Please share your experience with the Diep Flap Procedure

Hi all. I’m scheduled for surgery in January 2026. My drs are all at Mayo in Phoenix. I have a consult in November. I’m 46 and will be getting a double mastectomy. I’m in the middle of TCHP treatment for triple positive breast cancer.

I’m on the fence about which way to go with reconstruction. I’m thinking I want tissue transfer but I’m nervous about the outcome and recovery. I don’t necessarily want to do implants but not opposed. I was seriously considering a reduction and lift before the diagnosis.

Has anyone worked with the plastic surgeons at Mayo phx? I was assigned a Dr and the little I find about him online isn’t making me feel all that great.

Would love any feedback about the surgery or dr’s here in Phoenix. Thank you.

You can look up the doctors. I would think you can read about him on that Mayo Clinic's website. If you are uncomfortable, your body is your body.
If you have not met the doctor meet them before the surgery. Ask for a consult if they have not scheduled one. You get to choose. I will say I was diagnosed at my local hospital and my PA suggested i have my surgery at the local hospital or call the COH. I called the COH and the DR i found on my insurance website was Dr. Polverini. She put me at ease. Explained everything and drew out the mastectomy vs lumpectomy and wrote about margins and all that info i did not know. I still have that paper in my file. It made it real.
I would put that question up above in the search bar. My cancer was DCIS and another with Brca2 tossed in. I had a skin saving mastectomy, with implants about my same smaller size. Minus everything but the skin removed, I know I trusted my surgeon and the plastic surgeon she works with often. I was treated at City of Hope in California.

@katgob Thank you. I mentioned above that I have a consult in November. So we will see how that goes. It will be skin and nipples sparing double mastectomy per my ocon surgeon, just need to make sure plastics agrees I guess?

I have read about the plastics Dr online … not much to find except some older negative reviews.

Hi @lharris79 ,

I did DIEP Flap at 39 with a single mastectomy. The recovery was super tough, but I am now very happy with the results four years later. It was not at Mayo, though

One huge thing that convinced me not to go with implants was that you can't get an MRI with them, and my team relies on MRIs for my right side, since mammos are not done on the mastectomy side.

While I also have chest CTs and blood work, I wanted to have all the screening options I could for the TNBC, especially at the stage it was (3B).

@seathink thank you for the response. I hope you are doing well. Can you tell me more about the harvest site and your recovery/scars? Does your breast look “normal?” Looking back would you choose differently?

I was told that if I did implants MRI would be used for future screening and monitoring of the implants. No more mammograms.

@lharris79

Nice, glad you can do MRIs! Very good to hear.

Got the fat from my tummy, because I just had a baby so I had a lot of belly fat they could use but it actually didn't end up being as much as I thought so they did a breast lift to try and match the other side. The stomach was really hard I had to do a lot of core exercises in PT.

They look really nice,the scars barely show. We didn't think I'd get a nipple, but they were able to spare it, although now that one looks like I'm cold all the time.

It feels really good now, but doing that major surgery after chemo and radiation and the first major surgery all with the baby I couldn't lift made it really difficult for about a year after. It's so nice on the other side.

Hello,
I had the same experience with infection. I also had chemo and radiation. Actually the diep flap procedure was more comfortable than the bilateral mastectomy and traditional reconstruction with expanders. It was also my only option after radiation. I feel much better about myself afterward