Personal Physical Recovery Experiences

ANGELITA:
Looking back on it now, I think I would probably choose to have breast reconstruction done. I still have my prosthesis. Its just an inconvenience. I'm not particularly bashful about walking around my house without a bra in a T-shirt. So I'm a little lopsided. It does make a difference in the way that your clothes fit, and I like to play tennis and wearing a prosthesis inside a bra and it jumps around and it just gets to be a little bit uncomfortable. But I think it does affect you and that sensual, sexual aspect of yourself. That's something that I would certainly ask anyone to consider before they actually go in for surgery. And sometimes we don't know what we want. I didn't think I was going to miss my breast at all, but I really do.

SHEILA:
He offered it to me on two separate occasions, and I turned it down both times. I am innately suspicious of putting anything in my body and I was not interested in, it just seemed like a bad idea to me. And I'm not sorry. I think I made the right decision.

COLLEEN:
I got to the point where I wouldn't even look at myself anymore, but it wasn't where I'd had the mastectomy. And this to me is funny because I had read so many books where the ladies would say, all right, I've decided today is the day where I'm going to look at my scar. And I thought, oh, cripe, I lifted the bandage up right away and looked and I thought, well, I've always been big busted. This is kind of nice. This is a cool feeling. As long as I have to do this, this is nice and cool for the summer. The part that bothered me was to see the one breast there. It wasn't the one that was missing, it was the one that was sort of just like hanging there all by itself, so lonesome. I decided that, gee, if this should happen again, maybe they'll consider taking the other one off. And if they had, maybe I wouldn't have gotten reconstruction, because that first summer it was very warm. I had a prosthesis. Any time above 70 degrees, I just couldn't throw that think far enough away. It was too hot, too heavy. I didn't mind going without it. I would wear bigger tops.

MAGGIE:
I got to the point where I wouldn't even look at myself anymore, but it wasn't where I'd had the mastectomy. And this to me is funny because I had read so many books where the ladies would say, all right, I've decided today is the day where I'm going to look at my scar. And I thought, oh, cripe, I lifted the bandage up right away and looked and I thought, well, I've always been big busted. This is kind of nice. This is a cool feeling. As long as I have to do this, this is nice and cool for the summer. The part that bothered me was to see the one breast there. It wasn't the one that was missing, it was the one that was sort of just like hanging there all by itself, so lonesome. I decided that, gee, if this should happen again, maybe they'll consider taking the other one off. And if they had, maybe I wouldn't have gotten reconstruction, because that first summer it was very warm. I had a prosthesis. Any time above 70 degrees, I just couldn't throw that think far enough away. It was too hot, too heavy. I didn't mind going without it. I would wear bigger tops.





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