I’ve been talking for a little while about trying to decide between the 1 and 2 step mastectomies. Obvi, one surgery is better than two. Also, the expanders apparently feel super hard like the Mean Girls mom and they can be really uncomfortable like you have cement basketballs inside you for months. After doing tons of research and talking to people who had both 1 and 2 step, I was ready to meet with my reconstructive surgeon today and discuss both options in depth. In the end, I am still going with the 2-step tissue expander option for surgery, despite is being a longer process and adding an additional surgery to the mix. The reasons for this are:

1. My skin and nipples have a better chance of a good outcome with the two step process

2. My chest wall is wide, so I need a larger implant to fill it in once all my tissue is ripped out removed, and it would be too traumatic on the skin to do in one stage

3. A lot of one steps result in a second surgery anyway because of how they heal, and my wide chest wall signals that could be the case

4. The implant I want isn’t possible with one-step. I like this brand (Mentor) because they are made in the U.S. and every person I’ve seen that has the results I like the most has them.

So, the moral of the story is – do your research, be prepared with questions, and have an open mind.