What is it like to get a "chunk" taken out?

He is a general surgeon, but it's a large hospital with a breast cancer center and tumor board and the whole nine yards.  I am going to ask about this when I go on Monday - how much of this does he do, how much phyllodes has he seen, etc.

Thanks for all the support everyone.  I will be here posting my travails.  Will post about what he says on Monday.  To think I was worried about getting a chunk taken out.  My health is the most important thing obviously, but I can't help but be a little vain and wonder how lopsided I am going to end up!  I want him to take whatever he needs to take, but I'm just sort of blindsided by this whole thing.  I guess that's a common feeling.  A couple of months ago, none of this was on my mind, then suddenly I notice a lump and wham, bam, here I am!

Well, had my pre-surgery appointment, scheduled for surgery #2 on Friday.  He says it is a very indolent, very slow-growing phyllodes and that his aim is to get a 1-cm clean margin.  He says I will have a dent.

A little update.  Seems to be healing well.  It had a tiny bit of bleeding a few days afterwards, but it has not done that again.  Still tender.  Still swollen.  Can't see the dent yet!  Will update after I go to my followup appt on Friday.

I hope it does fill in.  I've seen other posts with patients saying that their dents filled in pretty well.  My doc just said you will have a dent now.  What does he know?  LOL. 

Thank you!  I am very relieved.  Now I need some celebratory pizza, hee hee.  I'm sure that pizza would help my dent fill in better. 

You know, I think you are right.  I'm sure I read about that in a study somewhere! 

The swelling seems to have gone down now and the dent is more evident.  You can see and feel it.  But I think I still look "normal" in clothes.  It is weird - it is like there is a big gap between my skin and the remaining breast tissue.  Kind of like a chair that is covered in cloth but has no filling underneath!  I was seen at the high risk breast clinic and will have a mammogram on the affected breast every 6 months and a mammogram on the unaffected one just every year.  They will see me every 6 months and do a breast exam and I will notify them sooner if I find any changes on my self-exams.  The doc did a very thorough breast exam on me, more than I have ever had before.  Every woman should get such a thorough exam.

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but - do your self breast exams!  If I had been a regular self-examiner, maybe I would have noted the lump even sooner.  Who knows how long that thing had been there.  It was only by chance that I felt it.