Nikki’s Preventative Double Mastectomy Fund

In July 2021, with the encouragement of my family and friends, I decided to test for the breast cancer gene once I knew I was done having children. My whole life I’ve wondered if I had it since I’d witnessed my grandma and mom go through chemo twice each for breast cancer when I was young. Sure enough, I tested positive for the BRCA1 gene around the same age as the first diagnosis as my mom and grandma. This means my lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is 87%. As a mom of two young kids, I want to be proactive about doing what I can do to reduce my risk for developing this awful disease. I’ve never had much anxiety before, but I keep thinking about whether I will get cancer first or get my preventative mastectomy first. I am currently doing screenings every six months which is anxiety inducing enough. Thankfully, there’s something I can do to reduce my risk to less than 5% by getting a prophylactic double mastectomy followed by reconstruction. In a traditional mastectomy, the surgeon removes all of the tissue in the breast, including the nerves. This leaves the patient with complete chest numbness and a lifetime of shooting pain from the nerves they severed, resulting in “post-mastectomy pain syndrome.” When I learned that this would be my prognosis, I wanted to see if there were any other options. One of the silver linings of social media is the ability to have access to information that we normally wouldn’t have. Through joining different BRCA groups on Facebook, I discovered the groundbreaking “Team Peled”in San Francisco. This husband and wife team have been performing sensation preserving, nipple sparing mastectomies with implant reconstruction since 2017. Dr. Ziv, the husband, is a peripheral nerve and plastic surgeon; and Dr. Anne, the wife and breast cancer survivor, is a breast cancer and plastic/reconstructive surgeon. This team of surgeons has a 90% success rate of sensation after surgery, meaning I will still be able to feel my kids’ hugs and not be in pain for the rest of my life. My mastectomy and reconstruction will be in two phases: the first surgery is a reduction and lift to place my breast “pockets” in the best place possible (due to pregnancy and nursing for a few years) followed by the nerve preserving and nipple sparing direct to implant mastectomy. For each surgery, I am flying down to San Francisco and need to spend part of my recovery there until I’ve had my post-op appointments. The recovery for each surgery will be a lot on me and those supporting me and my family. Due to the cutting-edge and innovative nature of the nerve preservation, Dr Ziv’s portion of my surgery will most likely not be covered by insurance. I am hoping that this becomes “the standard of care” in the future as many women are learning about and wanting this procedure as part of their reconstruction and won’t have to do these fundraisers to be able to have a better quality of life after a life altering diagnosis.

I know that these surgeries are going to put a strain on my immediate family by not being able to lift more than 5 pounds and unable to work and want to do what I can to reduce the stress of finances for them. My hope for this fundraiser is to be able to cover my medical costs and loss of income while I am recovering for at least 6 weeks with each surgery.

I finally have my first phase surgery on July 27th!I have been waiting for this since I discovered Team Peled in October 2021. I am hoping to have the second phase completed this fall. I appreciate any and all support and positive thoughts of healing that you are able to give. Thank you so much.

To learn more about Team Peled and more details about this surgery, I encourage you to visit their website at https://annepeledmd.com