Breast reconstruction

I had my 3 month check up with Dr Liu (plastic surgeon) last Tuesday and he kind of broke all my plans. In my head the plan was: chemo for 8 sessions, 28 days of radiation on my left breast, 1 year of Herceptin and reconstruction will happen sometime next year around summer time.

When I arrive to his office he offered to get me into surgery immediately for reconstruction before radiation and it really got me by surprise. There are positives and negatives to have reconstruction before or after as follows:

Positives:

• breast reconstruction final result looks better on a non radiated skin than radiated.
• Breast reconstruction on a radiated area could have some risks of surgery not healing as well as non radiated area.

Negatives

• if there is any complication on the surgery my radiation will be delayed and that is something that both my Radiologist and myself are not keen on.
• There is a possibility that the final implant might be burn from radiation and the reconstruction might have to be done again.

I am going to stick to my original plan and first focus on the Cancer treatment and then focus on the aesthetic of my breast. Herceptin is a relatively new drug and due to their heart effects they will not get me into surgery until I have finished Herceptin which is the end of next year. That is ok with me, my temporally expanders are ok and not bothering me any more, they look great and none will ever think I do not have any breast, and I think can live with them for another year.

I have also given up about doing a tummy tuck surgery and going for permanent silicon implants. I am not sure if after this process I am going to want to go through such a big surgery of tummy tuck and reconstruction....If anyone reading this has done surgery of reconstruction and has got any opinions please share them, I will appreciate it.