Just been diagnosed today..

Welcome to the forum.  You will find lots of support here and don't worry, everybody here has felt what you felt and been where you are.  You are at the very hardest part of cancer treatment - when all you know is you have cancer and nothing else.  You'll be surprised at how soon you become an expert and you WILL feel better and less scared once you get a treatment plan.

There is a lot of good information on these boards for beginners and make sure to read the articles. Be careful about googling before you know what exactly you have.  You will turn up a lot of frightening things that won't pertain to you.

Some things nobody will tell you about mastectomy:  You will be numb. I am numb from cleavage to my back.  You may have phantom itching and pain.  Your body changes so you should seek out exercises for those who have mastectomies and do them.  They don't give us PT but they should, many of us have problems.

Lumpectomy is a viable option and has the same outcome as mastectomy.  I don't know what the downsides are since I didn't have one.

Take it one step at a time.  You'll be okay, and the women here will help you through it. 

I am so sorry you joined us but glad you found us.  The beginning of the BC stuff is the hardest part.  Take it one step at a time...I know that is hard - trust me!  I was 45 when DX with a young son...there are lots of younger women on these boards.   You will find support, good information and a lot of information about personal experiences.  I too was a candidate for lumpectomy or BMX.  It was a hard decision to make.  Research things.  Ask your doctor about the benefits/risks of both.  Meet with a Plastic Surgeon now so you can have accurate information about your reconstruction options before you make a decision.  I met with the PS the same day I met with the breast surgeon.  I got two opinions on both and I am glad I did.  I was not a candidate for the reconstruction I originally wanted (DIEP) and was only a candidate for implants.  This may also weigh in your decision making if you are considering recnstruction.  Also ask about survival rates and recurrence rates for both choices.  I believe survival rates are the same but recurrence rates are different.  Also study your pathology report and understand eveything on there....that will help you make a decision too - some BC's are more aggressive and that may make you choose BMX over lumpectomy.  If you are uncertain about some of the reconstruction options/results you may also want to get access to the photo website.  It is separate from here. Timtam use to manage it but I think she changed her screen name.  You may have to use the search function to find out who you contact or maybe someone can post her new screen name. Best of luck.  Hugs!

Glad to hear your chemo is doing its thing ali68

Lovely face, very wise words you sound just like my surgeon.

So sorry you have to be here.  We all have felt the total shock and disbelief you are feeling. It will get better.

 I did not want a mastectomy unless the surgeon had to take too much tissue. The surgeon took a lot, but the plastic surgeon went in right after and sort of rearranged the rest with great results. I guess I would say that if you are a worrier, you may want to go with mastectomy. You don't want to worry yourself sick thinking of recurrence. I, on the other hand, never think anything bad will happen (you can imagine my total disbelief when I got the bc diagnosis) so I am comfortable with my lumpectomy decision. I would also suggest going to the best hospital you can for the surgery. I am fortunate to be only 6 hours from Mayo Clinic, and I am so glad I decided to make the trip. Good Luck.

I am not advocating one alternative over an other but if you are thinking about mastectomy and reconstruction get a copy of the latest edition of Kathy Steligo's "Breast Reconstruction Guidebook"- the best I have seen on the subject so you know what your reconstruction options are.  Mastectomy with reconstruction does not effect the chances of having a distal recurrence (the cancer showing up somewhere else in your body).   Numbness with mastectomy is common but  I had a bilateral mastectomy and do not have the extensive numbness that coolbreeze describes - I guess in that respect I was lucky (I have feeling in about 50-70% of the reconstructions).

I am so sorry you have gotten this news today.

I knew even before I was diagnosed (have a lot of older friends) that I would want a bilateral mastectomy if I ever got this diagnosis.  People are really different with what their guts tell them.  Mine told me no lumpectomy, no reconstruction, no way.  I have no regrets about my surgical decision, and I think it's because I listened to what I wanted.   And I guess also that I was lucky that my situation matched what I wanted.  If I had wanted a lumpectomy, it would have been more difficult.

If your surgeons think you are a canditate for lumpectomy, your odds of doing well are the same if you have a lumpectomy or a mastectomy.

I do have some numbness and phantom sensations, but they don't bother me much at all.  Most of my numbness is from the axillary node dissection - I barely have any on the other side. 

I hope something is feeling in your gut like the right way to go. 

I am sorry you have to be so young with this. I had IDC on one side,because of the family hx I opted for a bmx with TE. I am older tho and my kids are at the univ. I made my decision based on family hx and articles in the Medical Oncology Journal that 86% of patients had to come back later and get the other side down. Research and discuss with your drs. I know you must be freakin out. I had 3 meltdowns at the hosp. One before surg and 2 after. They finally put me on Valium but thats another whole chapter. This is an excellent website for information and compassion. The ladies on this website are people I dont know but they are compassionate beyond my wildest imagination,loving,giving and sharing their insights freely with any who need it. You're in the best of company here.

So glad you found us.  You;ll get nothing but love and support from the

other warriors on this site.

what can we do for you?  no question is too personal, or too stupid. 

You'll have some hoops to jump through, and it is NOT fun.  But you WILL get

through it.  You WILL.  Surrender to the process and lean on your friends and sisters here

on the forum.  24 hours a day.

Love to you............

michele

Mjellan, I wish you so much good fortune as you go forward.



My BS pretty much insisted on a mastectomy. That really didn't work for me. So I insisted back on a lumpectomy. Her reasons were cosmetic and that sort of thing was way down on my list of priorities.



Both she and the PS kept saying avoiding rads was also a very big advantage to the mx. However, given how many people have had bad rads experiences, I'm embarassed to say that rads hardly affected my skin at all. The technicians were very surprised.



I did lose a third of a b-size breast. It is not pretty, but I didn't even need pain meds.



So what does this say? Things are much less predictable than they might seem. If your gut points out a way to go and it IS medically acceptable, i think you should follow that. If I ended up feeling no strong preference, I might have gone for an mx if I were your age and had a great PS. I am thrilled I didn't though. For me the whole thing has been pretty comfortable, aside from the great, great initial shock and the really horrible worry one has at first.