1 year later - Still Tightness in chest

exercise_guru

Hi all I had my TE swap in December. My right shoulder still feels like it pulls forward and no matter how much I stretch it still feels incredibly tight. I really need to lift light weights to improve my core.

Can anyone share how they were able to improve their chest and back with these implants. I am really unhappy and concerned.

farmerlucy

Here is a response from a PS on the Ask the Expert page. http://community.breastcancer.org/blog/breast-reco...

Have you had any PT? I did early on and it really helped. Nearly five years out I still feel the muscle tightness especially when I get an upper body workout, but like the doctor says, I think you learn to block it out. I had a follow up last year with my PS after three years and I remarked to her that it took that long for me to forget about them being there. It is the new normal I guess.

exercise_guru

Thank you for posting this I am surprised there are not more threads about it. I wish I would have known how sucky this is as I would have seriously reconsidered. I wonder if this is the case with a DIEP

These implants have thrown my arms and everything out of sync I hope eventually to feel normal again.

doxie

There is a very long thread addressing athletes and the consequences of implants. Not sure if it is active. I've seen another about above muscle implants. I had an LX, so only glanced at these.

macb04

Hi exercise_gu,I startedthe OVER pectoral thread. Come over and have a look. Sorry to say that it is common to have tightness and pain with implants placed under the pectoral muscle. I had a TE that way initially after uni mx. Hated how it felt. It disrupted my range of motion. I also lost like 50 to 75% ofmy strength while I had the TE under my pectoral, I couldn't open a bag of potato chips. Couldn't do pushups either. Long story short,(see that posting about OVER Pectoral ) now with my over pectoral implant I can do pushups, I even took a Rowing class with no problems. I get what I am telling you is another surgery to be comfortable, totally get what an awful choice that is. I have had 17 surgeries in the past 4 years, 15 of them have been for reconstruction. Some were minor, like taking out the port and doing fat grafting. Others have been major, dealing with bad infections, taking out the initial TE, doing another TE a couple of years later with a new PS.

I hope you can find comfort with your implants under your pectoral, some women have, but if is bugging you this far out from surgery I want you to know this other option exists, with my thread having 11 PS across the country who are safely and sucessfully doing OVER Pectoral reconstruction (otherwise known as Prepectoral Implant Reconstruction ).

Goodluck and PM me if you want to chat.