I have a friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The easiest way to explain our relationship is that she is my granddaughter’s paternal grandmother. C and I have been in each other’s lives for over 12 years.

We have not been overly close, but she is well aware of the fact that I am a 29-year breast cancer survivor and a victim of silicone breast implants. Over the years, we have had many discussions about my lobbying Congress and my crusade to educate women on the safety issues around breast implants.

You can imagine my agitation when C called to tell me about her cancer… and in the same breath say that she was having a mastectomy with the “new” silicone implant reconstruction. Then she almost laughed as she told me that her surgeon said that, being it was for reconstruction, her insurance would pay for her to have her remaining breast augmented. She could now become a well-endowed woman!

I will spare you all the details of my response to her…. ultimately C is doing her own thing. But I do want to share this:

Twenty-nine years ago, when I was 25-years old and the surgeon told me the results of my biopsies, the only thing I cared about was LIVING.

Of course, back then, if you had a breast cancer diagnosis, you had a mastectomy. There was no choice. Eventually I got silicone implants to replace what I had lost, and they made me – AGAIN - very, very sick, when I was trying so hard to stay healthy.

My personal feeling is that reconstruction should NOT be a part of the initial cancer diagnosis and treatment plan. Society has gotten all the priorities screwed up, because we don’t need breasts to survive in life. Loosing an arm or a leg would be a far worse sacrifice. There is not a woman alive who can make an informed, educated decision on implants when she has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. At that time, life-saving treatment choices are far more important than reconstruction choices.

Yes, breast implants for breast cancer patients SHOULD be a choice for reconstruction. But for later, after all the important decisions have been made, the hardest treatment completed, and the woman clear-headed, hopeful and working on getting back to her life.

I waited five years before I had silicone implant reconstruction, a decision I made because we didn’t know then what we know now about how breast implants are. After going through what I went through, I wish had waited another 25 years. But that is a story for another time.

TAGS: breast cancer, breast implants, breast reconstruction