I had the bilateral mastectomy September 8th. I didn't have large breasts until my late teens, so I wasn't that attached to them. Emotionally attached, I mean...they were plenty physically attached! I went in for surgery September 8th planning to have a lat-flap transplant with implants (where they take some fat and muscle from your back and use it to cover a smaller silicone implant). Unfortunately, one of the sentinel nodes had cancerous cells, so the doctors canceled the reconstruction and closed me up with a skin-sparing mastectomy. All this time I'd been getting the worst diagnosis (not a cyst...not a fibroadenoma...cancer...grade 3...) that I figured I was due for some relatively good news at this stage: "The operation was great, and your new boobs will be amazing!" instead of "There was some cancer, so we weren't able to do the reconstruction." Ever wonder what a skin-sparing mastectomy looks like? Not particularly pretty.
