Nerve pain with expander

Perks

Hi there, I had a mastectomy 3 weeks ago now and had my first saline fill last week, since then I have had terrible pain where my nipple should be like someone is squeezing it tightly. Has anyone else had this? if so what helped?

Julez1958

Hi @Perks
I had a skin sparing mastectomy in October 2020 and at that time I had tissue expander inserted.
I had terrible pain for about 6 weeks - couldn’t get off the Endone even though normally I never even take so much as a Panadol .
Both my surgeon and breast care nurse said everyone was different and to be patient .
At about the 6 week mark the pain got a lot better although I continued to get the odd weird “ zinging” sensation.
I then had 6 weeks of radiation and at the end of all that I was just left with the sense of discomfort many have reported with tissue expanders.
I had the DIEP reconstruction in August 2021 and the pain was minimal - it was so
wonderful to be rid of the tissue expanders!
I had some physiotherapy  with a lady who specialised in breast cancer surgery patients  which was a great help - she told me no one likes the tissue expanders but at least in my case I am very happy with the end result so the end justified the means.
I hope you are lucky in recovering quicker but if you are in pain , take the painkillers .

Flaneuse

It's very common and eventually it's likely to stop.

Perks

Julez1958 said:

Hi @Perks
I had a skin sparing mastectomy in October 2020 and at that time I had tissue expander inserted.
I had terrible pain for about 6 weeks - couldn’t get off the Endone even though normally I never even take so much as a Panadol .
Both my surgeon and breast care nurse said everyone was different and to be patient .
At about the 6 week mark the pain got a lot better although I continued to get the odd weird “ zinging” sensation.
I then had 6 weeks of radiation and at the end of all that I was just left with the sense of discomfort many have reported with tissue expanders.
I had the DIEP reconstruction in August 2021 and the pain was minimal - it was so
wonderful to be rid of the tissue expanders!
I had some physiotherapy  with a lady who specialised in breast cancer surgery patients  which was a great help - she told me no one likes the tissue expanders but at least in my case I am very happy with the end result so the end justified the means.
I hope you are lucky in recovering quicker but if you are in pain , take the painkillers .

Thanks Julez1958 since the final fill I am feeling more comfortable and am at 6 weeks post op now. Interestingly once they filled me up the pain dissipated. I think that the scrunched up expander was rubbing on the scar line where the nipple used to be.

EllieC

thank you that was informative as I am going thru all that now. Hate that nipple pain from poor little cut off nipple! I was intending to have an implant, but your experiences seem to say that the Diep flap would be better. Are you both still happy with this? was it an 8 hour surgery? My surgeon doesnt seem to want to do it. I am quite skinny so may not have enough flesh. Did anyone experience that? best wishes..

Julez1958

Hi @EllieC
I do remember being a bit disconcerted when my plastic surgeon grabbed my tummy fat and said “ excellent”!
I was an E cup and went to C cups and had plenty of fat for that ( but not too much - my bmi was normal and I actually lost 10 kilos before the operation to get back to my ideal weight.
The DIEP flap surgety  is more complicated than implants and it is important to have a plastic surgeon who has done a lot of them - mine works in both St Vincent’s Public and Private hospitals in Sydney and  is excellent .
My surgery was 9 hours and the recovery tough , but I’m very happy with the result and don’t have to worry about further surgery down the track to swop out implants ( my surgeon said I’d probably need to do this after 10 years).
Anyway lots of ladies are happy with implants so it’s a personal decision.

EllieC

Thank you for info. Its very helpful to read other experiences. I hope you are doing well now. I head to hospital tomorrow for the first fill of the expander. The surgery was red, painful and looked infected so I've been on antibiotics which helped. 

iserbrown

I used to take panadol prior to expander fill...
It helped!