“I recommended Dr. Smith to a friend of mine. She had been in tremendous pain. This shows exactly how I feel about Dr. Smith: I told her, ‘If anyone can fix you, this person can fix you."”

Rachel was just 33 years old when she decided to have a risk-reducing mastectomy, but she was no stranger to breast cancer.

“When my mom was 42, she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer that had moved to her lungs. And she's still alive by some miracle. She's still alive. And she basically went through hell and back, and we watched that as kids.”

Rachel’s yearly mammogram identified a series of microcalcifications similar to what her mother had experienced prior to her own diagnosis. Not wanting to go through the same struggle her mom had, Rachel elected to have a risk-reducing double mastectomy. For her, the decision was an easy one.

“I was nervous about the surgery because I don't think I'd ever had surgery before. But other than that, I was just ready to leave the anxiety behind.”

Rachel’s parents, who are both physicians, put her in touch with Dr. Smith. Rachel was impressed by his credentials, but she was even more impressed during their initial consultation.

Rachel initially wanted a direct implant procedure, but Dr. Smith gave her his honest advice and recommended implant reconstruction with tissue expanders instead. Rachel decided to follow his recommendation.

During her mastectomy, Dr. Smith placed tissue expanders and filled them with air. Rachel was pleasantly surprised to see that she didn’t look “deformed” as she had anticipated after her mastectomy. Dr. Smith also placed her tissue expanders and eventually her implants over the muscle, which was Rachel’s preference.

While Rachel’s recovery was fairly straightforward, her reconstruction journey was held up by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My second operation was put off. Dr. Smith probably called me three times a week, because he wasn't able to operate. And he told me what was going on with COVID. And he would explain what was going on with me.

"He made a true nightmare situation—because being in the middle of a surgery during a global pandemic is probably something that no one can conceive; it's just insanity—he made it a lot better by being attentive and talking to me and explaining everything to me. It was pretty amazing.”

Rachel does acknowledge that her body isn’t the same as it was before. But she continues to feel better each day instead of worse, and even appreciates the “little bit of an upgrade” in the appearance of her breasts.

And she has already introduced her personal circle to Dr. Smith for help.