Air expander discomfort
Hi i have had my air expander since right mastectomy 6 weeks ago. When i woke up after my mx there was already 200cc in the expander I am up to 440 now. I will need 600 as i was a d or dd cup so 3/4 ...
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Thanks everyone. Sounds like its all normal and thats good. I know i can cope as long as its how it should be. I will try some of your suggestions. I have a few spare pillows i can gather up. I had been swimming around 4 kilometres a week this summer prior to diagnosis so i reckon my chest muscles wouldve been in good shape!! Probably pretty tight. Zoffiel i wouldnt mind if i had to go a bit smaller but prefer to keep left side untouched if possible. Sounds as though The discomfort is shortlived and can be tolerated as a means to an end!!!
They say air expanders shouldnt stay in longer than 6 months as they start to deflate so.i am hoping to be all done to swim again next summer. Should find out more at appointment this thursday.
Its pretty weird to have a pump up boob. And it has no feeling. So if i bump it into something i feel nothing at the boob end but can feel it down in the chest. onemargie i had my surgery at royal briz too but no waiting. I started my "journey" in january at nambour diagnosed at breastscreen just before sunshine coast hospital opened. they said they had no recon option on the coast so because i was determined not to wake up flat i had to swap to Royal Briz..In the end I had a 3 month wait between diagnosis and mastectomy... my first surgery.( Most of the wait at nambour end). During that wait i had plenty of stress but it gave me time to do lots of study and i found out if i didnt have immediate recon i would go from category 1 down the list to elective and could be waiting years. Having said that i had a huge 7cm high grade dcis but with no invasive element so the cosmetic side of things was the major thing to me. It seemed surreal to be losing a breast when i "only" had stage 0 cancer. If id had a different diagnosis i may have had different priority. I didnt need any chemo or radiotherapy so it was quite straightforward. Sorry you have to wait it seems unfair as for those of us that want recon it can be such an important part of recovery. As i said in my original post I hav many things to be grateful for. And wake up again grateful today. Xx
They say air expanders shouldnt stay in longer than 6 months as they start to deflate so.i am hoping to be all done to swim again next summer. Should find out more at appointment this thursday.
Its pretty weird to have a pump up boob. And it has no feeling. So if i bump it into something i feel nothing at the boob end but can feel it down in the chest. onemargie i had my surgery at royal briz too but no waiting. I started my "journey" in january at nambour diagnosed at breastscreen just before sunshine coast hospital opened. they said they had no recon option on the coast so because i was determined not to wake up flat i had to swap to Royal Briz..In the end I had a 3 month wait between diagnosis and mastectomy... my first surgery.( Most of the wait at nambour end). During that wait i had plenty of stress but it gave me time to do lots of study and i found out if i didnt have immediate recon i would go from category 1 down the list to elective and could be waiting years. Having said that i had a huge 7cm high grade dcis but with no invasive element so the cosmetic side of things was the major thing to me. It seemed surreal to be losing a breast when i "only" had stage 0 cancer. If id had a different diagnosis i may have had different priority. I didnt need any chemo or radiotherapy so it was quite straightforward. Sorry you have to wait it seems unfair as for those of us that want recon it can be such an important part of recovery. As i said in my original post I hav many things to be grateful for. And wake up again grateful today. Xx