Exchange City
Comments
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Bud, it hurts because you have that damn strap pushing your breasst down and the tight wrap restricting your breathing! Very few of us have had to go through either of those...much less both. Sorry for your pain. I had a soft surgical bra on when I woke up but it served no function other than to hold a bit of gauze over a few incisions. It was gone once I got home. Did not have drains. Did not have to wear a bra at all after the exchange or after the BMX either.
Hint: to help with pain from something rubbing on your incisions, use a Kotex pad.
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MinusTwo -
...and this is for you!
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AZ- you are precious!!!
Ally
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Oh believe me MinusTwo, I won't stop reading nor asking questions. I didn't get to where I am,drug free, with my Rheumatoid Arthritis and with my diagnosis of BC. It took me changing doctors because I had made it my mission to be informed.;-)
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Olaf - way to go. You can share my ice cream!! Thanks AZ.
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Anytime, Ladies, anytime...
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I am right there with you Minustwo! I have switched Dr.'s before and will not go to anyone who does not allow me to ask questions. I had to argue with several Dr.'s the first time around with BC 12 years ago when they wanted me to do chemo and I was like prove that it will help (they couldn't by the way and my oncologist later admitted I was treated suc. without it). As the old saying goes "What do you call a guy who graduated last in his class at medical school" Answer: "Doctor" . Doctors are just humans after all!
p.s. I will eat ice cream with you anytime
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hoping I am posting in the correct area. I am scheduled for exchange aug 20. So far I have 280 cc in each and have appts for fills tues and the next week. I thought I heard my ps say something about 435 cc implants which is fine. However the secretary emailed me asking if we were still filling because ps had noted we were at full size and she was told to order 300-325 cc implants! Whippet mom has my stats and says I will not be the c cup I wanted with that size. Of course I will discuss this Tuesday but do you think I can keep my surgery date if I still need more fills? Ps says she does exchange as soon. As we reach fill size. So confused. Been looking at pictures online all weekend of women with different sized implants but they are all augmentations so I suppose they are different.
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Budrfligal, I've been reading your posts and have to chime in about the strap. Is it about 2 inches wide and elastic? I woke up after my BMX with one of those. I actually rubbed sores under my arms so I got a pair of those warm, fuzzy, colorful socks and cut the toe out and slipped it over the strap. Worked like a charm and when the PS saw it he laughed and said that was a first! Mr. conservative actually laughed! Anyway, if we have the same strap that may work for you! I know already that I will be sporting another strap at my exchange!0 -
Bethq- I don't know if this will help but I have 325 cc high profile silicone and that makes me a full C. I am 5'7'' 132lbs. It 's very nervewracking trying to figure it out and of course everyones different. I don't think he thought I would be anywhere near a C with that but I am. So although it doesn't seem common that that small an implant could make you a C, in my case it did. Hope it helps.
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Beth, my P'S filled me to 800. He told me he would put in 900 cc implants. I am a large woman..h ow ever he put in 700 mentors and filled them to 850. Go figure. I am a pretty full C. With the same projection issue so St reconstruction women have. No front to fill in most bras. There are a few designs I fill out. But i don't usually have to wear a bra. Again different P'S do things differently.
Here is one bra I fill nicely as a C cup. I forgot the brand Bali maybe? But I bought it at Kohls Department Store. It feels good.
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moon simply lovely!
Kamm that does help but I'm pretty sure she said I would be getting saline and I don't know what profile yet. Maybe that would make a difference. She looked at me at the last fill and said I was a C and that I would not get smaller at the exchange so maybe I need to just trust that. I will talk to her Tuesday. Thanks.
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As long as you feel she's hearing you you'll be good! I told mine I wanted to be exactly the same as my expander size visually. I made sure he understood that.Then I had to trust. In order to do that he put in a bigger implant than I had volume in my expander. I think I only had 240cc's in the expander and he put in 325's and he nailed it. It's exactly right. Sometimes if they go cc for cc you'll be smaller so be careful. Also projection makes a difference so keep it in mind. Good luck.
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Minus2, your ice cream looks yummy! I'm going to AZs ice cream shop!:))
I too came out from surgery with a soft bra that wasn't really any compression. My PS said I didn't have to wear a bra after the first week, but sometimes I really feel like I need the support/compression because I get sore. I found a couple of sport bras that choose in the front, but even those aren't ideal as the band rolls up and that makes my skin feel raw. I do a lot of walking at work and if I don't have support my pectorals protest (then I'm walking around holding my chest!) Now that is NOT a professional sight!:)
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My ps said to wear underwire after two weeks. I wasn't comfortable so she said wear anything with support. She said a bra was necessary because my implants are heavy allergen 20 750cc. Now with the hole in the base of one of the breast she contributed that partly to the weight of the implant sitting on thin skin... Not sure how we can fix that! She cut and re stitched! I'll find out Tuesday I guess.... Question, she put steri strips to close it, this was done on Thursday, will they be ready to fall off by Tuesday? Will she peel them off if they're not ready?
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when you got your expanders I know that ps use your same incision as mastectomy. Did your ps open up the whole thing again? I have more stitches now than I did with my mast ugh
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Moon, I have the exact same bra! It is a Bali 3488 (I think they call it Comfort Revolution) that I also purchased at Kohl's. I have it in 4 colors:)
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My PS used the mastectomy scar to make the nipples (well, the skin around that horizontal line). He made new incisions underneath the breast (IMF) to take out the expanders and put in implants.
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Moon and 3littlebirds - I've been wearing Bali 3484 which is very similar. One of these days I'll take the time to visit the only Nordstrom's anywhere close to me which is about 3.5 hours away. I do really want to find some colorful, girly underwires again but am being patient about it.
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hello, I joined this forum a few weeks ago. It has been very helpful to read everyone's stories with this. I posted to a few forums but have not received much feedback. I am getting my TE information to whiippetmom today as I am so obsessed with exchange size since I need to decide how big to go in for fills today. I like the size I am now maybe a little bigger but everyone seems to say implants are smaller than TE are so want to be sure I go big enough but don't want to go to big. After reading everyone's experiences I realize I need to ask more questions too
I had a b cup but know they scrapped a lot since my cancer was deep not my chest wall. I want to be a full c as far as bra size and looking but know its hard to pinpoint exactly. Most women want o go bigger although have been reading how some want to be the same. I just wan o be able to not wear a bra in summer or at times where things look better without a bra too. This is so overwhelming. My TE now is 350 cc but filled to 375 cc but of course can be much bigger but not sure what I want to do. I also know now they are more round include the sides of my arms but will look much different after too.
I have been reading a lot in exchange city but I wound love to read more posts on post exchange on if people are happy with their outcome or if they would have done things differently. I wanted to go bigger since there is so much I went through but don't want to be greedy and regret it later. I think I would be more upset if they were too small than too big but I don't an o appear selfish either though.
I would love to have access to the picture gallery so I can compare similar before then after based on my size. So if you can point me in the right direction of where I can find testimonies of after the exchange and pictures that would be great. I need to decide soon and meeting with my dr today to discuss what he has in mind But i think those who has been through it are just as much of an expert as my dr is. Thanks for your help! Xox
Please feel free to PM me.
Cathy
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Oh gosh Babyo20- you sound just like me I was obsessed! I was the opposite though. I was afraid they would be to big! I felt like I could always make them look bigger with the right bra if I wanted and I new at fifty, no matter what, I wasn't going out to a function without a bra. I work out a lot so my focus was more about them not having to much to strap down when I run!. Sounds like your doing the right things. Read everything you can because there are numbers behind this but no exact science. My posts above tell you my details if that's helpful but I have to say I'm glad that's over because for me that was the most stressful part of this whole experience. Every other decision I was pretty definitive about. Good luck and enjoy them when you get them because they are MUCH better than the expanders no matter what size they are!
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Kamm I agree about it being stressful! I have the appt tomorrow for a fill and am so nervous to ask if I can go a little bigger than what she "ordered" (300-325) after she told me 435. I am obsessing about it and driving my husband crazy. He refuses to give me his opinion. The PS told me to try on bras, etc and see if I liked where I was. To me that is not a big help.
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If you want to go bigger ask her for sure! Don't be afraid. This is initially a one shot deal and you don't want to have any regrets. It's no big deal for her to change that order but it would be a bigger deal for you to be so unhappy that you wanted a revision in a couple of months. Not the time to be timid . At the very least it will force her to explain to you why the difference and will give you an opportunity to reiterate to her what exactly you think you want. If you can use your expanders as your guide as I did that's even better. Whatever it takes for your PS to clearly understand what your looking for. Actually the bra thing is pretty good. I knew I wanted to stay somewhere around where I was with better shape and fullness. Once my expanders filled out my old bras and i was comfortable I told him that's what I wanted but I made it clear that I wanted that projection also. It worked perfectly. So try it and see.
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I just posted poctures in the forum if anyone is interested in giving me their opinions. Thanks.
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Question on exchange surgeries for those that have had them - did you PS go through the same area to do the exchange as were used for the mastectomy? My incisions were horizontal through the middle of my breasts - is that typically where they go in for the exchange. I thought that was the case but saw where someone posted that their PS went under the breast area for exchange. Thanks
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Mine is going in the same way. Smaller incision for saline, larger for silicone.
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Thanks Bethq - that is my understanding from my PS also
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Kamm thank you for sharing! What size did you go with? How big did you end up being? Guess I compare myself to others too much lol I used to be an avid workout person but had a baby last year so that was put on hold for awhile. More walking, biking, anything aerobic miss it a lot!
Do you wish you had gone bigger? Were they smaller than the TE like everyone said they would be? My PS said that they won't be as wide but will have more projection which I think is good lol it's not that I want huge breasts just want bigger than I was to avoid wearing padding bras like I used to and to not wear any bras sometimes since never been able to do that but feel a little selfish doing that but with all we went through
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babyo20: your PS said your implants would be LESS wide with MORE projection??? In order to properly fit the footprint made by the TEs the width of the implant should never be narrower than the TE unless your PS plans to narrow the pocket to match the implant width at the time of your exchange. And typically the implants have less projection than the same size TE because the implants relax into your chest wall where the TEs have a rigid back and all the expansion goes to the front. I don't mean to doubt your PS but that projection comment seems to be just the opposite of what most of us have learned to be true. Or are you exchanging to an implant that is quite a bit larger (cc) than the TEs? Whippetmom has always said you need about 100cc extra in implant size to approximate the TE size (if you like the look at, say, 500cc, you should exchange to 600cc implants).
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thanks sweetandspecial for that. He did say the base wouldn't be as wide since the implant is so big at the sides maybe he just meant that it won't be that wide near my arms too but stick out more like they do now. He prob meant that I won't feel it at the sides like I do now. Make sense to you? Does this sound like what people are told?
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