Hello all. My first comment on any of these forums. I knew something was off with my body and it was systemic. Long story short, three months later I received diagnosis IDC, Stage IIa, ++-, Group 2 in the right breast. Scheduled for breast conservative lumpectomy, no chemo, rads, AI for five years. That rapidly devolved after MRI revealed satellites around tumor (2.1 cm).

At that point I told my breast surgeon I wanted both breasts gone as I was not going to go through the MRI biopsies again (suffered a significant bleed that left me unresponsive when the medics arrived). I told her and my pcp that I felt there was something lurking in the left breast (the MRI showed a healthy left breast).

I had an aesthetic flat closure 10/7/25. Prior to the surgery many friends and family were horrified I would “maim” myself. The surgeon did exactly as I asked, and while it’s shocking not having my 38Cs, pathology revealed the left breast had a 3mm lobular cancer just waiting to take off. That shut everyone up. But I let the naysayers get to me—my wonderful husband was not one of the naysayers and I knew he would miss my breasts the most. A few days before my surgery, I bought a casting kit off of Amazon and did a silicone casting of my left breast. He and I laughed so hard—it was so much needed comic relief.

My incision starts around in back, literally on my back, comes under my armpits, across the entire chest and back under the other armpit and around back. It’s just about healed. One thing about this type of surgery is that ALL of the breast fat is removed. I find I’m so cold without my to boob heaters.

Fellow sisters, I was fortunate in that all of my doctors are women. Young women—in their thirties and forties. (BTW, I’m 72). I hope that if you have a doctor who won’t listen to you, you are able to find one who will. There are doctors who will listen and help you.

As to feeling sexy again, when I asked my husband if he missed my boobs, he said him finding me sexy had nothing to do with my boobs, and now he could hold me closer to his heart.

My surgeon told me in my first post op checkup that when a woman tells her something is going on with her body and the testing doesn’t identify anything, she (the breast surgeon) always believes the women.

You know your body better than anyone. It is okay to grieve your loss—we’ve made that choice to live, but it is still a shocking loss.

I wrap us all in the tenderest of hugs.