Hi Lynette,

i was diagnosed in September and did everything I could to persuade my surgeon to give me a double mastectomy - so much so that my daughter was cringing with embarrassment and told me to give up the fight. My surgeon said he agreed with all my arguments but protocol did not allow him to remove a healthy breast. 

Consequently I had a mastectomy and sentinel node biopsy on Oct 4th. On the 17th I had a meeting to get the results of the pathology and biopsy which showed cancer in one of the sentinel nodes and I have to have lymph node surgery on November 8th. I even tried again to persuade him to lop the other one off then but to no avail!

I didn't want the double mastectomy from fear of the cancer recurring, it was rather an issue of my age, having fat necrosis in the other one, being lopsided and the inconvenience of wearing a prosthesis.  He did say that if I still felt the same way in a few months time, he would refer me for a psychological assessment to see if I would really be able to cope with that. I'm nearly 73, have no further use for a single breast and am recovering quite well from the surgery, but probably won't want to go through another operation after having two in close succession.  I still wish he had done both at the same time. 

Good luck with trying, it seems that every surgeon is king of their own castle and yours may have a different opinion on the matter.

Christine

Hi Lynette,

i was diagnosed in September and did everything I could to persuade my surgeon to give me a double mastectomy - so much so that my daughter was cringing with embarrassment and told me to give up the fight. My surgeon said he agreed with all my arguments but protocol did not allow him to remove a healthy breast. 

Consequently I had a mastectomy and sentinel node biopsy on Oct 4th. On the 17th I had a meeting to get the results of the pathology and biopsy which showed cancer in one of the sentinel nodes and I have to have lymph node surgery on November 8th. I even tried again to persuade him to lop the other one off then but to no avail!

I didn't want the double mastectomy from fear of the cancer recurring, it was rather an issue of my age, having fat necrosis in the other one, being lopsided and the inconvenience of wearing a prosthesis.  He did say that if I still felt the same way in a few months time, he would refer me for a psychological assessment to see if I would really be able to cope with that. I'm nearly 73, have no further use for a single breast and am recovering quite well from the surgery, but probably won't want to go through another operation after having two in close succession.  I still wish he had done both at the same time. 

Good luck with trying, it seems that every surgeon is king of their own castle and yours may have a different opinion on the matter.

Christine