Help me with swimsuit options, please!

CeciliaVera

Hello!  I'm looking for help/tips for swimwear: I had a BMX 6 weeks ago and am seeking a cheap alternative to swim prosthetics.  I love the Land's End suits--can I cram something else in the mastectomy pocket if I don't have any (uncomfortably heavy and insanely expensive) swim prosthetics?  What happens if pads from a bra go in there?  Are they going to escape from the suit and bob away across the pool? 

Truthfully, I am not much of a swimmer--I don't swim laps, for example; I just want to be able to wear a swimsuit and splash around in the water now and then without being totally flat and obviously a BC survivor (with all due respect to those of you who opt to go flat with nada--I'm just not there yet).

I'm just a B cup, so maybe there is a suit out there with just a little built-in padding?  I LOVE the Handful bra for on land--I wear it with two sets of the pads it comes with, and it's so cute and comfy, it looks natural, and it's not out of reach in terms of price.  I find the prosthetics and mastectomy bras very uncomfortable and disappointingly unnatural in appearance.

Thanks for any advice on swim options!

Ariom

Hi CeceliaVera, there are several options for filling the pockets in a swimsuit. You can make your own by unraveling a net shower pouffy thing and then just winding the net around your hand till you get a pad size that will work for you. There is the microbead option, which you can either make by yourself from a pattern or Mary from mastectomysolutions.org will make them for you for a very cheap cost.She's a lovely lady who has a great website with lots of good ideas for women who have had this surgery. If you already have silicone breast forms that you aren't too keen on wearing, many of them can be worn in water, too. 

The Landsend Mx swimwear is really good as is the Amoena swimwear. I am not too familiar with other brands, but I have both of these. I have a silicone swim form because I still have one natural breast, I find it really comfortable, i i clear silicone and it has a ridged back so the water doesn't slurp when you swim! LOL

I am not in the US, but I know many of the ladies have insurance that covers forms, for swimming too, that may be worth investigating, or these other very inexpensive options may just work for you.   

A friend of mine tells a story about going to a water aerobics class where she stuffed a terry wash cloth, into her suit. During the class another woman told her she had seen something come out of her suit. There in front of the whole class was a washcloth doing a jellyfish action all the way to the bottom of the pool, and my friend was left with a fairly obvious gap, on one side of her suit! lol She bought a swim form and a Mx pocketed swimsuit after that!