just diagnosed with dcis

Beth, I am so sorry you are going thru this. And I am sorry you have lost your mom. I can only say, You have been thru so much with breast cancer. In thinking about preparing for your surgery I want to tell you it is not the end of your happiness....Removing your breasts in order to regain your health is a good trade. You will need help at home for several days as you would after any major surgery. Does your treatment plan include any chemo? This BCO site is full of information, and loving supportive women, and even a few men too. Please explore the site, and find some threads that pertain to you. There will be a thread for your surgery month, and chemo month if you are having that. I joined the Sept 2013 group when I was diagnosed, and I was so glad I did. Please keep a positive outlook, I know that can be so hard when going thru treatment, but I do believe our minds and bodies respond to each other. I hope you have support in friends and family, if not, lean on the friends you will meet here, and if you are a person comforted by prayer, let as many people as possible know you covet theirs. It was hard for me to ask for or let people pray for me, but I believe God honored those prayers on my behalf. Do not be discouraged, You can do this.

Beth, since I posted to you I have learned that chemo is not part of the treatment plan for your type of diagnosis, so that is good! Hugs to you

They do lymph nodes for people having mastectomies because once it is done, they cannot go back and do this later to check. With a lumpectomy for DCIS, they do not do any lymph nodes because it is still an option if at some point I have a mastectomy.
Just wanted to send you a hug and tell you that although it is a huge loss, please never look back and regret what you are doing as it is to make sure that you get all of your cancer out of your body.

Hi, Beth. I am 40 and was diagnosed with bilateral DCIS (grade 3 in one breast, grade 2 in the other) in March and had bilateral mastectomy and sentinel node biopsy on April 8. My mother also died from BC (when I was 14). Am BRCA negative but am doing more extensive testing since there is enough family history to suggest something is up. Anyway, just wanted to say that my mastectomy brought me a tremendous amount of relief. My recovery has been going really well--back at work, back at gym, and I have NO regrets about the surgery. Even though expanders are uncomfortable, I like the way I look and am not feeling self-conscious at all. I'm sure I'll miss my breasts at some point, but right now, I feel so lucky that they caught it at stage 0. The grade 3 DCIS would have surely become invasive. Best of luck to you. My only advice is get some anti-anxiety drugs for night before and day of surgery. I was sort of a zombie through the pre-op stuff (including the part when they inject that dye stuff into your breasts for the SNB) and that helped me so much.

Dear Beth. There are other gene mutations besides BRCA 1 and 2 that can predispose women to BC. Once you are through the surgery, you might consider seeing a genetic counselor. I am seeing one next week since even though I am BRCA negative, my mom had it at 32 and I was Dx at 40. If it helps at all, my expansion process is going really well. I hope you like your plastic surgeon. That helps a lot. Hugs...