Feeling guilty

Cceandme,

There is no reason to feel guilty about getting something you want out of this experience. I had to have a MX and opted to stick with a single MX only, but I decided to have a small implant added to my remaining natural breast so that I would come out of this experience just a bit bigger. I think that I look better in clothes now, more proportional, so I'm really glad that I did this.

That said, the thing that you should realize heading into implant reconstruction is that implant reconstructed breasts are not like natural breasts.  They tend to be flatter, and there is no natural movement - the implant just sort of sits there on your chest. There may be permanent numbess across your chest area, and of course you lose all nipple sensation (even if you have a nipple sparing MX) and most of the breast sensation - all that you might regain is some surface skin sensation. 

Breast reconstruction is nothing like breast enhancement surgery; with breast enhancement, the breasts you end up with are the same as your old breasts, just larger. With implant breast reconstruction, the breasts you end up with will be larger but completely different than your natural breasts.

You are making the best of a bad situation by choosing to go larger with your implant reconstruction, but really what this is about is that you are having a mastectomy because you have breast cancer.  That's why you are getting special treatment and support.  A BMX and reconstruction is major surgery, and while some woman have few problems, others find it to be difficult, either physically and/or emotionally.  So getting special treatment and support is a good thing! 

Good luck with the surgery. And I hope that the results are what you are hoping for.