my surgeon to do a double but she said our primary concern was breast with cancer and we didn't want to increase risk of infection and put more on my body to heal. When I expressed concerns about having an extra surgery to remove the right breast she said reconstruction could be done at the same time as the removal of my other breast. Made sense to me at the time. But now so many people are questioning why I didn't do both at the same time. I'm hoping someone can share a plan similar to mine so I don't feel like I made the wrong decision. Anyone have a double mastectomy in two separate surgeries

BrinkOfEternity

I’m not sure what your diagnosis is so can only speak from my own experience. I decided on only removing the breast with cancer because I didn’t feel it would affect my outcome.

Being asked by well-meaning friends and families does put pressure on why we’re “not doing more”, but ultimately they should give compelling reasons for their opinions other than a gut feeling. If you are planning to remove the other breast later on anyway, I don’t see what the issue is?

Kzambrana

Thank you for your reply. I edited my original post to hopefully clarify. I am going to have a double mastectomy. But my surgeon only removed the cancerous breast in my first surgery. The second breast will be removed in a separate surgery. I was hoping I could find someone who had positive outcome having 2 separate surgeries

WC3

Kzambrana:

Different surgeons seem to have different opinions on things. At my health care facility they prefer to put people under as little as possible so ideally would prefer to do a double mastectomy with reconstruction in one surgery.

I had a consult with a plastic surgeon at another facility who thought my body was too weak to do immediate reconstruction or even start it.

I ended up having a double mastectomy with TEs placed in one surgery and did fine.

Peregrinelady

Yes, I originally had a single mastectomy. I was so freaked out after being misdiagnosed for 20 months, that I didn’t want to wait longer for insurance approval. Also, with the single I didn’t have to stay in the hospital overnight. Ironically, after feeling lopsided, I ended up going with reconstruction and spent 4 days in hospital. They removed the other breast and did reconstruction at the same time. I also had my ovaries taken out during that operation. I am very happy with my results and though it is not the ideal way to do it, it worked for me.

sbelizabeth

I knew I wanted DIEP reconstruction and I knew I wanted a double mastectomy. My plastic surgeon asked me to leave the non-cancer breast alone until the recon, so he could do an immediate DIEP on that side and get a more natural appearance. My radiation oncologist really didn't want a tissue expander on the cancer side because there's a high risk of infection and failure with extensive radiation treatment. So I had a plain mastectomy on the left, did radiation and waited six months for the skin to settle down, and then had a delayed DIEP on that side and an immediate on the other side. It worked very well and I'm happy with the outcome.

jessie123

It may just be safer --- half the time under anesthesia and less stress to your body from surgery. That's why I'm doing just one side.

Lindzfay

my surgeon and I decided to go back and do the other one later if needed. She said it’s less risk for complications. She would have done both but we both thought 1 would be good to start.

Pessa

I had bilateral mastectomies, involving 2 separate surgeries. No reconstruction. The surgeon was concerned about infection so wanted to do only one side at a time. All went well. I believe that recuperation and return to normal functioning was easier after each surgery than if I had both done at the same time. Had chemo and am on an AI for 7 years so far.