Anyone have a lumpectomy/lump removed/breast surgery and still breastfed?

[treehugginhippie]

My 3.5 yr old dd weaned about 5 mo ago and I'm finally ready to have my lactating adenoma removed before another pregnancy. So I'm not bf now but want to in the future again I was on the fence about having it removed so put it off but now that she's weaned it's much smaller and I'm afraid of it getting bigger again when my milk comes in (like it did before...it feeds off of my hormones unfortunately).

Anywho...my surgeon is very very good but not too breastfeeding friendly. It's very small...about the size of a pea. And it's right at the surface 1/2" from my areola. Said it should take 15 mins or so. He wants to do the traditional incision around the areola. I mentioned about doing an incision going the same direction of the milk ducts so it won't cut them but he said that the one around the areola would be better (even though I insisted I didn't care about the scar showing).

I'm wondering how the surgery has affected the breast. Has anyone had a lump removed? Where was the incision? Did it cut milk ducts? Did the milk ducts die or did the reconnect? If the incision was around the areola, any nerve damage in that area? Any other info?

TIA

[dancemama23]

YES! I am actually amazed that the breast I had the surgery on is my son's favorite. It produces more milk than my other breast, in fact. I had a rather large lump (2cm) and my doc did the incision along the edge of the areola. It was scary for about 6 months because I couldn't feel anything, but all sensation returned. Also, don't be afraid to shop around for a surgeon I didn't use the one my gyn recommended, I went with a referal from a friend.
Good luck to you!

[superlori]

Yes, I had a lumpectomy (2 actually) in my left breast. The surgeon told me it wouldn't interfere with breastfeeding, but when I started feeding my dd, I found I did have some issues.

My incisions were right around the areola too. One was rather deep, the other just under the surface. When I started feeding, I developed a plugged duct close to where the deep incision was. This then developed into mastitis (though the doctor insisted that scar tissue couldn't stop the flow of milk and I just needed to do massage!!). However, after the mastitis cleared up, I had no problems at all with feeding from that side. My guess is that that particular duct stopped producing, while the rest of the breast continued. I don't make AS much milk on that side, but that may just be a coincedence too. My dd actually prefers that side because the milk doesn't shoot down her throat in a hundred different directions like it does on the other side!

So yes, you should definitely still be able to breastfeed. Some women have fewer ducts than others, but assuming you've got more than one or two on that one side, you should be fine. Good luck!

[Martha_2sons]

I had a lumpectomy in my right breast due to breast cancer and I've never produced any milk in that breast. Although I don't know this for sure, I think the radiation did more to "kill" that breast than did the surgery though. Also, I did produce enough milk from one breast for my DS2.

[Gumby]

IIRC, my mom did. Twice.