Breast Reconstruction

Your Breast -- Again

Reconstruction Can Give Cancer Survivors Back Some Of What at They’ve Lost

By Christina Elston

A diagnosis of breast cancer means you could lose your life, and that’s scary. Thankfully, more than 80% of women now survive their breast cancer when it’s caught early.

But what about that other thing you lose when you have breast cancer? You know, your breast?

Mary Flaherty knows a thing or two about that. She’s lost both breasts – and had both rebuilt. And with technology and survival rates improving, more and more women are turning to breast reconstruction to get “back to normal.”

As a reconstructive surgeon affiliated with John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, Caifornia, Jay Jensen, M.D., sees a lot of these women. “The most important thing for me is asking a woman how important her breast is to her,” Jensen explains.

“For most women, it’s real important.”

Flaherty’s Story

Flaherty was just 32 years old, with two young children, when she received her first cancer diagnosis in 1989. She chose to have her breast removed and was offered either a DIEP flap reconstruction (see sidebar on reconstruction techniques) or an implant. Flaherty opted for the DIEP flap with tissue from her abdomen. “The abdominal seemed like a really good bet, since you get a tummy tuck and a breast at the same time,” she says.

She and her husband wanted a third child, but the procedure would weaken her abdomen too much to sustain a pregnancy, so Flaherty waited seven years before her reconstruction. “So in the meantime, I discovered the joys of external prosthesis,” she laughs. “I remember taking an aerobics class once and it flew out across the room.”

Funny incidents aside, Flaherty says the prosthesis became be a daily reminder of her cancer experience.

Susan Downey, M.D., a Santa Monica reconstructive surgeon and clinical professor at the Univeristy of Southern California, says many women have this issue. She even had a 75-year-old patient who came back for reconstruction 15 years after her mastectomy. “She said, ‘I guess I just put it in the back of my mind and I didn’t realize how much it bothered me,’” Downey says.