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The Complete Guide to Breast Reconstruction
Choosing the Best Options after Your Mastectomy
For more than twenty years, The Complete Guide to Breast Reconstruction (formerly The Breast Reconstruction Guidebook) has been an essential resource for mastectomy and breast reconstruction. In this revised edition, two-time breast cancer survivor Kathy Steligo provides insight and information patients need to understand mastectomy and postmastectomy options.
This extensively updated and expanded edition is a comprehensive road map of the entire mastectomy and reconstruction experience. Steligo explains the advantages and disadvantages of postmastectomy options, including staying flat, using prostheses, and undergoing reconstruction with breast implants or a patient’s own tissue. The text also includes new information on numerous related topics, including:
- How mastectomy affects sensation, scarring, and projection
- What to expect from nipple-sparing mastectomy
- How reconstruction restores shape, size, and projection
- Reconstruction with saline and silicone breast implants
- Muscle-sacrificing vs muscle-sparing natural tissue reconstruction
- 3-D nipple tattooing
- Improving results and fixing problems
- Choosing the right surgeon
- Dealing with insurance issues
- Making important decisions
Featuring before-and-after patient photos, expert commentaries, and patient stories, this informative guide describes the mastectomy and reconstructive journey from research to recovery so readers can make informed decisions about what is best for them.
A guiding light in your journey to wellness, this is the definitive work on breast reconstruction for those facing mastectomy. Twenty years after the book’s first edition, countless readers have been empowered by the voice in its pages, which speaks as a trusted friend who’s been there.
– Frank J, DellaCroce, Founding Partner
Center for Restorative Breast Surgery
Living with Hereditary Cancer Risk
The most comprehensive guide available on hereditary cancers, from understanding risk, prevention, and genetic counseling and testing to treatment, quality of life, and more.
An ideal resource for genetic counselors, physicians, nurses, advocates, and others who support and care for the hereditary cancer community.
Getting Things Off My Chest: A Survivor’s Guide to Staying Fearless and Fabulous in the Face of Breast Cancer
Charge head on into the battle with breast cancer, armed with these outstanding survivors’ tips on how to stay sane, focused, and in charge. Written by a breast cancer survivor with expert insights, handy checklists and helpful questions to ask your doctors, all geared toward streamlining your new life. This detailed, upbeat book helps you make informed decisions, eat and exercise to stay strong, look and feel your best, eliminate stress and boost your spirits with positive thinking and a dose of humor. Don’t let your cancer control you; empower yourself and ease the transition with this all-inclusive guide. This book is WINNER of the 2014 International Book Award for Cancer Health topics.
“You may not have chosen to have cancer, but you can choose how you mange your treatment and treat yourself to stay strong, focused and healthy moving forward.”
Epiphany: Don’t Waste Your Cancer
Nicole Wilson gives a true look into the journey of facing a life-altering diagnosis with an uncertain outcome. This book gives the emotional, the spiritual, and the vulnerable aspects of walking through breast cancer to live again.
Nicole has shared her personal cancer journey at public events and now with the world in her first published self-care book of awakening, healing and hope.
Faith Fighting in Pink
If you are looking for statistics and technical jargon, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a no holds barred look at the struggles of living life with Triple Negative Breast Cancer, then you have come to the right place. I am not a writer, but I do have a story to share and tips to make this journey through cancer a bit easier. If you have just been diagnosed or know someone who has, this book is key to providing the understanding needed to fight, win, and recover like a bad chic.
I’ve Been Diagnosed, Now What?
Looking for an engaging book that will help you and your family come to grips with a devastating cancer diagnosis and how building the best cancer support team possible will give you an upper hand in winning this fight? This is it!
After coming to grips with a breast cancer diagnosis, Katrece Nolen made a conscious decision to get the best cancer treatment available by bringing together the best cancer support team possible. All this was done within a matter of weeks of being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive Stage 3 Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Katrece shares her journey from uninformed cancer patient to self advocate in her book, I’ve Been Diagnosed, Now What? Courageously Fighting Cancer in the Face of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
With inspiring stories from other survivors, resource lists for every stage of the process, and survivor secrets she learned along the way, readers will be able to build their community of cancer support and not just survive but thrive!
The Voodoo Breast
Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Books of 2014
Wallinga’s imaginative debut begins with married couple Allie and Kevin asleep in their hotel room in the magical French Quarter. From somewhere nearby, Allie can hear jazz music sounding as if it were coming from another world. The story flashes back to Allie’s mastectomy. Though she survived the surgery and doesn’t need treatment, Allie is haunted by her health scare and feels that losing her breast was like “losing a close friend…a dear and intimate part of her.” Upon discovering a hospital in New Orleans that can reconstruct a woman’s breasts using the fat of her own body, Allie convinces Kevin to fly with her to New Orleans, which is still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. Allie decides she wants not only to improve her body, but to learn more about voodoo. Allie’s connection to her body becomes a story not only of identity and femininity, but of magic and invisible spirits. As Allie’s body recovers, her soul undergoes its own healing and, eventually, so does her marriage. The Big Easy stars in this affecting novel about a couple’s unusual route to redemption.
Better than a Pink Ribbon
When Gabe Insler’s mom, a patient of our Center, was diagnosed with cancer in February 2013, he was 12 years old. As a project, he decided to write a book that gives advice to other kids who have a parent with cancer. “Better Than A Pink Ribbon” is a humorous and honest book that illustrates the story of a mom with cancer through the eyes of her son. The book has great anecdotes that address both sad and happy days, fears, the future, and the everyday issue of chores and eating healthy. Readers can follow along with his hand-drawn depictions that are witty and cartoonishly fun.
Pink Lemonade: A Jubilant Survivor’s Inspirational Story about Overcoming Life’s Challenges and Emerging Triumphant!
At the age of 45, with no family history Tamara received the staggering news that she had malignant breast tumors in both breasts. With a sense of humor and sarcastic wit Tamara shares the story of her 3 year struggle to accept the things she cannot change (her health), change the things she can (health care) and the wisdom to seek out the best treatment available. Now a jubilant survivor, Tamara, a patient of our Center is telling her story. The story of God’s faithfulness and fortification as she overcame serious health obstacles all while rearing a teenager! Not only does Tamara prudently share the gripping details of her battle, she provides insightful understanding to those facing a life-threatening disease. Perhaps even more importantly; to those who love them.
“After many nights of researching the web, reading everything I could get my hands on and attending conferences, I found an amazing website: BreastCancer.org. The discussion boards were full of women discussing their experiences. I must have read over five hundred discussions about Dr. DellaCroce and his team and what they were doing for women around the world. Women were flying in from all over the country as well as from Canada, Mexico, Germany, and Brazil just to have him perform this surgery. This amazing doctor and his teams were rebuilding women who had been told they were damaged goods and couldn’t be rebuilt. The women were raving about this amazing place called the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery in Louisiana. As soon as I went to their website, BreastCenter.com, I knew I had to get in touch with them immediately.”
Silver Linings Finding My Way Through Life’s Storms
This is a story of survival and self-discovery featuring one woman’s riveting, bluntly honest, and inspiring journey through an abusive childhood and a series of terrifying health crises that ultimately lead to a fulfilling family life. Hope, faith, perseverance, and humor are woven into the tapestry of this tale. Phoebe suffers through a childhood that is saturated with abuse; the ramifications persist into adulthood with more abuse and a sense of loss. But with courage and a strong drive to transform herself and her circumstances, she becomes an undaunted survivor, prepared for the challenges life continues to pose. She faces the terrifying, chaotic, and unpredictable effects of an invisible neurologic disease, multiple sclerosis, and diagnosis of a BRCA breast cancer gene. Though these medical crises force her to dip her toes into Hell on occasion, she finds a way to fight her way back–with instant gut-rolling humor, with deep empathy for other sufferers, and with a reliance on a rock-solid marriage, and faithful friends. Through her determination, resiliency, and hope for the marvelous things life can offer, she forges her physical weaknesses into an unconquerable super-ability to surmount the obstacles that block her way.
“In the Silver Lining, Encounters with Angels, Phoebe Walker courageously shares her life’s journey with others. It is sensitive and insightful, and serves as a beacon of hope for other who have their own crosses to bear.” – Dr. Scott Sullivan
Breast Cancer Surgery and Reconstruction: What’s Right for You
This is a new book about one of the least-addressed issues women about breast cancer: the surgery nearly all women have and the reconstruction choices they face. The book, one of only a few written about breast cancer surgery options, features moving photos of women by Emmy-award-winning photographer Kathleen Galligan. It covers a wide range of issues, including the choice between lumpectomy and mastectomy; living flat-breasted or one-breasted, without reconstruction; and reconstruction breakthroughs of the last decade, including nipple-sparing mastectomy and tissue-based breast reconstruction. Anstett visited top centers to observe cutting-edge techniques and see how model programs operate.
P.S. You are Loved.
Living the Life of Inspiration, Living with Poland Syndrome
Living with a rare congenital condition that causes disfigurement can be both isolating and depressing. P.S. You are Loved is a collection of inspirational stories from real people all over the world that are living and thriving with a rare birth defect called Poland Syndrome. Included are stories from parents with children, men, women, and teens; tales that will touch your heart, move your soul and remind you that you are loved! There are also educational pictures and chapters from top doctors in the field of Poland Syndrome reconstruction, that offer behind the scenes knowledge you need to know. With 100% of all proceeds going to support people with Poland Syndrome. order the book here.
The Miracle Worker: “The female form is one of God’s greatest expressions of artistry in the universe. The effects of breast reconstruction, and the restoration of form lost, has the capacity to transcend the techniques themselves, providing a reclaiming of beauty and physical harmony, a return to wholeness that is greater than the sum of the individual efforts. I continue to be humbled by the impact this work has, both on the women I am privileged to take care of and those that are near and dear to them.” -Dr. Frank DellaCroce
The Mutant Diaries: Unzipping My Genes
How far would you go to save your life?
Superpowers stem from incredible sacrifices in The Mutant Diaries: Unzipping My Genes, a feisty and frank solo musical from performer/composer Eva Moon. Upon learning she had the BRCA genetic mutation, which spikes the risk of breast cancer to 87% and ovarian cancer to 55%, Moon had to make a life-altering choice: remove her healthy breasts and ovaries or face terrifying odds of cancer. Live music, warmth and generous amounts of humor are all expertly woven in this story of her decision — and the extraordinarily empowering results of that choice.
A one woman show delivered with so much raw emotion and intimacy that the audience may wonder whether they have accidentally wandered into a room where they overhear her private and innermost thoughts after learning of her BRCA gene mutation. Her journey carries us through the loss of her mother, to the discovery of her own personal superpower. Her presence on stage reflects the solace of the inner struggle, but the humor that she wraps around her musical delivery pulls the audience into her story as her life changing choices deliver triumph. It is about life, it is about death, and it is about the beauty of the human spirit, a must see.
Previvors: Facing the Breast Cancer Gene and Making Life-Changing Decisions
The first guide to all surgical and nonsurgical options for women with a high risk for breast cancer.
Advances in genetic testing and risk assessment have changed the face of medicine, but with them has come a Pandora’s box of dilemmas. Imagine discovering you had a significant risk for developing breast cancer. What would you do? Through the incredible true stories of five young friends, as well as interviews with more than seventy top breast cancer experts, health writer Dina Roth Port addresses the universal questions of women everywhere who have watched family members suffer from the disease and wondered, “Am I next?” Full of practical information, Previvors is the first comprehensive book to guide women through the difficult process of determining their risk, weighing the options, and coping with the emotions of deciding to undergo surgery. From navigating health insurance coverage to finding the right medical team, Previvors is an invaluable resource for women facing decisions about their risk and future health. Readers will learn:
- The pros and cons of getting tested for the BRCA gene
- How to decide between surgical or nonsurgical options
- The latest research in breast cancer surveillance
- The advanced new world of breast reconstruction
- How to overcome body image and sex issues post-surgery, and more
“Surgical techniques have advanced to the point that a woman can consider a prophylactic mastectomy with reconstruction knowing that, in the end, she will still look whole and have natural-looking breasts,” says Frank DellaCroce, M.D.”