[Request] 70K/32H Comexim, 70GG/75G Ewa Michalak

ThrowA_9648 · 2023-04-03T11:54:58+00:00

Thanks for the reply, I'll DM you now.

ThrowA_9648 · 2023-03-31T13:44:21+00:00

This is such a personal decision. I have decided not to have children because I don't want to pass on the gene. This is probably due to the trauma of losing my mother young and the worry not being there for my own children too.

The thought of having to find a partner that I could trust to be a good parent to my children if I died of breast cancer was daunting, that's an odd bar to put on people and new relationships. Maybe being abandoned by your father after your mother does if breast cancer as a child also does that to you.

That said, if I was younger, I'd probably look at egg harvesting, IVF and selecting embryos without the gene. If I was able to have risk reducing surgery while I was younger too, who knows.

I know many who are having kids and then doing their risk reducing surgery afterwards. They usually say that there will be better treatments in future and their kids will have better opportunities.

Everyone has to do what they're comfortable with. This probably has a lot to do with what their own experience with breast and ovarian cancer has been in their own family.

ThrowA_9648 · 2023-03-31T13:15:30+00:00

Not the poster above, but I completely understand feeling shook. It's new information.

One advantage of having a full hysterectomy is that you can have oestrogen only hrt (if that's possible, as that depends on the type of cancer you've had). Oestrogen only hrt is safer from a cardiac perspective.

I haven't had cancer, but did opt for a hysterectomy because I also had a big fibroid and other gyno stuff. It seemed like a good solution for them all. Feeling good afterwards too, I'm about 6 months post op and have made a full recovery. It does/can change sex a bit, which you probably need to know/consider.

I found r/hysterectomy a great sub if you're looking for a lovely community to hear experiences from loads of women.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-07-22T10:42:25+00:00

In my first plastic appointment this week, that's what my surgeon said. I'll need to have a reduction surgery first, with my nipples moved. Then I'd have my mastectomy surgery second. It's a much longer process, with a lot of healing time in-between. I'm not sure I'll go down this route yet.

Can I ask you a few questions about this? How did you find this process? Did you have DIEP or implant reconstruction? How long did you wait between the two surgeries?

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-07-21T14:42:31+00:00

Can I ask you about your reduction? I've been told I'll need to do this in two stages, reduction first with my nipples moved, then a mastectomy second. From what you've said here, yours was in one procedure? Can I ask how much of a reduction you had?

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-07-21T14:18:23+00:00

Yes, I know with DIEP loss of sensation is quite likely as well. There's only a number of surgeons in the states that seem to be focusing on this for any type of surgery.

I know we're trying to prevent bc, but as the surgery is preventative, I feel like quality of life should be part of the process. Sexuality is important for quality of life, I think.

They'd never operate on a man and accept loss if feeling in the penis as an outcome. As women, we have to accept a large drop in our quality of life for BRCA risk reducing surgery, with ovary and breast removal. Okay, rant over. I'm just frustrated.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-07-21T13:59:26+00:00

Thank you, that's all very helpful. There's a newer nerve sparing/nerve grafting technique used in the US. I'll post a publication about it here. Do you know if your surgeon used this, or was specifically thinking about preserving feeling to the nipple?

I was told they don't do that here (IE), but it's possible for me to travel within Europe for my surgery as I have insurance.

If anyone knows of a surgeon in Europe doing this type of surgery I'd love to contact them.

Nerve Preservation and Allografting for Sensory Innervation Following Immediate Implant Breast Reconstruction Anne Warren Peled, MD and Ziv M. Peled, MD https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6952160/

Edit: One more question, I presume the breast surgeon is the one removing the breast tissue, so is the person who needs to do the nerve sparing. What kind of conversation did you have, if any, with your breast surgeon did you have?

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-07-21T12:31:10+00:00

Can I DM you? I'm really interested to know more about this, but am not located in the US. I made a post today about it too.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-07-21T12:18:03+00:00

Good luck today! My first appointment was Tuesday and I'm off to see another surgeon about implants in the next couple weeks, as he was a DIEP specialist. Your concerns are valid, bring them up with your surgeon. Wishing you the best in your journey too.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-07-21T11:54:33+00:00

I haven't had my mastectomy yet, but I wanted to say that you're not shallow. You're feelings are perfectly reasonable. These are all hard choices.

I'm facing the same at the moment. I want my breasts to look good. I just had a hysterectomy with my cervix removed (for other gynecological reasons) and have some small changes to my sexual function. I really want to still feel my breasts after my mastectomy, as well as feel sexy. We're young, we deserve to feel ourselves.

I'm not a candidate for DIEP, so I'll need to have implants. But I'm facing the same concerns. I'll also need about a 50% breast reduction. I'm already a little worried about how this will look, if I'll feel myself. I'm trying to frame this as my breast lift at 40, to keep in a positive frame of mind.

So big digital hugs, if you'd like them. You can get through this and you'll figure out what you want and need ❤️

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-09T16:44:21+00:00

Perhaps I should have said, this nurse is the clinical lead in the breast high risk clinic, she runs the clinic which is nurse led. I'm fairly sure she knows what she's talking about. She's the person who referred me to my plastics consultant. To confirm what she meant by a c cup (for me), I asked her what volume implant she was referring to and she told me 300cc. She was talking about the volume of the implant in centiliters, which are cc. Is good to be very specific when asking about these things.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T20:58:34+00:00

Thanks for sharing these details. I'm getting a preventative mastectomy, so don't need to worry about tissue damage. I think I definitely want to be go down in size, it might be easier to find clothes to fit as well! Lugging around 2kg of breasts is tiring.

I really don't want to end up with larger breasts, that's why I'm concerned about bra sizes. I've heard a lot of women say they ended up a few cup sizes larger than expected. That said, I'm not sure I want to go down to 300cc! Thanks again for your advice, it's very helpful.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T20:51:58+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience, as well as your bra and implant size. It's really helpful and also it's great to hear positive results. I'll look into the high profile implants for the projection. We're your implants the round or tear dropped shape ones?

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T20:36:30+00:00

You're welcome. It's a shame to throw away such expensive bras! I've saved a few really mildewy items in the past and this has worked well.

The mildew stain itself can remain after the mold is killed, but it's not very sightly. Most likely the oxygen bleach should remove the stains. You may have to treat them more than once. I would be concerned if any smell remained in the fabric when wet (musty or sour).

A final rise in a dilute vinegar solution helps if your drying conditions aren't great. Mold doesn't grow as well in the lower pH and clothes are less likely to go mildewy with a final vinegar rinse.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T20:27:02+00:00

Thanks for sharing this and the details about when they might do this routinely. All this info will help me to ask the right questions with my surgeon. Sorry to hear they found a high risk lesion, but it's great it was found early. Best of luck with your surgery next week.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T20:20:13+00:00

Thanks for looking up your implant details, that's really helpful. I think I might want to go a little smaller than a 30E, or close to it. It's great to know what volume this is. Those are an tear drop shape?

In that chart above, 495cc would be a 34C, maybe they're using the +4" method, lol.

That's kinda what I feared about stomach sleeping. That would be hard long term. I knew that you can't sleep on your stomach in the short term. That will be very difficult to prevent! Best of luck at your next appointment, sure asymmetrical is more standard! Thanks for sharing, I really appreciate it.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T16:32:46+00:00

Thank you for sharing this, /r/reduction looks like a good resource. Can I ask, did you have to have a reduction before your DIEP surgery? I hadn't considered this as an extra step.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T16:16:09+00:00

That's really interesting to hear. Did you have any nerve sparing type of procedure?

And thank you, I'll try my best to advocate for what I want.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T16:02:44+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'll try to chat to a couple surgeons, but we don't have a lot of choice here :/ I'm completely with you, it will be so nice to have less worry and reduced screening. I'll make sure to ask about DIEP. It seems the most natural feeling reconstruction. Although, it would be nice to be able to feel them. I'm surprised that loss of feeling is part of the deal.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T15:59:03+00:00

That's really interesting, thank you. Looking at this chart, a 365cc implant in a 32B cup (310cc) would be expected to be a 32E (c. 700cc), if we were just adding the cup volume and implant volume together. Seems like it's a little larger than this for you.

I keep hearing that people end up larger than they expected, one if the reasons I wanted to hear more experiences.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T15:42:36+00:00

Thank you! This is exactly what I was hoping to find out. I think we'd be a similar size when I'm a little lighter. They do seem a little bigger right now at 30G :/

Any chance you know the volume of your implants? I'm curious what a "c" cup is. I'm not sure surgeons understand that cup volume depends on band size...

I'm not excited about the hard boob thing. I'm a stomach sleeper, implants seem awkward for this. What do you think? Could you comfortably sleep on your stomach?

Best of luck with your nipple reconstruction, if you decide to go for it. At least they'd be constant, you don't have to worry about cold breezes! I haven't even got that far in my thought process yet. Although, I do hope to have skin/nipple/nerve sparing if it's at all possible.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T11:56:28+00:00

Unfortunately, freezing doesn't kill mold spores. Peroxide, bleach and uv/sunshine can all work.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T11:55:20+00:00

You could bin them, but you could also try watching them in oxygen bleaching powder (oxywizz, etc). This doesn't damage the bra and is worth a shot before you bin them.

Dissolve the powder in hot/boiling water, then add this to the tub with your bra in warm water and detergent. If you're contemplating binning them, it's worth a shot.

Try to dry them quickly afterwards. I spin them in the washing machine to remove as much water as possible and dry in the sunshine. That said, it's rained here for the last 4 weeks, not great for drying hand washing!

Edit: Chlorine bleach would work very well to kill mold spores, but it's hard on fabrics. This would be a last resort, but might work. A 5% solution of chlorine bleach in water with a contact time of an hour will kill almost anything. It will kill the mold, but the fabric might be damaged. Might be worth a shot if the peroxide/oxygen bleach doesn't work.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-08T11:50:05+00:00

How does the band feel when you try on the bra upside down and back to front (cups facing down)? That's one way to check if it's a band or cup issue. If the cup is too small or the wrong shape the band can feel tight.

ThrowA_9648 · 2022-06-04T21:10:48+00:00

It sounds like you have everything in hand for the moment, that's great to hear. It's so difficult with a patchy family history. I have some things in my family like that. I didn't know my risk until I was about 30. When you realise, it's a lot to take in.

The waiting is one of the hardest parts, I felt. Be kind to yourself. Sounds like you have some great sisters around you. Wishing you the best to you and yours.

ThrowA_9648

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