Please help me decide lump w rad or double MM

If you have good surgeons and plastic surgeons, I think you can look nice no matter what route you take - although it may take some time (and trouble) to get there depending on how treatment unfolds. There will be plenty of things that you don't really have control over. I hope that you can believe your boyfriend that he values you for your whole self. That is the kind of partner you deserve. My understanding is that post-mastectomy really does feel different than implants, but hopefully someone who has had both will come along and be able to speak about it. You can also use the search button or the browse function to try to find threads.

On the positive side, it's fantastic that you have doctors you have confidence in, it was found early, and you have a supportive partner. Wishing you all the best!

I don't personally have experience with implants, Faith, but I have seen a number of threads on the boards here in the past about this. Hopefully members will stop in and offer their two cents soon. In the meantime, maybe this thread, "Anyone have breast implants prior to radiation?" might be helpful. There is mention of Singulair being given to help prevent capsular contraction. Sounds interesting. Wishing you the best outcome on your journey. There are wonderful people here so remember you are never alone. Congrats on making it through your surgery and having clean margins and nodes! Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Hi Faith,

Last year at this time I was having my lumpectomy. Left side. Last September I started radiation. Prior to any diagnosis I had under the muscle silicone implants. I was so worried that I would develop CC and that the skin would harden and the implant would ride up. So far so good. I am coming up on the year mark for radiation and I have no issues at all with the implant. I did not take Singular. I just was religious with using the Calendula cream. I am still using it twice daily. I had 4 weeks of radiation. The last week being a boost. My RO felt that doing lower doses at a longer stretch wouldn’t change anything with the implants as we spoke about that.I wish you the best of luck. I was at one of the top hospitals in the country, and had an excellent RO. And after listening to what she said, I was uncomfortable not doing the radiation.

Best of luck to you!

NJ

Hello. I was also very confused as what to do. I had multi focal invasive ductile carcinoma. I had cysts in non cancer breast. I had varying opinions. I wound up doing double mastectomy. I thought it would save me additional surgery and treatments. I wound up having 5 surgeries, chemo and on to radiation anyway. I had a recurrence a year after mastectomy because when they did the needle biopsy in the very beginning to diagnose me, it brought cancer cells to the surface of the skin. Because I did mastectomy, I had not gone through radiation or chemo. It ultimately gave the cancer in the skin an opportunity to grow and had to do additional surgeries and rads and chemo to combat recurrence. If I had to do again, I would have done lumpectomy with rads. I probably wouldn’t have had a recurrence and would have avoided multiple surgeries. I would also still have my breasts. I am a strong believer that a mastectomy should be a last resort. You can always have one later on. I think women are scared into doing it. The chance for recurrence is the same. I would do your research before you do anything that can’t be undone. I can appreciate your scared and I pray for your peace of mind. Good luck to you