My name is Sonia and I’m from San Antonio. I’ve lived here for a good part of my life.  I am 44 years old and I had double mastectomies with DIEP flap reconstruction in December of 2018. My revision surgery was in May of 2019 and I had my last procedure at the end of 2019.

I had Dr. Arishita and his nurse Cori. I can tell you Dr. Arishita did an amazing job! He was gentle and his bedside manner is just perfect and very respectful. Cori also was great with me.

I decided to do the DIEP flap because I fell in love with the idea of the forever implant. As far as pain (I probably have a lower tolerance for pain than most), when I got home, I was uncomfortable. I wasn’t on heavy narcotics or anything, but I definitely had to learn how to take medication. Even with over-the-counter medications I had to learn how to rotate those every four to six hours.

I never felt alone in my pain. I really felt like PRMA was there to help me get through it and manage it. I appreciated that. I think also what we have to do as patients is follow directions. You know, they ask you to wear the binder, they ask you to get up and walk so many times a day, and I think all those things really help in your recovery.

My mom did come stay with me for two weeks and really helped so I could focus on recovery. I appreciated that.

My care from PRMA has been top notch. Dr Arishita really treated me like I was part of his family.  I felt important here. I know lots of patients come here. I never felt rushed in any appointments and again I felt like they really took the time with me. There were times when I didn’t even know what I wanted when I was here. I remember before my revision surgery I couldn’t remember exactly what Dr. Arishita was going to do and I made another appointment to come in and Dr. Arishita was really able to make me feel a little more at ease and  walk me through exactly what he was going to do. And again, really made the time to make sure I was comfortable before walking into surgery.

In my job, I do have the opportunity to work with a lot of internal medicine and primary care physicians around the city. A lot of these physicians I’ve known for 10-12 years and for the ones that I’ve trusted over the years, I did share my story.  I have to tell you that 99% of those physicians recommended this place here at PRMA.  Either they had a patient come through here, they had a family member come through here, and their experience just was very good coming from PRMA. So again, it was no question for me that I wanted to come here.

Everything I experienced here has been wonderful.

By the end of the day, if I emailed a question or if I called, somebody would get back with me by the end of the day. I never felt like I had a dumb question either. I know nothing about oncology, nothing about reconstruction, so I was just happy that nobody made me feel less than.

Dr. Arishita also always asked before he touched me. And again, I felt like he was so respectful in his care.

As far as my results go, I am extremely happy.  There were times when I would look at myself in the mirror and I would think I look pretty good considering everything I’ve been through. But now I look at myself and I think I am beautiful. Period.

You can hardly see my scars anymore and I feel like I look like the most beautiful, natural version of myself and I’m extremely happy with that!

I thank God for putting the right people in my life and for sending me here and for the surgeons.