Kathryn's new breast was never what she expected. After an encapsulated implant she visited three surgeons before she decided with whom to do the operation.

Transcript

He sent me to another doctor. Most of them are plastic surgeons and because any time you have cancer, it’s all done here under Medicare, so it’s free. You can choose any plastic surgeon you want. So I went to see the doctor he recommended and he looked at me. He looked at my breast and I don’t even think he really touched it. I just think he looked and he found out it was… I had metastatic disease and he said “The same thing’s going to happen if you put it in again. I recommend that you do nothing just take it out and leave it.” I remember that’s not what I wanted to hear. If you’re vain at all, and I was vain, I said “I don’t want to walk around with a prosthesis that’s moving and I have to worry about it all the time.” Because I knew, a lot of my friends had not done reconstructive surgery. So he gave me no options. Really, he just said “Don’t do anything.” That’s not what I wanted to hear. I went and I started my own research and I found a few doctors. I interviewed them and I asked them questions. I can’t mention names so the first doctor, I said I want my new breast to look like my old breast. I want it to look as natural as possible. “We can’t do that.” I went on to the next doctor, the next doctor looked at me and he said “You can’t wear a T-shirt.” I said “You’re correct, I can’t wear a T-shirt, I have one boob in my ear and one boob in my waist, it looks very odd. But, it’s nice that you noticed that I can’t wear a T-shirt.” I said “Can you make my breasts look natural enough that it doesn’t look like it’s…up here?” He says “Yes, I can.” So I ended up choosing him after I had gone back to the second doctor and asked him a few more questions, I decided I didn’t want him.

I went back to the third doctor and I said that I had chosen him. He was one of the most compassionate doctors I’ve ever met. The breast actually does look pretty natural. I don’t know if it’s going to stay that way because you never know with these things. And it was actually this doctor who said that the majority of women know nothing about it, about reconstructive surgery because nobody tells them. And am I happy with my implant? Well, I would prefer to have my breast back but it’s there and it’s easier to dress. That’s what the whole point for me was, just to have it to facilitate things.

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