When women face the difficult decision to remove their breasts due to cancer, the focus is naturally on saving their lives. Yet for many, life after surgery comes with unexpected challenges: studies show up to 60% of women experience persistent numbness in their chest following a mastectomy. Now, an emerging surgical technique is offering hope to survivors seeking to reclaim the sense of touch and quality of life they once had.
For Kelli Kempt, a resident of La Brea, California, life changed dramatically last spring.
“I felt a lump when I was changing, and I’d never felt anything like that before,” Kempt recalled. Her dog, Holly, persistently sniffed at the same spot. A biopsy confirmed her fears: she had invasive ductal carcinoma, an aggressive form of breast cancer.
For peace of mind and to reduce the risk of recurrence, Kempt chose a double mastectomy. But friends who had undergone similar procedures warned her of a little-known side effect: long-lasting loss of sensation.
“They told me it doesn’t feel the same when I hug my kid or that I have to be careful in the shower because I won’t feel if it’s hot,” Kempt said.
Dr. Maher Gobran, a breast surgeon at Providence St. Joseph, explained why numbness occurs.
“As the breast tissue is removed, the tiny sensory nerve fibers supplying the breast are inevitably cut,” he said. “This loss of sensation can serve as a constant reminder of the diagnosis and treatment patients have endured.”
For Kempt, the prospect of permanent numbness was daunting. “Am I gonna have this shocking memory of everything—chemo, surgery, everything—every time I hug someone?” she wondered.
Her doctors offered a solution: a nerve grafting procedure designed to restore sensation after a mastectomy. After the breast tissue is removed, a plastic surgeon reconnects severed nerves to the skin, creating a pathway to the brain.
“The surgeon grafted the nerves from the cut ends to her skin to restore sensation,” Gobran said.
Known as the “Resensation” procedure, this approach is gaining traction in breast reconstruction surgery. It is often covered by insurance and adds minimal risk, yet many patients remain unaware of its availability.
“Patients should ask both their breast and plastic surgeons about these procedures,” Gobran advised.
Recovery can take several months, but the results can be life-changing. For Kempt, regaining the ability to feel the warmth of her dog’s hug—or even a friend’s—has provided comfort and reassurance.
“It felt like they believed I was going to survive and that it mattered how I felt afterward,” she said.
