Forum Discussion
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?
398Views
Sign in to react to this post
7 Replies
- I used to take panadol prior to expander fill...
It helped! - 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.
- 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. - 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..
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 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 .- It's very common and eventually it's likely to stop.
- 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 .
