kellykilleenMD

Don't throw water on us or feed us after midnight

I do have a personal experience. My grandmother had breast cancer in her 40's and underwent radical mastectomy without reconstruction. She was a competitive swimmer and I never saw her swim growing up. Her house had many photos of her in her youth with medals and I always thought it was so sad she never felt comfortable in a bathing suit after that. Something so important in her life was completely eliminated due to how she felt about her breasts. I don't want any woman to ever make that choice.

It's difficult to say exactly what affect breast reduction has on breast feeding. Ability to breastfeed is multifactorial and it would be difficult to study. I generally tell my patients that your ability to produce breast milk will decrease and you will possibly need to supplement with formula. If being able to breastfeed is very important to you, you should wait. There is a great online community that I think is still active called BFAR.org where you can read women's experiences breastfeeding after breast surgery.

There is always something we can do. Managing expectations can be hard though. It is common to hear people say "lets make lemonade out of lemons" and have a very unrealistic, unreachable goal for their reconstruction. I try to keep a positive outlook for them while staying honest about what we can do.

I'm on reddit daily. I am a makeup junkie and love MUA, sugarfree MUA, beautyguruchat, and MUAcirclejerk. I use a different username though ;)