Has anyone had new expanders removed?

Thanks for the replies. These things are going to have to go. The crowning touch came today when I went for an MRI (a recent CT Scan showed some suspicious lesions on my spleen and they wanted to check them out) and they refused to give me the MRI because the tissue expander has too much metal in it. WTH????

I called the PS's office. I know he is out with a broken clavicle but I don't see why someone else in the practice couldn't get these things out of my chest. The sooner the better.

I feel like I'm being tortured. I think I'd be so sooooooooo much further along healing and getting ready for chemo if these things just weren't in there.

Jean

Gosh Jessica, I don't know if you could do that or not.

My own situation changed very quickly last week when I saw my oncologist and we talked about the whole issue. They went over my ER records and I told them about all the times I have begged to get the expanders out. I told them how the PS said he couldn't possibly do it until mid July - which of course would have delayed my chemo because they don't want to start it with unhealed incisions. I practically begged them to see what they could do to help me get these things out of my chest - not only so I could have the MRI but so that I could retain what little is left of my sanity.

Forty minutes after I left the onc's office I got a phone call from the PS department - a colleague of my PS was willing to take the expanders out and wanted to know if I could do it next Tuesday? You BET I could and I did! First time in my life I ever looked forward to a surgery.

The new PS tried to talk me into leaving some skin in case I wanted to change my mind later. I told him that I would never be putting another expander in there and to make it as nice looking as possible so that's what he did.

My first thought when I gained consciousness after the surgery was OMG I CAN BREATHE AGAIN. There was no feeling like I had a bra six sizes too small on. Nothing digging into my armpit. Nothing behind my poor sore chest muscles. I started giggling right then.

Today I did laundry. I went grocery shopping. I went to dinner with my sister. I am way more on my way to recovery in this one day than in the three weeks of h*ll that preceeded it with the expanders in there.

When I heal enough I will go out and find cami's or bras or whatever will fill my occasional need to be seen with "breasts" in public. For now, the next two weeks of my life will be spent getting healthier for my upcoming vacation (first I've had in a decade). I'll be doing my exercises and lots of walking and drinking lots of fluids and taking my supplements and rejoicing that I will never spend another day with that expander in me.

I figure that with any population of any criteria you're going to have that bell curve.... some people go through expanders with barely a thought, most fall somewhere in the middle with some discomfort but manage to get through it, and then there are folks like me at the other end who just cannot seem to adjust. I'm glad it's only taken me three weeks to get them out and not three months or even years!

I'm not happy looking at my chest where there used to be my very own breasts and seeing those long incisions. If I'd had my choice I wouldn't have had ILC in the first place. But I am very glad the expanders are out and will not even consider something like DIEP or TRAM -- too long a recovery time, too much risk, too much pain, and I am of an age where it's just not that important any longer.

Of course, this is just my opinion about me. Your mileage may vary.

Happily expander-less...

Jean