Rockin' flatness like a bada$s

Hello to everyone! Well, I had missed this thread and I'm happy to have found it. I had a mastectomy on the right side in May 2010. After the surgery site healed I used the little fiber pad and then American Cancer Society provided me with a plastic prothesis which I wore from 2010-2012 while I still worked. Then in Dec, 2012 I moved to Orlando, FL and started working from home which meant I got to stay "brassless" all day and I just got used to it. The prothesis is really heavy and now that I have mets to the bones and walking on cane I can't see myself "carrying" this extra burden so flat it is. My lack of boob has not prevented certain gentleman from continuing his affection for me and I feel every bit a woman as before the mx. Everyone is free to make their own choice but I feel mine is just fine being flat.

Aurora

Wow, I'm so jazzed to find this wonderful thread! I had no idea there was a whole tribe of us who have made the decision to go natural! I confess that opting for no reconstruction was only a semi-conscious decision for me, a year and a half ago, because I was so completely gob-smacked by my dx in the first place. I only had one of my girls removed, and I simply reasoned with myself that there were all kinds of bras and falsies made just for me, and no one would ever know the difference. Well, I wore the ghastly bra and too-heavy silicone boob for about a week before I put them both back in the dresser drawer. Ugh. After another two weeks, I realized that, contrary to what I had feared, no one seemed to be looking at my chest. At all. 

My remaining muchacha is only a B-cup, but I'm pushing 70 and things have gone south enough that I am more comfortable with some sort of support. My solution has been to wear a simple, thin, stretchy cotton sports bra, which doesn't flatten me completely or evenly, of course, but  gives me both support and mild compression to balance things a teeny bit. (This sounds like an ad.) The sports bras that work for me, though, have wide straps and racer backs, and every once in a while, I long for a sports bra that doesn't show above a low-cut top. Anybody out there in the "Flatland" know of a low-impact sports bra that has regular spaghetti straps, comes in white, and doesn't cost $50?

Hi GML - I wish I'd been more on top of it to see the photo you posted. I'm in that looking at pictures phase.... It's looking like mid-July still for the bi-lateral mastectomy, no reconstruction. I still can't contact my oncologist though, which is feeling weird. She's out of town, so I have to be patient.

You look fkn awesome!!!!!

My cancer side, 3 months post op looks good, rad burn is almost gone, scar faded & thin. But the other side, ugh. I had to be taken to OR day after BMX to have a re incision & evacuation of clots. That scar is thick & I also have a poof of skin & some under arm tissue.

Tribe. I like this, you are all in my tribe. Keepitsimple and all, I told my doctor I was not going to reconstruct, final answer, would not change my mind. He did a fantastic job, much like the photo above of GML (gorgeous!!!!!). One the cancer side I am a tad more concave but that had to be done to get clear margins and to get all the breast tissue out. I would take photos you find online here and show the doctor and ask if they can make you look like this...why not?

I also had glue, not staples and maybe that healed smoother but I am not sure.

Wishing you the very best!

I know many of you have seen these pics but always worth another look:

http://www.thescarproject.org/gallery/

I look at the photos of the implants & they almost make me cringe. Just thinking of what so many women go through, multiple surgeries, infections & risks to get what they think/hope will be their breasts back...and those pics don't show me anything that looks natural. But I am sure they look fine dressed, just as we flat & part flat do.

These photos are of younger women. I do hope this Scar project will consider photos of us *older* women, with the rolls & pooch.

Helenna

 I did see a plastic surgeon. The waiting room was very modern, stark except for lighted up cases of make up & jewelry & very large photos of very young beautiful women. He told me NO WAY would he do expanders & implants on any women who had or was going to have radiation. I was pleasantly surprised because I had heard too many horror stories of drs still doing the expanders when they knew how compromised the skin would be & the infection risk & failure rate so high. But I couldn't wrap my head around the lat dorsi flap procedure he would do. My surgery date was just over a week away & it was too much for me to comprehend. He then, very quickly mumbled that some women who were just finished chemo & had rads upcoming choose to wait on recon. (!!!! wow what a concept) I drove home thinking about that & nothing else, the fact that I didn't have to make the recon decision right then. 

 That night when I told my husband he basically said "I don't want you to go through anymore pain. You've been through enough & still have a long road to travel. Why even ponder the recon, and more surgeries & more pain." I tell ya, I was awake all that night. Next morning I called both surgeons to let them know my no recon decision. What a relief. What a revelation to know I did not want recon all along but was steered that way with *assumptions* from others that of course I would get new bigger better boobs. HAH!

I am now 3 months post BMX.

Ah, GML, you are rockin' it like a true rock star -- my kind of rock star. I am moved, and helped, and consoled by your photo and your response. Thank you so much.

(i just saw the picture when I checked in after a couple days, and read your message. I haven't read any of the other responses yet, but will.)

You are kind -- so smart/intuitive, beautiful, and a wondrous help to me. Thank you. Now to read more responses. We leave for Seattle day after tomorrow, and my other journey then begins.

That we do, honey, that we do.

I love that! Magdalene! We joke about this too, just because we can! LOL

My daughter came to help out when I had my surgery. We were sitting outside and she was playing music  from the 70's on her phone, Hotel California came on and I said "Oh wow, this is the first time I have heard this song with only 1 boob!" my husband jumped in with "Just as well it's in mono!" 

I sure don't want anyone to be offended, by us being flippant, but my husband is a quadriplegic, from a hang gliding accident and there isn't anyone with a better sense of humor about it than him, so I guess the scene was already set at our house, for lighthearted banter about my surgery too.

That's wonderful! What a lovely friend to look after you so well and to be able to have a sense of humor about it too. You'll never be short of a funnel again either!

Sitting here getting chemo; DH is with me since it's the first time. I looked at him and said, "You're bored." He looked at me and said, "You're flat as a board."

Guess we're even.

Still smiling, if wanly.

Magdalene nahahahahah! you guys are funny! 

Hope your chemo went ok. I was in the chair today, just for my every 3 week Herceptin infusion. I finished 5 months of chemo in Feb, then had BMX, then rads.