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Perks's avatar
Perks
Member
3 years ago

Nerve pain with expander

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?
breast-pain
expanders
mastectomy
post-surgery

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  • EllieC's avatar
    EllieC
    Member
    3 months ago
    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. 
  • Julez1958's avatar
    Julez1958
    Member
    3 months ago
    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's avatar
    EllieC
    Member
    3 months ago
    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..
  • Perks's avatar
    Perks
    Member
    3 years ago
    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.
  • Julez1958's avatar
    Julez1958
    Member
    3 years ago
    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 .