Help, wearing a bra driving me crazy! Angry Nerves!

SheWra

Yikes, mastectomy with latissimus flap was three months ago but nerve discomfort is prevalent. One breast is quite small and the other is fully expanded ready for implants. I work and need a bra to wear my knitted knocker or prosthetic so as to not look like a total freak. IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!! My nerves are very angry after about an hour with any contact loose or tight. I get shooting pains in my arm on the flap side. I must say the discomfort is getting very old. When I get home from work I can't wait to tear the torture device off my body. Even the drainage tube sights still itch like crazy. Will it always be like this even after the implants?

AliceKo

Shewra, the answer is it depends...I did not have the LAT, so I can't say about that. I have the implant and it is pain 24/7, it's a little less pain than the expander, still difficulty sleeping, the implant in my way, needs to be supported by something day and night. I can wear a bra, that I can do. I heard some people suggest brushing your area of sensitivity with a soft bristled brush to reduce the sensitivity. Also heard you can do accupuncture for regeneration of nerves - it's not cheap and it can take months.

Best of luck to you. Wishing that all the problems resolve, you can wear a bra, feel and look great.

Sounds like the plastic surgeons did not really tell you what you are getting yourself into.

Rah2464

SheWra - I, too had such difficulty wearing any type of bra for a while after my double with immediate recon. And I was kind of miserable without one, too. I wound up wearing a compression bra for a long time because that seemed to calm those angry nerve beasts at least for me. I ordered the bra from Marena. It was expensive but it saved my sanity for a couple of months.

My PS wound up giving me a steroid injection on my lymph node side to help calm some congestion there. She also requested that I gently massage with a washcloth in the shower, working all around the breast under the arm, on the rib cage.

But the thing that helped me turn the corner, other than a little time, was medical massage with a certified therapist who was trained in lymphatic massage. It is a very strange experience to have someone working on your foobs but it was life changing for me. I had adhesions I didn't know about and she finds each and every one and works them loose. And voila! angry pain goes away. I am 6 months out from surgery, and I began seeing her three months ago. I imagine I will see her for another 3 months because I am a work in progress. Of course insurance doesn't cover it. Sessions are $70 each and I am going about every 3-4 weeks.

We all heal differently. I seem to be a bit of a slower healer so I get impatient at times. I hope you begin to get better very quickly.

SheWra

Thank you so much! I will try your. suggestions

gb2115

I haven't had a mastectomy (I did lumpectomy and radiation), but I have to say that wearing a bra is super uncomfortable. It makes me collect fluid in my side, so I always take it off the minute I get home from work and never wear one around the house. Sometimes I don't wear one to work either...I wear scrubs to work with an undershirt beneath, so I can get by with that going un-noticed. Oh the things we have to go through as women....