Thanks for stepping out on this, Susan.  You are not out-of-line in the
least little bit.  I would expect one of "the family" to be bold if they
thought one of us was making a mistake.

I spoke with the surgeon again last night and he said that he really doubted
that the surgery would be so cosmetically destructive as to need
reconstructive plastic surgery, even if the insurance carrier did cover it.
He told me that he was obliged to lay out all the "worst case scenarios"
just so there wouldn't be any surprises, even though "worst case" was pretty
remote.  He also told me that he'd do everything he could to minimize
"collateral damage" (my words).  That's good enough for me.

If I was worried about my vanity, I'd never have had CP, right? ;-) Gotcha!

Thanks for shooting straight, Susan.  Y'all make me feel pretty special.

Kyle

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Moskowitz [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 5:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Hey all


Kyle,
    I'm going to risk playing the devil's advocate for a moment. If your
ability to  breath or to compen-sate for your spasms truly is at risk, then
fight for the reconstruction by all means. However, if the reconstruction is
not medically necessary,and you can envision a satisfactory future with "one
headlight" as I believe you phrased it yesterday, you might want to
seriously consider going without reconstruction. My mother lived with breast
cancer for 15 years and repeatedly told me that she would have died at least
ten years sooner if she had had reconstructive work done, because the
reconstruction would have masked the second tumor which developed years
after her initial mastectomy. I'm truly sorry to have to bring up the
possibility of recurrence, but it ought to be considered when you are
contemplating your surgical options. Please know that I wish nothing but the
best possible outcome for you and your family and that you will continue to
have my concern and support whichever treatment options you choose