u/Electrical-Smell5609

I have never posted before, but decided to recall my experience in the event it helps anyone else during the time of deep research after a DCIS diagnosis. I am almost a year from DMX direct to implants and have been reflecting on the experience.

I was 57 at diagnosis. I am an avid bike rider, eat clean, get a lot of sleep, and have decent stress management. I started using HRT patches and progesterone which may have fueled the 1.4 cm of DCIS detected by microcalcifications on a mammogram. I was shocked and went into research mode. I found Reddit posts to be intensely helpful as I weighed my options. I started forming a plan in my head before my first surgery consult and knew a DMX with implants to avoid radiation (and perhaps hormone therapy) would be the best path for me. I read so many Reddit posts debating lumpectomy versus DMX, and I while it may seem extreme to some to do this for small intermediate DCIS, I was favoring this route.

The first surgeon was awful! I wanted to run out of her office. She had good reviews, but I'm not sure how. She pushed a lumpectomy, radiation, and hormone therapy in the first few minutes of meeting me. I knew I would have scanxiety forever and I also knew I could like fake boobs. I'm not large chested and was not comfortable a lumpectomy would yield a good cosmetic result for me. She said a DMX with implants could never look good. She hadn't even examined me yet. She said I would look "like I had two saline bags stapled to my chest."

I went into a tailspin of tears and more research until my next appointment with an amazing surgeon. He said he had done 10,000 of these and I was absolutely a candidate and could be very happy with the cosmetic result. He sent me to the plastic surgeon he liked working with the most. He counseled me on how big of a surgery a DMX is, but he understood that I wanted to feel more in control, avoid radiation and hormone blockers, and get back to my life without constant scans and worry. I was so relieved.

My consultation with the plastic surgeon was just as positive and he said I was a candidate for direct to implant. We made a plan and he said "it would be a chip shot" given my anatomy. He gave me so much confidence in such a dark time.

I was terrified for the surgery of course. I had a skin and nipple sparing DMX with implants a little larger than my OGs (why not make things a little more interesting??). They used nerve blocks so I didn't really feel any pain until the following day and even then, the meds could take care of it. Moving around was not easy and I was all taped up. I'm redundant saying this but the drains were awful. I get squeamish so my husband took care of emptying them and recoding output. I got one out within a week and that was the one poking me so I felt a lot better after that. With a DMX DTI I couldn't do anything but incidental walking around the house. I had to "be a couch potato" as my plastic surgeon said.

I was afraid to look in the mirror when the tape came off. When I had taken a peek right after surgery, I thought I saw a ton of stitches all over the place, but those were just the surgeon's sharpie marks thank goodness. They actually looked pretty good even though I was swollen and they were sitting high.

Six months later I had a revision to make them perfectly symmetrical and the result is good. The revision surgery was pretty easy. I do have some PTSD for the shock of the diagnosis, the fast timeline for decisions and surgery (a date for both surgeons opened up so I snagged it), and the processing of what it meant to have DCIS and now to hopefully be done with it all. I just wanted to put a message out there to those just starting their research journey that you are not crazy if you want to do a DMX for DCIS. I have zero regrets and I am happy with my results. Get several opinions and find the best surgeons you can. Mine said I would feel like I hadn't even had surgery after 5 weeks. I wouldn't say it was that fast--they were keeping me encouraged--but it really is a blur and hard to recall now. And I don't look like I have two saline bags stapled to my chest!!

I have never posted before, but decided to recall my experience in the event it helps anyone else during the time of deep research after a DCIS diagnosis. I am almost a year from DMX direct to implants and have been reflecting on the experience.

I was 57 at diagnosis. I am an avid bike rider, eat clean, get a lot of sleep, and have decent stress management. I started using HRT patches and progesterone which may have fueled the 1.4 cm of DCIS detected by microcalcifications on a mammogram. I was shocked and went into research mode. I found Reddit posts to be intensely helpful as I weighed my options. I started forming a plan in my head before my first surgery consult and knew a DMX with implants to avoid radiation (and perhaps hormone therapy) would be the best path for me. I read so many Reddit posts debating lumpectomy versus DMX, and I while it may seem extreme to some to do this for small intermediate DCIS, I was favoring this route.

The first surgeon was awful! I wanted to run out of her office. She had good reviews, but I'm not sure how. She pushed a lumpectomy, radiation, and hormone therapy in the first few minutes of meeting me. I knew I would have scanxiety forever and I also knew I could like fake boobs. I'm not large chested and was not comfortable a lumpectomy would yield a good cosmetic result for me. She said a DMX with implants could never look good. She hadn't even examined me yet. She said I would look "like I had two saline bags stapled to my chest."

I went into a tailspin of tears and more research until my next appointment with an amazing surgeon. He said he had done 10,000 of these and I was absolutely a candidate and could be very happy with the cosmetic result. He sent me to the plastic surgeon he liked working with the most. He counseled me on how big of a surgery a DMX is, but he understood that I wanted to feel more in control, avoid radiation and hormone blockers, and get back to my life without constant scans and worry. I was so relieved.

My consultation with the plastic surgeon was just as positive and he said I was a candidate for direct to implant. We made a plan and he said "it would be a chip shot" given my anatomy. He gave me so much confidence in such a dark time.

I was terrified for the surgery of course. I had a skin and nipple sparing DMX with implants a little larger than my OGs (why not make things a little more interesting??). They used nerve blocks so I didn't really feel any pain until the following day and even then, the meds could take care of it. Moving around was not easy and I was all taped up. I'm redundant saying this but the drains were awful. I get squeamish so my husband took care of emptying them and recoding output. I got one out within a week and that was the one poking me so I felt a lot better after that. With a DMX DTI I couldn't do anything but incidental walking around the house. I had to "be a couch potato" as my plastic surgeon said.

I was afraid to look in the mirror when the tape came off. When I had taken a peek right after surgery, I thought I saw a ton of stitches all over the place, but those were just the surgeon's sharpie marks thank goodness. They actually looked pretty good even though I was swollen and they were sitting high.

Six months later I had a revision to make them perfectly symmetrical and the result is good. The revision surgery was pretty easy. I do have some PTSD for the shock of the diagnosis, the fast timeline for decisions and surgery (a date for both surgeons opened up so I snagged it), and the processing of what it meant to have DCIS and now to hopefully be done with it all. I just wanted to put a message out there to those just starting their research journey that you are not crazy if you want to do a DMX for DCIS. I have zero regrets and I am happy with my results. Get several opinions and find the best surgeons you can. Mine said I would feel like I hadn't even had surgery after 5 weeks. I wouldn't say it was that fast--they were keeping me encouraged--but it really is a blur and hard to recall now. And I don't look like I have two saline bags stapled to my chest!!