Point of View #8: Helen

Welcome to my first Non-One Step photo gallery.

Unlike the others, this gallery was volunteered by a woman who had a double mastectomy with immediate expander placement, and she chose to use the name Helen. Helen is originally from Poland but lives in Ireland, where she had her surgery. She emailed me, telling me that she'd had a double mastectomy in the middle of July. She'd been diagnosed with DCIS of 5 mm in her left breast, and she was BRCA1+. In the spirit of prevention, she opted for double mastectomy. As I write this, she is currently going through the expansion stage and hasn't yet had her exchange surgery. Not sure when she's due for that, but I think she's finished with the filling now.

So why did I decide to post a photo gallery of expanders? Well, she went out of her way to email me her photos without me asking for them. Neither did I suggest that she should. She also wanted to see my photo galleries. I thought to myself: why not post them? I'm sure some women would love to see examples of expander surgeries, whether or not they opt for the One Step or One Stage reconstruction, just so they can compare and contrast the two techniques for themselves, and vice versa. Why not? After she voluntarily sent me her photos, I asked her if I could post them online in her own gallery. She enthusiastically consented, as long as I did not include her head! How generous is Helen!?!

Right now there are limited captions to her photos, but in time that might change. The gallery currently shows her from 2 weeks to 4 months post-op.

If you need the URL and password for the galleries, please email me at:

rebecca (at) onestepscoop (dot) com.