Tamara Donovan (00:05):
I’m Tamara Donovan and I’m a breast cancer previvor. From a young age, I knew I had a strong family history of cancer. My grandfather died of cancer, as did five of his six siblings. My great-grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was just 35 years old. Both of my aunts, my dad’s sisters, had breast cancer, and they were only 48 and 52 years old. They decided to get tested for a BRCA mutation. Sure enough, they had the BRCA2 genetic mutation. They had both of their daughters tested and they also had that same mutation, so they opted to have prophylactic mastectomies. Well, my aunts encouraged me to do the same, and finally I was tested, and sure enough, I had the same genetic mutation. I knew I did not want breast implants. I knew I wanted to do natural sort of flap reconstruction after reading a ton and ton about it.

(00:52):
My husband and I had looked into it and I had thought about it and prayed and talked with doctors and really knew what I wanted to do, but I didn’t have anywhere locally to go. I tried going to some plastic surgeons locally and they all told me I didn’t have enough tissue and they couldn’t even really make one breast with the tissue that I had. So I kept looking and my research kept bringing me back to NOLA.

(01:16):
I also knew that I didn’t want just a big scar across my chest. I really wanted to keep my original landscape. So I looked into nipple sparing mastectomies and local doctors told me that that wouldn’t work for me because of my thin skin and the effects of gravity. Well, I looked and sure enough, Dr. DellaCroce, when I contacted the center, he said he could take care of both. I had enough tissue to do the flap reconstruction and recreate my size BC breasts, and he also said I could have nipple sparing mastectomies. Well, that was huge news for me. And so it was pretty easy decision then to go to New Orleans and have the surgery done. For weeks, I walked around the house knowing that the tissue around my body was going to be used for my breast. And I pinched myself and pinched myself and I kept trying to envision that this extra, a little bit of extra tissue around my waistline was going to be used for my breasts.

(02:00):
My friends were pretty funny about it too. They couldn’t believe that I had enough there to fill my nice breasts and they even offered to give me some of their tissue.

(02:11):
My husband and I made the decision to go to New Orleans. It was the best decision I made. I’m so proud of my breasts now. They just look awesome. In fact, when I went to the dermatologist this last time, he could not believe that I had had a mastectomy. He even brought people in to take a look at my chest too. So I just have very thin small scars on my breasts and a very thin scar around my waistline too, but the scars will fade. And the other thing the dermatologist noticed was the very fine stitchery that Dr. DellaCroce must have done because I have such a thin scar and it’ll fade in time. Also, my breasts really do look natural. They feel natural to me too, and they’re warm and soft and all those things the breasts are supposed to be. And I’m still able to do all the activities I did before.

(02:54):
I’m up to a hundred pushups again and I’m back to lifting weights and cross country skiing and doing all those fun things I do in Idaho. After meeting with Dr. DellaCroce, I felt confident because he felt so confident. He assured me that I didn’t need to eat a bunch of cheeseburgers or anything like that to make extra tissue, that he could work with the body that I had. And in fact, the fact that I had been so physically active was a really big bonus because he thought I would actually recover a little bit easier and that I would still look really great. So my advice after all of this is to do your own research. This is your body. Be proactive. I’m still super active and I’m so thankful for Dr. DellaCroce and everybody at the center. I literally got this big burden off my chest.

(03:36):
So yeah, I’m a previvor.