We're still looking for more Reconstruction stories!

hello I'm 8 weeks out from a stacked DIEP

It was life changing

I would be happy to share my experience

Deb T

I am having a breast reduction/reconstruction on my non-cancerous un-radiated breast after 20 years. The side affects of radiation on my cancerous breast, resulted in very different sizes between them. It became very difficult to find clothes, let alone having a positive self esteem. I am having the surgery this Tuesday January 13th at the Mayo clinic in Rochester Mn. I can get back to you after I come home on the 14th. I am way too busy now to go into detail. But if this is the kind of experiences you are looking for, then I would be glad to contribute. Barb

At 14 years out from early stage bc with stage 1 lumpectomy and SNB, I have the same problem reported by Barbarella. I do not find any post from Barbarella saying what results she had from her surgery in dealing with being a freak with two entirely different-sized breasts, with one perky and one sagging. I had near-perfect breasts at time of diagnosis and treatment. I have not had recurrence.

However, as a direct result of treatment for early stage bc I have been genderless ever since completion of treatment. As a direct result of rads, I have radiation necrosis and the breast has hardened to the point that mammograms have become intolerably painful. When I told this to my BS' nurse on the phone, she actually laughed and told me to "just take a pain pill before the mammogram". I took her advice, which proved to be absolutely useless and insensitive. To make matters worse, the only way that the mammographer deals with this situation is to tighten down the paddle onto the painful breast even more because the hardened breast tissue will not compress adequately for getting a clear enough image for the radiologist to see well. I do my best to handle that. The reward I get for doing that is to then be told they need additional views. Their answer to the problem is to then tighten the pressure even further. They have become part of the machine, and the machine is all they know. I am no longer a person to them.

I had my most recent mammogram in 2014 and skipped last year but did a breast MRI. My BS continues to insist that I alternate a mammogram 6 months after annual MRI.

I have been scheduled for a mammogram in early July. They offer no alternative. I am not the one who burned the breast so badly with excess radiation. The net of all of this is to be treated as if I am not cooperative. This stinks.

A.A.