Hi, I’m Leslie Shoemaker. I live in Leakey, Texas. In 2019, I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma and ductal carcinoma. I chose to have a double mastectomy with the DIEP flap. 

In October 2019 I had my big surgery and then my reconstruction was in February 2020. My pain level was almost nothing. It was wonderful when I woke up. Usually I’ve had surgeries before and I was in horrible, horrible pain. This time there was no pain at all. It was great!

I didn’t have many problems at all. The worst part was the drains you have to deal with but that’s just life. I’m starting to get back feeling more and more. It’s kind of crazy that every once in a while I’ll have a ghost pain and then you realize that you can feel more as it’s coming in. My doctor said it’ll take up to a couple years to get feeling back. However, I bet I have 50% feeling back. The only thing that’s really weird is right here where they removed the lymph nodes. It’s a tingle that you can feel up here. Other than that every once in a while you have an itch you can’t scratch. A lot of it is coming back that I didn’t expect to come back.

The care at PRMA was incredible. In the hospital, Dr. Nastala and Dr. Arishita’s nurses and everybody I came into contact with was wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for better care.

I am beyond pleased and very blessed with how everything has turned out. The only thing is the tattoos. I would recommend going darker because they do fade. But other than that, it was great. I’ve come in contact with quite a few people that have had cancer and every one of them I’ve recommended PRMA. I can’t think of anything negative, and you couldn’t because there’s nothing negative to say about PRMA. Between the office staff, the nurses and all the doctors I came into contact with was incredible.