Dr. Ordoyne: When patients first come to me, usually they’ve gotten the diagnosis of cancer from either their primary care physicians or radiologists, and, uh, they don’t have a lot of information at that time. They just know they have cancer.

Mimi: I wanted as little stress and worry about my breasts and the cancer that I could have. And I wanted to make sure it was gone. 

Dr. Ordoyne: With the surgical techniques that we have, we can perform mastectomies without sacrificing the nipples. 

Dr. Sullivan: Aesthetically, when the scars heal, it is almost impossible to tell that they had something done. 

Mimi: That was jackpot. That was the extra, the lagniappe, as we say in Louisiana, that I could keep my nipples. Like, that didn’t even cross my mind. 

Dr. DellaCroce: There are two major criteria sets. When is a woman a candidate for nipple sparing mastectomy, and when are they not a candidate for nipple sparing mastectomy? One is extent of disease if they have breast cancer. And the other is their own individual breast shape and anatomy, size, and everything that goes with that.

Dr. Ordoyne: What’s really nice is postoperatively, when you walk into your patient’s room, and they look in their gown, and they look at their breasts, and then the patients will tell me, “Wow, it looks the same as it did before surgery.” It gives you a good feeling. 

Mimi: You don’t want the worry, and concern about your body image or how do I look as a woman, or am I appealing to my husband, does the general public look at me the same? I didn’t want all of that to be in the back of my head. And this eradicated that. This essentially restored my body to exactly what it was before diagnosis, and the results are beautiful.