Prophylactic mastectomy is major surgery that carries major risks of both life threatening and life altering complications.
Duh.
I'm not usually in the PSA business and stating the obvious isn't my idea of fun. But it seems to me that we sometimes lose sight of the fact that, contrary to some of the propaganda on certain message boards, not everyone emerges from a prophylactic mastectomy and reconstruction unscathed and with gorgeous boobs that they absolutely love, love, love.
My own experience with prophylactic bilateral mastectomy ("PBM") may also contribute to a false impression that PBM is a pretty straightforward exercise in replacing one set of boobs with another. Or as a commenter on a message board so blithely put it, "it's kinda like changing the stuffing on a throw pillow. Like an extreme breast reduction".
Uh no.
Yes, I had a PBM and I was truly fortunate to have had no complications and excellent cosmetic results. For me, everything went according to plan - PBM with immediate hip flap reconstruction followed by a "stage 2" revision surgery four months later. I was hospitalized for both surgeries for the exact number of days predicted by my doctors. I took off from work for exactly the number of weeks I was instructed to do so and I resumed all other activities on schedule.
But many of my fellow mutants in arms have not been so fortunate. Teri lost the flap on her right side to necrosis, had the flap replaced, and then developed life-threatening blood clots in her lungs. Kaycee lost an expander to a horrible infection just a few short weeks before her exchange, forcing her to have to undergo expansion all over again. Megs' "one-step" didn't exactly work out that way.
You are all very brave fellow travelers. Get well soon everybody.
Despite my high satisfaction level with the outcome of my PBM, I have been very careful in this blog to maintain my sensitivity to the daunting ambiguity that mutants encounter when faced with these decisions. I remain highly conflicted about all of this.
Sometimes I receive emails from newly diagnosed mutants who are considering PBM. I don't really know what to say. I would not presume that what I did is right for anyone else. I can't pretend that doing this is easy, obvious, a no-brainer. Things can go wrong. Very wrong.
But I can offer empathy, some degree of understanding and my willingness (or perhaps my need) to act as the contrarian in all of this.