Anyone experience pain on one side wth placement of Tissue Expander?

I did not have pain, but if you have a portal at the hospital or a triage line that is available call. Pain that does not go away is not good. I believe i was numb from the surgery, but i did not have pain. Get it checked, so this part of the process will be manageable. Take care of you.

Thanks!
Just confirmed no chemo will be required and my understanding is we can now plan the next steps for reconstruction. Everything happens so fast with this process. I may have made a different choice given more time to process.
Thanks again for your input!

@cberge67, how are you doing? Did the pain resolve?

Hi! Thanks for asking. I’m still dealing with the pain on the right side. Scheduled for next step in three weeks. I’ve been given the choice to take gabapentin or just work through the pain. Just taking it a day at a time. I have a lot to be grateful about! Onco score was 13.. so very grateful!
I know I need to choose the next med..all seem to be about the same.
1. Anastrozole Oral Tablet
2. Letrozole Oral Tablet
3. Exemestane Oral Tablet

I am in the exact same boat with diagnosis and treatment plan. I, too have had pain on the surgery side, but I think it's more structural than disease oriented. I'm assuming it has to do with the expander, and will be gone when my reconstruction is complete. (Not until January, due to radiation recommended after 1 positive node discovery and a ONCO score of 24. ) The pain isn't really that painful, just annoying, and only when I've been horizontal for hours. So it's tolerable.

Next week I'll be starting on Anastrozole. My oncologist thinks it'll work better for me than Letrozole, with fewer side effects. Stay tuned! That "day at a time" positive attitude is so important. Everybody's different, and every body reacts differently. No need to brace yourself for every possible side effect you read about.......all you need to do is listen to YOUR body, and do your best to take care of it. The unknown is a nerve wracking place though!!!! 🙂

I am you are in pain. The expanders were very uncomfortable for me too. Like 2 baseballs inside me that has plastic sides poking out of my skin. I had to keep telling myself " I can make it. Other women do, I can too ".
My surgeon wasn't concerned that I was uncomfortable. Everytime I went for a fill I told her I hated them. She said she knows they can be uncomfortable. 🙁

Good luck to you!!

I meant to say ...I am sorry you are in pain!!

Hi all! I have a question about tissue expander pain and size. I had a double mastectomy, skin sparing nipple sparing, with a latissimus dorsi flap muscle graft from my back on the left side, and tissue expanders placed on both sides. My surgery was Jan 7, 2025.
My surgeon filled my expanders at my 1 week post op visit and again yesterday at my 2 week post op visit. He also removed all my sutures and dressings yesterday. I had 3 drains and I’m down to just one drain.
The right side seems to be huge after being filled, and it hurts so much that I was in tears most of the night even with my muscle relaxer. He didn’t fill my left side as much since it has the muscle flap, plus that side has been radiated so I have no feeling really on that side.
Is it normal for the tissue expanders to hurt like that?? It hurts worse now on the right side than it did when I woke up from surgery plus it seems like it’s so big, way bigger than the size I was wanting.
I was originally a DD naturally prior to mastectomy and I asked to be a smaller size B cup after reconstruction. I’ll have the expanders swapped out for implants after 3 months but I’m concerned it’s overfilled on that side.

Hi. I had a nipple sparing mastectomy in October 2024 and did get tissue expanders.

In my own experience, the tissue expanders do hurt and are uncomfortable. Especially as you are healing from the initial trauma is mastectomy and lymph node removal.

Have you tried the post mastectomy chest pillow from Amazon? You can wear it around the house. It cushions your tissue expanders. I also sleep with mine on top of my chest.

I’m sorry you’re having so much pain. One thing I found out very soon was that I was doing too much and walking around too much. It would tire me out greatly and increase my pain. My surgeon told me I was the most active patient she ever had and to stop it. Resting is a proactive thing to do for your healing.

So I did what she said and 3 months later I’m in a much better place.

The muscle graft portion of your surgery sounds very painful. I’m not a medical person, but I would think that your level of pain is probably normal given what you’ve gone through.

Getting the tissue expanders filled can be painful, especially in the first month or so.

For size, I was a D before and I am a full C now, and that’s where I’ve decided to stop. I’ve talked with 5 other patients about size with tissue expanders and implants and learned about the risks of going “too small” and the discomfort of going “too big.” My doctor and I paid attention to my body type and together agreed on what looked and felt appropriate as the tissue expanders would get filled.

My doctor recommended I go get commercially sized as I was getting closer to the volume amount that seemed appropriate for my body type. So after my last 3 fills, I went to get commercially sized.

For pain in the beginning, I rotated Valium, tramadol, ibuprofen and Tylenol. My husband kept detailed logs of when I took medicine.

I have used the Waking Up meditation app since 2019. And using it multiple times a day during my healing has helped tremendously.

Ask your surgeon about your concern of one being overfilled. My guess is that they have a plan to even them out over months.

Thank you for your reply. I do have a pillow which helps when I’m just sitting. I’m actually way more comfortable standing than sitting, I feel like everything is so compressed when I sit and anything pressing on my back incision is uncomfortable. They had encouraged me to walk about 1/2 a mile a day which is a lot less than my normal activity. When I asked if I could stretch at all, he said absolutely no yoga and no weights for 6 weeks. lol so I’m trying to sit and be still more. I’m on a muscle relaxer, Tylenol, and Xanax. I had hydrocodone for the first 2 weeks. I can’t take ibuprofen because of kidney issues. The pain is so much worse in the evening for some reason.
They also said no ice and no heat, which would be my normal go to for pain relief.
I’m planning on asking about the feeling overfilled on the right side at my 3 week post op appointment on Wednesday. He said I could start wearing a sports bra this week, prior they said no bra and no compression at all so my nipple grafts could attach. When I put on my sports bra it was so tight and bulging out on the right side, it didn’t do that prior to surgery, which makes me really feel like that side is so much bigger. I’m 5’5” 130 lbs so DD was so uncomfortable and out of proportion. (They got bigger with each of my pregnancies and breast feeding) Honestly I was so excited at how small they were right after surgery. Now with filling I just don’t like that right side, the left still looks great. I actually considered going flat, but I didn’t want to use a prosthetic. I at least wanted some shape for when I swim and wear dresses. I think maybe I didn’t communicate well enough that I really wanted to be much much smaller.