Pros and Cons

Fred and I went to a coffee shop and began to write down the pros and cons of the prospective double mastectomy and reconstruction. We also are going to go to the Breast Cancer Connections location in Palo Alto to the question and answer sessions of another oncologist and then surgeon and then plastic surgeon to get more questions answered.

So far, here are the pros and cons.

Pros:

There will be less than a 1 percent chance of ever getting breast cancer again, if I keep them, it is a 25-30 percent chance of a recurrence.

If I don't get it again, it cannot metastasize to another location. (we don't think it did from the 2004 cancer as there was no lymph node involvement)

Less recurrent yearly worrying at the mammogram, ultra sound times, no more biopsies.

Since pregnancy spikes estrogen, getting pregnant won't increase my chances of a recurrence without breasts.

Cons:

I have a 70% chance of not getting cancer again.

The mastectomy and reconstruction will hurt, probably much more than the regular yearly checking for breast cancer.

Because I've already had breast cancer, the likelihood that I will find it if it reoccurs is high, because my follow ups are thorough.

I can start now trying to get pregnant instead of recently after a big surgery, my body is pretty healthy now.

I can breast feed with my healthy breast.

There will be multiple potential replacements of the implants, they need to be closely monitored (they could deflate or leak) and every 10-20 years there will need to be updates of the surgery.

The length of surgery and recovery duration is at least 6 months, if the expanders and implants have no infections, and that is really the only kind of reconstruction I could get, not having lots of extra stomach fat.

The complications of the skin on the radiated right side is that it might not be as elastic and might not take to the expanders or implants well, plastic surgeons do not like radiated skin.

Because my cancer was a very rare, slow growing, not often metastasizing type (Mucinous), my prognosis may be better than other breast cancer survivor's.