Bra or no bra

I haven't worn a bra since my BMX on April 28th. I tried to wear a sports bra type shelf bra and it was uncomfortable around the band and also after a fill I could not handle anything tight around my "foobs" at all. My PS said I do not need to wear anything if I don't want to. I have been large chested for 25 years and I that has actually been the only bright spot of this whole thing. I have loved being braless this summer.

I still have the iron band feeling since mastectomy in 2012. I've now had reconstruction and wore the torture device as instructed. But after a certain amount of time, PS said bra not necessary. So at 64 I never wear a bra. Unfortunate, it still feels like I have one on.

Like many women, I was very large-breasted before BMX, so I was thrilled to go smaller. After BMX, I also had that red-hot, iron-bra feeling - both with my TEs and my implants after exchange.

While I had my TEs, I found that wearing a soft, slippery camisole UNDER my bras helped support the expanders without rubbing on my sensitive skin. The TEs just felt better with a bit of support, hence the Genie bra, or a JCPenney zip-front sports bra even at night.

After my exchange (700cc high-profile salines) I asked the PS if I needed to wear an underwire. He said no. I asked if I could go braless, and he said he did not recommend that, as the weight of the implants could make me sag - despite the lateral capsulorraphies he did during exchange. (Of course, this wouldn't be an issue with smaller implants.)

Since I continued to have the iron-bra sensation after exchange, I found an amazing Myofascial Release Massage Therapist (also a Certified Lymphedema Therapist) who worked on my chest muscles and managed to release that horrible tightness after having it almost a year.

I actually had to readjust the rear-view mirror in my car when I left the office because I was walking so much taller.

She also did Scar Tissue Mobilization on me, finding that I had a huge amount of scar tissue buildup around my drain holes!

I no longer wear a bra at night, but do wear a Genie bra during the day. Things do change the farther away from your surgery you get.

Mom2fourplusmore - I had to think back to when it all happened... after my BMX, I was in excruciating pain for over a month, until I finally got it under control, and started having fills. (The fill process made the TEs move off some of the more irritated nerve endings.)

I expected blessed relief when I had my Exchange surgery, but it never came. Righty looked pretty good, but Lefty was crawling over my left shoulder. The PS said "I think they look great - what exactly do you want?" He said that the swelling under my collarbone was "excess fluid" from surgery, and to "give it time..."

The PT said "I can give you some exercises to do"... but those made me worse. Sadly, she said she had heard of MFR (Myofascial Release) but that no one did it at Kaiser, and that she didn't think it would work as well as traditional PT. She said that no one had ever asked for that after breast surgery.

She said the swelling was not Lymphedema, but she still ordered hundreds of dollars worth of useless compression garments for me so that Lefty could shift downward. It didn't.

I located the Myofascial Release Massage Therapist through a local breast cancer support group. The therapist actually had her office inside the office of a well-known breast surgeon. She was hugely popular, being only one of a handful of specially-trained therapists in our area. After five months of "just waiting" and useless LE garments, the therapist got rid of the fluid and moved Lefty into her permanent home in only five visits. But be careful - many massage therapists claim to do MFR, but really don't know what they're doing, and in fact, can do more harm. My therapist could feel exactly where the muscles were tacked down to my ribcage around my implants, and avoided putting stress on those specific areas.

Here is a video showing exactly how the fascia functions in our bodies...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzy8-wQzQMY

p.s. If you are still in pain, the other issue to consider is Post-Mastectomy Pain Syndrome. You can do a search here on BCO to find out more about that.

It takes a while before you don't hurt. Now, the "iron bra" feeling might never go away completely.

I didn't wear a bra until I got nipple reconstruction. Truth is, I have an "internal bra", the famous Alloderm sling, so I don't really need a bra, unless I want a more prominent cleavage or I want to cover the ever-poking nipples. One thing I know, my PS told me to never wear a wired bra for longer than 2 hours at a time. Apparently it can affect the capsule and in time change the shape.

I bought myself some "Nippies" on Amazon. They fit right over my pokey nips and stick without adhesive. Nice and smooth! Check them out!