126. Chop Shop

I have my first appointment with the plastics breast nurse.  K goes with me to the appointment because R has lost interest (more on this later).  The nurse is nice.  She asks me to explain to her what I want done and why.  I list the reasons why I want this surgery and what surgery I’m expecting to have done. 

Given my choices, she begins to break down the options of what I can have done (during which, at times, I gag).

 I’ll be having a skin conserving double mastectomy. 

 Options are:

* Implants.  No, no, no.

* Reconstruction from my back muscle.  Mmmm, not sure.  Those scars are pretty bad across the back.

* Reconstruction from my stomach using the muscle.  There’s a muscle under there?

* Reconstruction from my stomach using the fat.  Back to having BIG breasts then, given the amount of fat on my stomach.

* Another option that I don’t understand.

I’m also told that I’m almost certainly not going to be able to keep the nipple on my healthy breast.  WTF.  From the healthy one? 

This is because they will reduce the size of my healthy boob to match the other one.  When doing a breast reduction, they cut around the nipple, detaching it from the skin of the breast, keeping it attached to the tissue underneath.  Given that I’m having a mastectomy as well, there will be NO tissue underneath the skin, so the nipple will be completely detached and will therefore lose its blood supply. 

I’m not happy about this.