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Julie Billar, M.D.: Women can expect some changes to the way their breast looks and
feels after a mastectomy without reconstruction for breast cancer, but most of those changes
will resolve themselves overtime. After a mastectomy without reconstruction, a woman
can still expect a lot of changes to the breast skin that is left behind, so after the surgery
because it disrupts the nerve fibers to the skin, most women will feel pretty much numbness
throughout the entire chest region where the breast used to be as well as along the incision
itself. Now, that feeling does come back over time and it often comes back as little nerve
fiber sensation, so some women will start to feel little prickly sensations and eventually
they will feel the pressure sensation when you touch the skin and then over a more extended
period of time, most women will regain full sensation back to their skin again. The area
where the actual incision is made though may remain numb for a very extended period of
time. You may not regain full sensation to the actual incision itself, but most women
will obtain that pressure, so that at least you can tell that it is being touched in that
area.