Myself: Together Again 
A project to empower young women through the breast reconstruction process

One Young Woman's Story of Breast Cancer Recovery and Reconstruction

Through the whirlwind of medical appointments you're keeping as a young woman diagnosed with breast cancer, reconstruction surgery may be the last thing on your mind. That's understandable. One 32-year-old woman living in North Carolina felt the same way when she was diagnosed in June 2004. Reconciling herself with the idea of plastic surgery - before she'd had a mastectomy, before she'd even begun treatment - was daunting at best. Even more difficult, no pictures existed that showed the process of a young woman's breast reconstruction, displaying a young woman's curves and skin elasticity.

The Myself: Together Again story of delayed breast reconstruction following double mastectomy surgery that appears on these pages was inspired by Debbie, who agreed to have the process photographed so that other young women like her could get an idea of what to expect.

But there is more involved in the decision to have plastic surgery than meets the eye.

When we're young, we're supposed to be growing our lives, and a mastectomy can make us feel like we're shrinking, both physically and emotionally. Debbie had just become engaged two months before she was diagnosed. Many women are in a relationship or dating, married with a young family or thinking of starting one in the future. Many are focused on building a career, and cannot imagine following treatment for cancer with an arduous reconstruction process like that of Debbie's - this can last another six to eight months. Still, Debbie was surprised to find so many breast cancer survivors in their 30s or younger who felt they didn't have the time or the right to rebuild their bodies, to put themselves back together. Debbie wanted to do more than show women what breast reconstruction looks like; she also wanted young women to know that they can be comfortable with themselves again.

Your path to your new self may be very different from Debbie's, or it may be much the same. Either way, you can be whole again, after cancer. After surgery. After treatment. For Debbie, breast reconstruction was worthwhile, even after the difficult task of surviving cancer. Her message is simple: This is your life. This is your body. Don't let this disease take it from you.

The M:TA project team hopes some of your questions are answered within these pages. But remember, your own medical team knows your unique situation best. This is just one woman's story and it is important to know that reconstruction results will vary for each woman.

For more information, please email info@myselftogetheragain.org             (Booklet now available in Spanish)

After the Mastectomy

This picture shows Debbie roughly 6 weeks after double mastectomy surgery, while she had already begun the first of her chemotherapy treatments. Debbie looked quite different when she first came out of surgery; the scars on her chest were more defined, and she was in the hospital for 4 days. When she returned home to heal she still had drains in which you will see in another picture with a brief description of why drains are necessary after surgery. Here, the drains are out. The rounded area below her collarbone is called a port, a device inserted during the mastectomy through which Debbie received chemotherapy medicines. Debbie and the photographer waited until she was feeling stronger and had healed a bit before taking these first pictures.

Debbie, who was considered high-risk for breast cancer due to a strong family history, had been getting mammograms since she was 28 years old. Still, nothing can prepare you for the shock of a cancer diagnosis. At the time these photos were taken, she was still struggling to come to terms with her new reality emotionally. She had begun to lose her hair from chemotherapy treatments, which she had started about four weeks after double mastectomy surgery. Also, she delayed her upcoming wedding so that she could feel better about her health and how she looked.

Debbie opted for delayed reconstruction, which 
meant waiting about four to five months 
to begin reconstruction. Some women 
prefer to begin reconstruction surgery at 
the same time as mastectomy surgery (tissue 
expanders would be inserted at the time 
of the mastectomy surgery if you were 
opting for immediate reconstruction).  
Debbie and her surgeon felt that this was 
not the right move for her. Instead, waiting 
for her body to heal, as it was in this 
picture, was more important than having 
her chest back sooner - and that waiting 
would mean more attractive and effective 
plastic surgery results for her later.  
Debbie was also told that delaying her 
reconstruction would reduce the 
risk of infection.

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At the time she made the decision to delay reconstruction, the first week she was diagnosed, Debbie didn't know she would also be undergoing chemotherapy treatments after her double mastectomy and would have no choice but to put off reconstruction. Women who have chemotherapy should not have other surgeries during treatment because of their low blood counts during the chemotherapy. At the time of Debbie's mastectomies, a small flap of skin was left where each of her breasts had been, which would later become the beginning of her new breasts.

Marking for Tissue 
Expander Surgery

About four months following double mastectomy surgery, Debbie began the slow process of breast reconstruction with a visit to her plastic surgeon. She had just completed her chemotherapy treatments. In these pictures, she is "marked" for tissue expansion surgery in an appointment the day before the surgery.  A Sharpie pen was used by her surgeon, providing a kind of map for him to follow during surgery. Debbie had many appointments with her surgeon leading up to reconstruction to discuss all of her options.

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This is Debbie following tissue expansion surgery. After inserting the tiny balloons during surgery, her surgeon also injected 200cc's of saline into each breast (while she was still under anesthesia) to begin to stretch her skin. He also removed the chemotherapy port below her collarbone, which was no longer needed. You will notice throughout the remainder of the pictures that Debbie's port scar heals very nicely. Gathered near her waistline are the tubes from the drains that she went home with, which are similar to those she had following double mastectomy surgery. Some women do not require drains following tissue expansion surgery; your doctor will decide this during the procedure.  For Debbie, the surgical drains were used to remove excess fluid from the site. 

Debbie's reaction following the tissue expander surgery was a difficult one.  Not only was she sore and uncomfortable, but after being without a chest for several months and anxiously looking forward to returning to something more like normal, she found very little had changed. Mentally, she expected to look down and see a noticeable difference in her chest; instead, at this point in reconstruction, very little expansion had taken place. 

What's more, she had to deal with the inconvenience of drains again. "Even though I think I knew how it would be through all the meetings that my doctor and I had had, when the day actually came, I was really disappointed," Debbie said. 

Like many young, professional women, before her diagnosis, Debbie was accustomed to her personal independence, to being in full control of her life. She was able to accomplish what she wanted on a time schedule that suited her. It was around this stage in the reconstruction process, then, that she became anxious to be finished with the challenges associated with the disease and its aftermath. She had given her body over to medicine after her diagnosis, and now, post-treatment, it seemed to be taking forever to recapture her old self. Her surgeon recognized this and talked with Debbie about the need for patience. A good support system is crucial during this process, not just from friends and family members, but from your medical team especially - Debbie had that.

Compression Vest

One week following tissue expansion, Debbie went back to her surgeon to have the drains from her tissue expansion surgery removed. She received a white compression vest and was instructed to wear it 24 hours a day to hold the expanders in place.  Although it felt tight, especially to sleep in, she became used to it quickly and only ended up needing to wear it about 3 weeks.

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First expansion

Debbie was lying down for this procedure, and the chest area was numb to her and had been since her double mastectomy surgery. She sometimes experienced mild soreness at the point of needle insertion after returning home - which she was able to do immediately following the expansion. Discomfort, in the form of pressure and some back pain from the skin stretching, was also common, but massage while sitting up helped alleviate this. 

Debbie's expansion sessions took only 15 minutes. But she maintained an important skin regimen in between sessions that she believes helped vanish her scars more completely and have better reconstruction results. 

Her surgeon recommended applying cocoa butter each night to her chest to help soften the skin for 
stretching, a process she began after her drains from double mastectomy surgery came out, and one she 
continued throughout the expansion process until the permanent implants were inserted. She also applied white medical tape to both her port scar and the scars from her tissue expansion surgery each morning and removed them each night, to speed their healing. She left the central scars from her mastectomy alone; she would be having more work done in this area during nipple reconstruction.

Second expansion  

One week following the first expansion, Debbie went in for her second injection of saline; again, 100cc's were injected into each breast.  Debbie's doctor would have liked her to have more time to stretch in between expansions, but because Debbie was planning to get married soon, following her implant surgery, she wanted to move the process along a little quicker. As she had after the first expansion, she began to have some back pain and pressure afterward. This was a natural consequence of the skin stretching.  Before her expansion appointments, she took an over-the-counter painkiller, such as ibuprofen, to help ease the soreness and back pain.  Debbie learned quickly to follow her nurse's advice and stay ahead of the pain.

Before she began the reconstruction process, Debbie had decided upon size C implants; this meant her surgeon would need to expand her chest tissue to a size D so it could easily accommodate the permanent C implants. (The skin would eventually conform to the size C implants.) Although her physician asked her to consider staying smaller, Debbie desperately wanted to return to the same size she had been.  Unfortunately, after her second expansion, as soon as Debbie left the doctor's office, she began to feel distressing pain - different and more intense than the discomfort she had previously felt. Once she got home, she was in tears, and her fiancé and parents rushed to her side.  She could barely move from the odd stretching sensation and back distress. Her back, side, and chest muscles felt like they were "ripping." She immediately returned to her surgeon's office and he removed 50 cc's of saline on the spot. The relief was instant.

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Before her diagnosis, Debbie was an active young woman who visited the gym regularly and participated in Pilates and yoga. She took pride in her health. But for five months following double mastectomy surgery, she stopped exercising. With so much changing in her life - from losing her hair and breasts to postponing her wedding - and so much uncertainty in her future, she had trouble finding a place for physical activity in her new life. 

Maintaining a healthful, balanced diet was difficult, as well, because the side effects of chemotherapy meant going from one extreme to another quickly - from no appetite at all to extreme hunger. She also gained weight from steroids she took to prevent nausea during chemotherapy. Debbie had become depressed about her weight gain and inactivity. She also noticed that certain muscles had begun to atrophy as a result.  She was fortunate to have a surgeon who believed in a holistic approach to medicine - treating the entire body and the mind, not just the area that needs medicine. He recognized her unhappiness and recommended a physical therapist who could help her. 

Debbie is shown here following the insertion of her permanent, size B saline implants. You can see her chest has decreased in size since the third saline expansion; the skin that had been increased to a C has settled and conformed to her B implants.  It is important to note here that as Debbie's wedding was approaching, she was moving through this process faster and was not as available for pictures. Therefore; this picture does not accurately reflect what she looked like immediately following her permanent implant surgery.

Nipple tattooing

Whole again

Eighteen months after double mastectomy surgery, Debbie continues to feel more and more like the woman she was before cancer. Getting comfortable with her new body was far from an overnight process; even after the saline implants and nipple tattooing were completed, there were moments when she longed for her old self. "After my wedding, even though I looked OK, psychologically, I still wasn't OK with myself yet," Debbie said.

This was because of some important differences between real and reconstructed breasts, which can take many women by surprise no matter how prepared they are for the reality they've been told to expect. Debbie had very little feeling in her breasts and very little movement.

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(All photography by Missy McLamb Photography, Inc.)