Pat, I didn't realize that you had breast cancer....I know that operations that long ago were just at the beginning of better knowledge of how to perform the surgery let alone the methods of reconstruction afterwards. Techniques have progressed so much along with knowledge of what the implants can do in the long run. It is sad to realize that you went through it before good knowledge was available....I am sure you thought what you were doing was safe & would cause no problems in the long run & let you look like nothing had been done.

I guess being as small as I am (32 AA), there isn't much there & any lumps are obvious immediately. Years ago, when I was on a skiing vacation, I noticed a lump while showering. I immediately decided that having a mammogram was necessary. My mother had always told me that when you find any lump that is should be checked out. Having a mammogram when you are as small as I am is difficult also......I never got a call back on the outcome, so I called up my Dr. He reviewed the results & told me that "I was just lumpy". What a relief...but it always gets a laugh when it comes out that I am lumpy. That was quite a relief however.

The sad part of this is that it was my Mother who told me to always have any lump checked & she was the one that totally ignored the lump on her vulva. She told me that it was the size of a small marble & she thought it was only a cyst. She didn't want to take care of it until after she got her drivers license renewed because if it required surgery, it would be hard for her to drive. Come to find out it was cancer & by the time she did anything about it, the tumor was the size of my fist & it was stage IV cancer....1 year of chemo & radiation, the surgery & 6 months later the cancer had spread to her lungs & brain & she died never believing that she was dying of cancer because her surgeon kept telling her "that he got it all in the surgery". Cancer is a rough & it needs to be caught in the beginning. I lost a good friend from college to non-hodgkins lymphoma just 2 months before my Mothers surgery...another case of knowing that something was wrong but not wanting to go to a doctor & ignoring the symptoms. He wasn't even Dx'ed with cancer until a couple of days before his first chemo treatment when he died.

Cancer of all kinds are serious & all lumps need to be checked immediately. It is great that you have posted your experience.....we need to learn from others experiences & I appreciate you posting your experience. Procedures improve over the years as Dr's learn from their past problems of their patients....as long as we the patients don't insist on procedures that aren't safe for ourselves.

Thank you for sharing your experience.....I pray that your immune system will improve with time, & I am sure that the healing ceremony will be a valuable step towards your recovery.

Prayers, hugz, & love,
Debbie