DCIS and Bilateral mastectomy

Hi Georgianna!

i am in the same boat! DCIS two different sites grade 3with comedo nercrosis. and choose BMX also! i have a strong family history mother and maternal grandmother, mom 23 yr survivor and grandma pasted away from BC. so the idea of it coming back is too much to bare i have a 6 month old baby and just turned 30 yrs old so i want to do whatever it takes to not deal with this again!  i am having surgery on Sept 3rd so i will tell you how it goes BUT my plan after meeting with my PS is to have immediate reconstruction, i am having a sentinal node biopsy on both sides three hours prior to surgery so i will know the results before going into surgery. if all is clear the plan is to do a skin sparing mastectomy and immediate implants behind the muscle as long as 1) that the breast surgeon does not find anything else suspicious and too close to the chest wall. and 2) that the size that i choose will fit correctly. i am very small right now so i choose a small implant as well bc i want to still look like myself. im a little bummed that you have to wait 6 or so months to have nipples put on but i think ill get through it! my mom had a bmx when she had BC and she looks great, feels great and is healthy. i was 8 when she had hers done so for me its not all that horrifying having grown up around a mom wiht a BMX. good luck to you and just keep thinking that you wont have to think about this again after hte final pathology! you have a 1% chance of recurrance and that is less then the general public! look at your scars as a reminder that you are going to be around for a very long time! and be thankful you know about this now grade 3 DCIS can do crazy things down the line if you never caugt it! look as your scars and be proud for having such courage to take control of your life and your health and then help others that might have to go through the same thing one day! take care and ill keep you posted!

I'm in the same boat, scheduled for BMX 9/7.  Not looking forward to it,but I know it is the right thing to do.  If all goes well, I am hoping to have immediate reconstruction.  The PS said that it will be a jugement call on his part when he is in there if he could use perm ones or if I need TEs.  

georgianna - are you able to have a single MX first then go back for the other side with reconstruction? I agree that your life is more important than your breasts but this seems really unjust to make you go without...

I did the Grade 3 DCIS BMX due to family history and several previous scares.  I turned 49 this year, just after my surgery. I did not chose to do reconstruction, but I've never had much so it's not a great loss except sensation, which wouldn't improve that much with recontruction anyway.  LE is a bigger concern at this point; but I'm also trying to get my body back - strength and stamina.  I lost a lot of my core strength and just re-injured my back because I'm still trying to do too much too soon.  I go without a shirt at home a lot - I wore t-shirts cut open down the front for awhile because I was too tender to deal with cloth rubbing on the scars.  The scars are pretty tame - two long marks slightly angled from center to pits.  I forget what I'm doing and rub them sometimes right out in public.  It's weird at first, and then it's just commonplace.  Going from large to zero could be more of a shock - a bit like living in New York City and then moving to Poughkeepsie.  It's still you inside there, believe me.  Just your surroundings have changed, so to speak.  Good luck to all and a great recovery.