Reconstruction after Mastectomy

If you've explored Marjory's story on the pages of this blog you'll know that she initially underwent a right sided mastectomy and clearance of lymph nodes from the axilla or armpit.

Because extensive radiotherapy was planned - along with chemotherapy and herceptin - Marjory decided not to have reconstruction after mastectomy performed at the same time as the original operation. It was a full two years after her initial treatment that she decided to go back for breast reconstruction surgery.

From almost the time of first diagnosis, Marjory had been set on the idea of having a bilateral mastectomy - even though the cancer had only affected her right breast. Her treating breast surgeon advised against this and the first operation was only on the right side.

When reconstruction surgery was eventually planned with a plastic surgeon, she decided to go ahead and have the left breast removed in a second mastectomy procedure which was combined with a TRAM flap reconstruction of both breasts. This made for a grueling ten hours in the operating theatre and a prolonged recovery phase - and you'll be able to read more details of all that in blog posts shortly on the site.