Ughh…my (30F) wedding was planned for July 20th, 2024 and I was really hopeful I could keep this date pre-lumpectomy pathology report. I was diagnosed with ILC Dec 5th, had my lumpectomy Dec 26th, and met with my medical oncologist for the first time today. She strongly recommended I get a double mastectomy with reconstruction which was another shock to me. I’m stage 1, grade 2, hormone and HER2- so the original tentative treatment plan was lumpectomy, radiation, tamoxifen. However, they found and removed 4 more small tumors during the lumpectomy that were not caught on US, MRI or Mammogram. This, along with the fact I also have ILCIS, led to the DMX recommendation.

Can anyone who has had a double mastectomy with reconstruction share their experience and recovery timeline? It looks like I could be a candidate for a nipple sparing mastectomy. It still feels like there’s so much to grieve here if I go this route. Besides losing my breasts, I will never be able to breast feed (haven’t had kids yet), and that seems like a big deal to me right now for some reason.

My fiancé and mom also have suggested eloping, or pushing the wedding back. From a financial and stress reducing standpoint this does make sense. I’m also wondering what I’ll be feeling like from the recovery standpoint. I’m not sure when surgery would happen, but I imagine sometime around March/April. Thankfully, my dress hasn’t been fitted yet. But it almost seems more stressful for me to push it back and reschedule all my vendors again.

I was really looking forward to the wedding and was having a fun time planning it up until this stupid cancer diagnosis 🙃 But I am still grateful it was caught early and I can skip chemo (I feel for you ladies).