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

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.

Hi @stars7. For me since my surgery, even a post surgery sports bra was uncomfortable (painful). And my surgeon said “no compression” because of the blood flow to the nipples issue. I have two soft tanks from Old Navy that have served me well. Now, 3 months out, I do wear a bra from Soma that I tolerate really well.

I was able to do a little yoga in the last month once I got clearance from the plastic surgeon.

Do you mind me asking why they had to do the graft from your back? I’m just not familiar with that.

I will have fat grafting from stomach and thighs with my next surgery. Not looking forward to the bruising and pain. But I know I’ll get through it.

So sorry about that back incision hurting. That sounds hard. I wish I had some advice but I haven’t experienced that surgery.

Hi @susan7656, 2 years ago when I first got breast cancer I had a lumpectomy and radiation in my left breast, there was some radiation damage to my skin. The plastic surgeon said it wasn’t strong enough to hold an implant so they took the muscle flap from my lat in my back on the left side, he basically made the cut to remove the muscle and then tunneled it under the armpit keeping the blood supply intact and attached it under the skin to shield and support the implant on that side. Evidently I didn’t have enough tissue in my abdomen for him to use and he said the lat muscle usually works really well. I had already lost most of the feeling in that nipple and skin on the left breast from radiation. He wasn’t sure if my nipple graft would take, but so far it looks good! I’m thankful to at least have it, even without any feeling. I still have the drain in my back. Lots of swelling and fluid in my back. I had 3 drains right after surgery one for each breast plus the back drain. The breast drains came out after one week.
I wasn’t able to wear the sports bra for long it was just so tight and painful, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I found a soft one to try today that is bigger and so far it has been okay and I can breathe. I think the reason I think the right side is overfilled is because it’s mainly filled at the very top so it’s way high up in my chest and my armpit is pushed forward if that makes sense, it just looks weird. The bottom section is barely filled.

@susan7656 Thanks for your kind words! Update, I had my 4 week post op today and woohoo my nipples made it! He said they are attached and no worries they look great! He did have to remove some of the fluid from the right tissue expander because it was so uncomfortable for me, amazing the instant difference when he did that! I don’t need anymore fills so he said now we just let me heal for the next 2 months then we can do the exchange surgery to remove my expanders and put in my implants. This has been a tough 4 weeks.