hi there ladies,im having my pre op health screen on thursday next week, as i am awating surgery for risk reducing double mx with expanders, i have to see my breast surgeon again before the surgery as i havent seen him since april,he wanted me to wait until at least september this year for surgey to let my body get over the chemo and rads i completed in sept 2010, my options for surgery were to have a double mx with expanders, or a double mx then wait a few months and then have implants fitted, i dressed my mums wounds when she had mastectomies years ago, and didnt feel that waiting for breasts was for me, if i didnt have to wait, so i chose to have mx with expanders, followed by implants sometime later. my questions are, how many times roughly ,do you need to have the expanders filled, also i have no idea if i would be having my nipples removed, i know i can ask this when i see my surgeon but just wanted to know what other ladies have experienced with expanders and risk reducing surgery, thank you in advance Sandrae, x
Bump
Hi Nanny4!
I had a bilateral mx with expanders put in 3 weeks ago - and all good so far! :). I was sore for a couple of weeks whenever I did anything that used my chest muscles. I haven’t had them expanded yet as I’m still a bot swollen and bruised where the “filling ports” (or whatever they’re called!) are situated. My surgeon said that she would fill them up with 100-200mls at a time until I was happy with the size and that I could get to a D cup (was DD prior to surgery and probably an A/B cup now).
If you’ve had rads already then why aren’t they doing immediate recon with normal implants or your tissue? Do they need to remove your skin and slowly expand the area?
There’s a really good PDF on reconstruction options that Staycalmandcarryon posted that I keep sharing around. Will go and find it again!
x
Here’s another thread discussing options with the link to the PDF.
share.breastcancercare.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=34159&p=596182#p596182
Hi,
I have had a chest expander in since Feb and was only filled up once as I was only a B cup to begin with. I am having reconstruction a week today and have to say that although uncomfortable it hasn’t been too bad. Your boob is rock hard and it has been hard to lie on my front probably because the expanded boob is bigger and i am lop sided !! and because it is so damn hard.
For me the experience was better then having nothing there at all. Good luck x
Thank you ladies i am going to have a look at that link now sandytoes ,hope you both have a speedy recovery .x