Goldilocks Mastectomy

@kk57 Hi - I had a bilateral Goldilocks procedure back in September 2019. I was 56. Reconstruction could not be done at surgery. My doc was one of the early practitioners of it. While it was done at the time of surgery - not sure if it is done when followed by immediate reconstruction but I would think it can. To say it is only for large breasted women is slightly incorrect. But it works great for that usage. In my case, it allowed me to have slight profusion of skin that a bra could “catch” on ( it is at the low side of your breast) and not ride up while we delayed construction with some breast enhancers I put in my bra. Later it helped slightly in creating the interior sling for my implants since I went on the smaller side and did not want to go under the muscle. Now you would never know that I had the procedure as there is zero evidence of it. So would highly recommend it!! (Hope I didn’t confuse you!)

Thank you @keepmoving2. This is really helpful information. Do you mind if I ask what was your cup size before the procedure? What is your cup size after the procedure? Before implant and after implant. I’m trying to avoid the implant… My doctor said that she could inject body fat they wanted to be a little bit enhanced. Did you have it done at male clinic? If so, who was your doctor? How long after your mastectomy did you have your reconstruction? I think mine can be immediate, but it doesn’t have to be.

(Male clinic=Mayo Clinic)

@kk57 Well 2 kids later...my breast size became a 36C/D. I would say now that I am barely a 36C - i can't say specifically because I asked for a low profile implant and we were going to use some of my body fat for shaping but at the last minute some new cancer complications required that we do the minimal amount of work. We were not able to do nipple sparing the first time - we were saving some of the Goldilock skin - and had pass on doing that too. I had my surgery done at Tampa General Hospital/USF with a Reconstruction specialist, not your standard plastic surgeon. Regarding timing, reconstruction is only started immediately after surgery if they think you will not need radiation b/c you have little or no lymph node involvement, or if they know you are stage 4. Occasionally they start the reconstruction, then get the pathology report seeing lymph node involvement, and place you in a holding pattern with reconstruction, and do very targeted radiation. The radiation can stress your healing from reconstruction. In my very specific case, we thought I was stage 3c so reconstruction was delayed to deal with what we thought would be radiation and chemo. But actually I was stage 4 so we never did those treatments. My oncologist advised further delaying reconstruction until we could be sure I was responding to treatment and that all my bloodwork look good. Covid hit and doc maternity leave meant we started 15 months later this past December. Because my skin healed so well over that longer period, my reconstruction (stretching) took longer and I just had my expanders taken out and implants put in May 10th. Internal Stitches still healing - I am very happy - won't finish any time soon as my cancer as morphed and I would rather put my time, energy and healing to my new journey. BIG BIG picture - be as healthy as you can be going into any of these surgeries. I got with my primary who put me on some new vitamins to bolster my system and steered me to a really healthy diet. Consequently the bilateral mastectomies, drains and overall healing was really no big deal - I started walking the next day, learned yoga for arm movement which came back 100% and I hit the pool - hate swimming but it definitely helped. Good luck!!

Thank you, @keepmoving2. This is great information and advice. Thank you so much. Best of luck to you on this crazy journey. xo.