This “Bachelor” alum is sharing pictures of her double mastectomy to help arm others with information
Any surgery is a big deal, but one as intimate as a double mastectomy can feel huge to so many women. So we’re glad that women are beginning to share their experiences with the procedure via social media to help others in similar situations.
And Bachelor alum Lesley Murphy underwent preventative double mastectomy surgery after she tested positive for the BRCA 2 gene — which highly increased her chance of a future breast or ovarian cancer diagnosis. Her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago, so Murphy armed herself with information and took control of the situation.
The caption in the below Instagram post included, "A double mastectomy at 2freaking9. Wtf?! Yep, it's happening. In no way am I looking for pity through this story. I've wanted to share the news since the beginning simply to be an advocate for early screenings, detections and girl power."
And we’re SO on board with that message! Here’s Murphy right after her surgery:
"My boobs are gone," she wrote in the caption. "Crazy, right? Gone. It's hard to wrap my head around."
This is day 2, and Murphy is up on her feet taking (in her own words) “baby steps.”
"This was no walk in the park," Murphy admits in the caption. "Ow. I think I was just glad to be in anything but a horizontal position. It was time to disconnect the IV, the oxygen tube and those lovely compression socks I couldn't wait to leave behind!"
We appreciate Murphy’s honesty so much, because this definitely wouldn’t be a walk in the park, but she’s healing well and remaining positive in the aftermath.
“Sometimes when I make the wrong movements it feels like my chest is detaching from my body, but all in all, I think my upper half is healing nicely! Sure, it’s sunken in and lumpy because what you see are deflated expanders that were put in which will gradually get filled every 2-3 weeks as I get ready for reconstructive surgery. Hopefully by then the permanent marker will be off my body?I feel lucky because my surgeons only made one vertical incision on the lower half of both breasts while saving skin & nipple. So while all breast tissue is (hopefully) gone, I retained some of the old me,” she captioned the above.
And here she is at 1 week post-op:
“Today was a good day. I put on make-up and pants for my doc appt. Make-up and pants! And shoes! I actually left the house for the first time since surgery.”
We’re so freaking proud of Murphy for using her experience to raise awareness about genetic testing and screenings, and the fact that women have options they can take advantage of if necessary.
Wishing you all the best with your recovery, Lesley!
