Earlier this month, Melissa Ray, a 39-year-old native of Arizona, traveled to San Antonio, where a team of doctors at the PRMA Plastic Surgery center performed a double mastectomy on her. Just like Angelina Jolie, Ray tested positive for the BRCA gene, or breast cancer gene. And after watching her mother die of the disease, opted to have an elective double mastectomy. By having the surgery, Ray reduces her risk of the disease to 98 percent.


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But unlike most women who go through the procedure in private, Ray wanted to debunk the myths around mastectomy surgery and reconstructive breast work, so she allowed the surgeons to live tweet what was happening in the operating room. The whole thing took four hours, including breast reconstruction. Ray chose to have what's called a DIEP flap reconstruction, which is where fat and blood vessels from the abdomen are used to construct new breasts.

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"I'm doing this today because I want to help women like me to know that there's options out there, and this option's not for everybody," said Ray. "But it's important to consider that. Especially when you're high risk, and there's something you can do about it." [Daily Mail]