How many ccs per fill typically?

Yeah, what SpecialK said!!! :-)

camellia - I would recommend taking Tylenol before, not ibuprofen. Fills are done with a large needle (it is a little crazy when you see it for the first time!) and you might increase bleeding risk with ibuprofen. I think it would be ok to take it later, but I would not take it prior to the fill.

I had bilateral 800 cc TE's and implants. Each side received 300 ccs at TE placement. I had two more fills of 250 cc on each side.

I had delayed reconstruction. I had been exercising and had regained upper body strength and muscle flexibility before I started reconstruction. I had a feeling of tightness for about 20 minutes after each fill; no pain at all.

Go with what your plastic surgeon thinks you can handle.

Camillia,

As you read posts elsewhere on this discussion group page, you will see a huge difference in how many cc's and how long it takes - not just from "empty" to full, but also how long you wait from "full" to exchange. Some plastic surgeons have you wait 6 months after your last fill. Others have you wait half that time. Some only put in 30 cc a week. Others give 100 cc's every time. There really is no usual amount or average waiting time. Just like all of us are different, PS seem to all be different too.

Some women report no pain from TE's, others are just the opposite and call it TE hell. I suspect some of it boils down to your individual pain tolerance, but the big difference is what a person calls pain. There is a big difference between being uncomfortable, feeling tightness, and being in pain. Some people don't deal well with what I consider discomfort, especially in one area of their body vs. another. I can't stand to get my teeth cleaned...it is painful to me and I'm miserable for about a day. My mouth is my Achilles heel. It's not uncomfortable, it's painful and I want drugs! Seems ridiculous to everybody else. On the other hand, I don't think the BMX was VERY painful. I am allergic to narcotics and opiates so all I can take is Tylenol. My pain level was never above a 5 even at the beginning.

When someone says TE's were terribly painful, I scratch my head and say, really? I've never had a moment of pain but several hours after each fill I feel tight and achy...uncomfortable, not painful. I take Tylenol and it's gone. No problem the next day. The needle doesn't hurt (numb after the BMX) and they put a little pressure on the injection site for a few seconds so there is no bleeding or bruising after even though I am on a blood thinner. There is no pressure or pain during the fill. I truly feel absolutely nothing.

I've had the TE since Sept. 6th and started getting fills during the third week. I've had 5 fills: 180 cc's, 240 cc's, 80 cc's, 80 cc's, and today 100 cc's. There may be one more small one next week but otherwise he says I'm ready for the exchange in late November. Bring it on! Just don't make me go to the dentist.

I had a N/S BMX with TE placement on October 10. The PS filled me with 200 cc's at surgery. Two weeks later I had my first post-op fill of 125 cc's. I felt some pressure at the time, but by that evening I was in pain. I don't think I have a low pain threshold because I was able to stop the IV pain meds in the hospital after one day, and only took a few Percocets after I was home. I started out very small (A cup) and now I'm a little bigger than I was before surgery with 325 cc's. The goal is for 450 cc's and he said he will overfill by 100 cc's to make sure there is enough room for the implants.



I'm going to ask him if he can decrease the amount of the next fill...maybe to 75 cc's. 125 cc's was too much for me, or maybe too soon after surgery, I don't know.

P.S. I have no problem at the dentist...not much pain!

People just have different pain tolerances. Although I have had plenty of very VERY painful things happen (like the injections of radioisotopes around my nipples for the Sentinal Node Biopsy...AWFUL) recovery from a BMX and having a TE ranks very low on my list. It's not a walk in the park, but it's manageable. Some of it may have to do with the fact that I have always preferred to try other things before I resort to taking something for pain.

I am allergic to narcotics of all kinds and have coded 4 times due to dilauded, stadol, tramadol, and a couple of Tylenol #2's with codeine that one doctor promised wouldn't hurt me at all. One minute I'm awake and the next I open my eyes with 20 people standing around me and broken ribs from too aggressive CPR on the way upstairs to ICU. (Broken ribs REALLY hurt!) The only thing I can take is plain old Tylenol so I save it for when I need it. With IV 100 mg Tylenol I've dealt with a hysterectomy & gall bladder removal (cut open stem to stern) a gastric bypass (ditto), and a lower body lift where I had 58" of incisions. Tylenol doesn't take the pain away...it just brings it down to a level where I can use other techniques to hopefully get it under control. Doesn't always work but it worked great for the BMX and for the second surgery due to infection and necrotic tissue & muscle that had to be removed on one side. As pain goes, this isn't bad. It's a surgery and recovery full of weird unpleasant sensations rather than unremitting pain.

I was a migraine sufferer for years and had to learn biofeedback techniques to deal with them because neurologist after neurologist gave up trying to find something that would work but not kill me. I carried something that looked like it should have been in s Star Trek movie - a fat syringe pre-filled with drugs to slap into my thigh when a migraine was coming on. The drug was almost worse than a migraine - it dilates all the arteries in your head at once so you feel like the top of your head is about to blow off. I spent hours sitting in strange parking lots because a migraine had come on while I was driving and I had to pull over and wait it out. I KNOW pain and really, truly, this isn't so bad. (I only get a migraine one or two times a year now due to the prophylactic medication sertraline.)

Biofeedback WORKS. Do yourself a favor and find online websites or a book from the library to teach you. The only thing it doesn't help with for me is trips to the dentist. THAT hurts! Having a baby is a piece of cake compared to dental work. See, we're all different.

Out of all my fills, my 5th one was the worst. I had pain on the second night, didn't sleep well at all. The pain extended right under my arm, and to my back (I had a lat flap surgery, hence the wrap-around pain) but it did eventually go away by the 5th day. My 6th (and final) fill was the same volume, but didn't hurt nearly as much.

With each passing day, your body gets used to the expander, and suddenly you don't realize it's there anymore...

Im at 400/500 cc now, overfilled by 100 on each side. Now I wait 8 weeks for exchange. The tes have been generally no problem. Got 100 during surgery, first fill on one side 50cc at 4 weeks. Have done 50 a week till now Im done. However, since last week the right side is pressing on a nerve and Ive had back and neck pain. Feels like you slept wrong, but it doesnt really go away. Ill probably call ps later in week if it doesnt subside, Ive read of others getting muscle relaxers, so that might help. Thought Id get thru it painless (yes some little tweak pain, stretched skin), so this is a disappointment. And painful !

I highly recommend smaller, slow filling.

SpecialK ~ in looking back over the posts, I saw where you said fills are done with a large needle? I'm pretty sure you had the same PS as me and the syringe was huge, but the needle is just a tiny butterfly type. I would have died if she used a big needle.

As far as fills ladies, a few of us are obviously the exception as to how much we had put in at placement and how many cc at each fill. I was a full 38C and had 800 removed from each breast with NS BMX. I had 380 inserted at surgery, 60 cc one week postop, 100 week two, 100 week three, 120 week four. I was VERY tight for a couple days and uncomfortable, but not really in pain. Then came that last fill of 120!!! I was in HORRIBLE pain for a good 3 days. Had to go back on narcotics to function. Funny thing, the pain was only in my right side. It took about a week to completely calm down and now it's not that noticeable, but I am still taking the Skelaxin twice daily. My exchange is Jan 16 and I CANNOT wait!!!! I have healed up nicely and am pleased that I went with NS.

cjc - my PS is male, so don't think it is the same one. I did not have a small butterfly needle, I had a large syringe with a very long needle. There was no tubing, the needle went directly into the TE port.