placing the implant over the muscle?

ashell

Hey everyone,

I feel like I've seen other topics about this before, or I might have mentioned it before, but I'm feeling lazy so I'm just going to start a new topic on it.

I know I have mentioned my frustrations about upper body weakness after my mastectomy and reconstruction, but this is specifically about my idea about the possibility of having a revision surgery to place my implant on top of my muscle.  I have a lot of issues with my implant being under my muscle, nothing that really impacts my every day life, but enough that I feel much less capable of going all out with my physical activities.  I cannot do pushups or pull ups like I used to.  I am also a competitive swimmer (I have participated in open water races pre-mx and would like to continue to do so but I feel like I can't use all my muscle on my right side because it clenches the implant).

So my question is, does anyone here have their implant(s) placed over the muscle instead of under it?  Do you think this is something I might be able to have done that might help with my upper body strength?  My problem is that I know the muscle is an extra layer of support for my implant, and my skin is so thin that I had to have alloderm placed as extra support on top of that.  My crazy thoughts are that maybe I can have more alloderm for support in place of the muscle? Is that just silly?  haha

Another problem I have is that my natural breast side sits lower than my mx side, which is mostly due to the fact that my plastic surgeon lowered my natural side a little bit because it sat higher than my expander.  Now that the surgery is over, it sits lower, and I have been waiting for the "drop and fluff" to even it out, but it has been about a year and a half since the recon surgery and it's still uneven.  I am thinking of asking my plastic surgeon if he can lift my natural side back up to match.

I really don't want to have another surgery, but I want to be as happy as possible with my chest, and if there is a possibility of regaining my strength and simultaneously making my breasts more even without too much difficulty, I would like to do it.

Sorry for such a long post.  Thanks everyone!