The surgeon would come in, inject Debbra and leave; it was impossible to speak to him.
Transcript
Because that’s a huge thing that I think patients need to understand and have a lot more information in terms of what’s available out there. There are so many products now, mastectomy products that I didn’t know, that I wasn’t aware that they were available.
Interviewer: Prosthesis you mean?
Prosthetics. There’s a company here in the city that actually does light weight prosthetics and they breathe a lot better. They could actually take a mold of your breasts before you have surgery and then they take pictures so you have the same colour. Let’s say you’re doing one then they’ll have the exact same size for the other side when you actually have your surgery done. And so the lady that I was walking through the journey with just recently, she chose to go that way. So I went with her and it’s really quite cool. Now she has the option of having prosthetics made to match her other breast if she chooses not to remove her other breast so it’ll be the same size. They can do the same colour and they have incredible ability to do these techniques.
They also do the areola and the nipple area. If you do reconstruction you can just have that made and put on so that if you’re wearing a T-shirt or something like that, you can have that. So that’s, there’s a lot of options now where it wasn’t available before. And I think it’s a very personal decision in terms of “Can you wake up in the morning and see those scars and being flat?” I was incredibly chesty and I had a very big bust when I was diagnosed and I, me personally, the idea of being flat was just foreign to me. So I, that’s again one of the reasons why I chose reconstruction.
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- Alternative and complementary therapies – DebbraCounselling for Debbra is a safe place to speak about some of her worries. She also hopes it will be a 'security blanket' for her son.
- Chemotherapy -DebbraDebbra found another oncologist with the help of a social worker; her experience with chemotherapy improved after that.
- Reconstruction surgery – DebbraThe surgeon would come in, inject Debbra and leave; it was impossible to speak to him.
- Reconstruction surgery – DebbraDebbra describes the variety of prosthetic products.
- Finding and sharing information – DebbraDebbra described some good national resources.
- Relating to health care professionals – DebbraDebbra would show staff the picture of her son to humanize the relationship.
- Relating to health care professionals – DebbraDebbra feels it is possible to disagree with health professionals and communicate that in a polite manner.
- Perspectives on treatment pathways – DebbraDebbra describes moments where she had to fight for care based on her own decisions.
- Testing and diagnosis – DebbraDebbra felt overwhelmed when she was told indirectly that it could be breast cancer.
- First symptoms – DebbraMucinous cancer, such as the kind Debbra was diagnosed with, is rare and difficult to diagnose due to a lack of lump formation.