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Momof6littles
Momof6littles Member Posts: 184
edited May 2016 in Living Without Reconstruction After a Mastectomy

I haven't really spent time on this section of the forum. I have a prophylactic (hopefully!! Darn that thick area and bloody discharge that does not show up on any imaging!) double mastectomy scheduled for May 25th. I'm not doing reconstruction. 2/3 of the women on both sides of my family have had BC, mastectomies with no reconstruction. So going flat is not really strange in my book. Wondering about how bad the scar looks over time. My mom's back in the early 90's was pretty bad. The surgeon said over time, they can go back an neaten it up if I want. Kind of curious if anyone has done that. Or over time if things smooth out? And what happens when you exercise your chest muscles? Sorry if that seems like a silly weird question. Just trying to imagine how things will turn out.

Not that I'm really concerned about a cosmetic outcome. I consider it a battle scar. Just trying picture it all.

Thanks!

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited May 2016


    I was slightly restricted due to surgically-caused rotator cuff impingement, but now have progressed to shallow push-ups in my exercise routine. My chest was weak after many weeks of taking it very easy, and I concentrated on range of motion at first. Now I can open most jars, which was the hardest posture/motion for me after surgery.


    (Edited by Mods to remove pictures)

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  • Momof6littles
    Momof6littles Member Posts: 184
    edited May 2016

    Thank you ksusan. How long did you feel like you couldn't handle a typical daily routine? My husband is taking two weeks off to help. I have 6 kids and homeschool. So on one hand, really busy, but on the other hand the older kids are super helpful. Trying to figure out if I will need additional help after 2 weeks. Never thought about what it takes to open a jar

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited May 2016

    I took one day off work, but then had guest instructors help cover my classes (I'm an educator) for two weeks. I worked from home (grading, posting assignments, emailing). I could go in for a couple of hours in the second week, but I was fatigued and I found wearing a shirt pretty uncomfortable. I also didn't want to drive. I had drains in for awhile and didn't want to move my arms that much. At 4 weeks I could teach but told my students I'd be sitting rather than standing. I needed chemo, so I got coverage for days when my immune functioning was at the low part of the cycle.

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  • Erica3681
    Erica3681 Member Posts: 1,916
    edited May 2016

    Hi Momof6,

    Regarding the scar, it really depends on the skill of the surgeon, plus please make sure to request that he or she make your result as cosmetically pleasing as possible -- no extra skin, no dog ears, symmetrical incisions. Some women even ask to have a plastic surgeon close up the incisions after the breast surgeon has performed the mastectomy.

    I was fortunate -- I had a wonderful breast surgeon who left me with no extra skin, no dog ears and extremely thin symmetrical scars. It's been a long time for me since my surgery (almost ten years!) and my scars are virtually invisible.

    If you do wind of with scars that you find unsightly, a plastic surgeon could do a revision down the road, which could clean up and improve the original surgery site. From what I understand, that would be a minor outpatient procedure. Here are photos from my non-profit BreastFree.org website of someone (not me) who had a bad dog ear revised: Dog ear revision surgery. Hope this helps!

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  • mustlovepoodles
    mustlovepoodles Member Posts: 2,825
    edited May 2016

    I did not have traditional reconstruction, which was a good thing because I ended up having a lot of complications. The right breast ended up with severe tissue necrosis and the left breast had a gigantic seroma. If I had had reconstruction I would have lost it all.

    I had thought I would go for some type of reconstruction, but I'm actually becoming more and more comfortable going flat. At my age (59)nobody really cares about my boobage. I decided to not make any decision about it until January 1st. My wounds are just now finishing healing from my mastectomies; it's been 16 weeks. I'm going to give the whole area a good long time to rest before I do anything else.

    As far as the scarring you can only imagine how awful it looks on me. My situation is not very common. I had a lot of complications that most women don't have. I have to tell you, my scars are hideous. I don't even like to look at myself. So it's very possible that I may be having revisions in the future, but not now.

    Incidentally, I home-schooled for nine years. If you can do that, you can manage this. Best of luck to you.

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