Pain with tissue expanders two weeks post double mastectomy

jennyjenny8675309

hi all - I had a skin saving double mastectomy two weeks ago and at the one week follow up the nurse said “you look pretty full” and saw that the PS filled one at 450 and the other at 400. After the one week appointment, as the surgery swelling went down, I started getting sharp pains at the bottom of my left chest, by the bottom of my ribs, and also sharp pain right in the center of my chest along the bone that is in the middle of my ribcage (in between my two expanders) if I do any movement that involves bringing my hangs or arms together. Like super sharp stabbing pain. If I lean my upper body forward like leaving over sink to brush my teeth, I get th same sharp pain in the middle of my breast bone. If I sit at a desk and I’m slouched over even the slightest and I go to stand up straight, it’s the sharp stinging pain (that I’d rank an 8 outta 10) under my left breast. I can only assume this is coming from the expanders. Has anyone else experienced this same sharp pains in certain places from their expanders and if so, did it go away before the surgery to put implants in?

dimples90

jenny,

Sorry to hear about the pain from your expanders. I had expanders after skin sparing DMX in 2018 but didn’t experience the type of pain you are describing. However, my PS didn’t put very much into my expanders in the OR.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to your PS office and let them know about the pain.
Maybe the volume is too much? I think some saline can be removed if you can’t tolerate the volume.
Good luck!

faithfulkat

Hi Jenny,

Hope you're feeling better from your pain.

I also got mine filled by my PS in the OR, not very much b/c I'm on the petite side. I do have to say, they are bothersome, especially now that most of the swelling has gone down (and for some reason on rainy and humid days? - my operation date was 8/12/24).

Best of luck ❤️

jennyjenny8675309

thanks ladies!
I will say my surgery was 8/6/24 and being 4 weeks out it’s definitely better. The sharp pain upon certain movements is gone and ie it’s just a constant dull pain (which I describe as some pressing a wooden dowel onto my best bone and not letting up on the pressure), coupled with the constant stinging tingling feeling in my chest area. Taking gabapentin and ibuprofen helps with that feeling. But it’s definitely slowly progressing towards improvement.