Lumpectomy to Double Mastectomy

I agonized over the decision or even my ability to change my surgery from a Lumpectomy to a Double Mastectomy.  I wanted it gone but I honestly didn’t think I had an option to remove a healthy breast.  Entirely removing my right breast and leaving one entire Size GG/H breast and having to deal with that would be not only very inconvenient but ridiculous.  The prosthetics, if they even came in that size would be a lovely perky non-gravity affected falsie.  A balloon filled with water and put in the empty bra cup would be a better replica of what my chest looks like now.  Would they really be able to reconstruct me back to that same size of GG/H and sagginess?  Not to mention the backaches from the uneven weight, trying to sleep on my right side with the remaining side hanging clear to my right underarm on the opposite side would make sleeping an ordeal.  And above all, the worry and stress that the cancer could reoccur on the same side or develop in the remaining left side just seemed unbearable.  No thank you.  I’m feeling no love for them right now and I want them off!  I love my family more than any body part.  I need to reduce the risk of this ever happening again by doing all I can to prevent it.  I don’t want my family to ever have to go through this again, if at all possible.

Business card showing my bra size from my first fitting ever a couple of months ago.

I heard of several people who had been able to have the double mastectomy from people I know and from the internet.   I started looking it up and couldn’t find a whole lot on whether the insurance would cover it or not.  I didn’t care.  I wanted to make sure that I reduced my chances of this happening again, period. 

I called Dr. Smith’s office to change my surgery from a Lumpectomy to a Double Mastectomy. I told them I was so stressed at the thought of this ever happening again and I just couldn’t spend all of my time worrying about that possibility.  They said they would be able to change it, leave me on the current surgery schedule, talk to Dr. Smith to see if he needed to meet with me, call insurance, and go from there.   Apparently my insurance, TriCare, has been switched over to another provider (I don’t remember from who to who) but they sent a waiver letter stating they didn’t’ have to start all the way over with the preapproval process, which would delay the surgery, if they had already approved treatment for a condition that had been diagnosed.  The doctor said they would need to extend the surgery time by ½ hour.  Dr. Smith didn’t need to meet with me but he made sure the nurses stressed to me that insurance would pay for reconstruction surgery if at any time I decided to have that done.  I told her I wasn’t planning on that, which seemed to surprise the nurse a little, so we didn’t need to set up an appointment with a plastic surgeon a couple of days after surgery.  Taking care of this cancer is enough for me to deal with right now.

We spent the day packing up the apartment and making trips to the storage unit.  There are just things in our everyday lives that still have to be taken care of.