Feels like wearing a bra full of broken glass

ready2bedone
ready2bedone Member Posts: 95
edited August 2017 in Pain

Hi, I am almost 3 weeks postop BMX with expanders. About halfway through the day, it starts that feel like I am wearing an iron bra full of broken glass with barbed wired on the sides. Is this typical at this stage? Is the broken glass feeling a nerve thing? The sides hurt from my drains but hopefully they will be out by the end of the week. Is there anything I can do about the very tight feeling or the sharp prickly feeling?

Note, my expanders are under the skin not muscles and I had enough skin that it didn't need to be stretched any to be my desire size, so this isn't due to stretching.


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  • SusanGA
    SusanGA Member Posts: 147
    edited July 2017

    I am three weeks out with no expanders and you described my feeling to a tee. I can't believe it hurts so bad at this point. I'm seeing the MD tomorrow in the hopes that she will suggest something like compression or draining the swelling. My drains are out. I hope you feel better quickl

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  • BeccaFish
    BeccaFish Member Posts: 5
    edited July 2017

    I am a little over a month out. I described the expanders as wearing an underwire bra under your pectoral muscles that's bent wrong and filled with cement and glass. I see my PS at Fox Chase tomorrow. Hoping he can help. Otherwise I am literally ready to just say "take it all out! I'll go without and use falsies."

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited July 2017

    Hang in there ladies. I described my TEs as turtle shells embedded into my body - with sharp edges every time I moved. I know they hurt most of the time. My grown son says I complained a lot. As long as I kept the fills to a maximum of 50 ccs and kept them 2 weeks apart, I was able to stand it. Every time you have a fill, they will 'sit' differently. And you can have some of the saline removed if it's too uncomfortable. Good luck.

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  • lrwells50
    lrwells50 Member Posts: 254
    edited July 2017

    I have been very lucky, apparently, as I have very little pain from my TEs. I think I have a fairly high pain tolerance, but other than a twinge here and there, they haven't been painful. I've had the since 3/9, when they were partially filled, and they've been almost fully filled since Mid-May

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  • Lisey
    Lisey Member Posts: 1,053
    edited July 2017

    I had terrible pain with the expanders from day one. It felt like I had the iron throne in my chest (google it) My muscles were spasming and trying to push out the TEs. I couldn't breathe. I finally came to the conclusion that I look good flat actually and to get the f'ers out of my body and let me just be me. It was like night and day. (plus I'd started reading about all the potential risks of implants and felt honestly betrayed by medicine pushing me into implants in the first place) After the TEs came out, I fell 100% back to myself now and don't have any pain or issues with them gone. If you are interested or curious in looking into being flat, there's a huge group of women rocking it. The page is called Flat and Fabulous, those considering their options are able to join.

    Some women handle TEs and implants just fine. Others never get out of pain, even with the implants and they end up explanting. Listen to your gut and your heart and it will tell you for what is right for you.

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  • sunnyjay
    sunnyjay Member Posts: 238
    edited July 2017

    I have one on my left side and my experience has been similar to MinusTwo. However I had fills of 50cc weekly for 3 weeks then took a break when my PS was on vacation. Last week was my fourth fill of 50cc. I am supposed to be filled up to 500 cc and I think I'm at 350 so far. I have a high pain tolerance and I mainly feel pain & tightness on the first 2 days after each fill. Since I had lymph nodes removed I'm numb on my left side so maybe that's why I don't feel too much pain. My PS didn't want me in a bra for 5 weeks, so when I started wearing one last week I just felt like they were being smooshed. so I usually just stick with camisoles.

    It helps me to sleep propped up the night after my fill because it does hurt when I try to get up from a flat position. After my first two fills I would take hydrocodone left over from surgery before each fill and that helped with pain but not with the pressure I was feeling. now I manage pain with Tylenol since I drive myself to & from appointments.

    One of the problems I have is that I can't walk fast or else it starts to bother me... probably due to muscles contracting & expanding. So I have to walk very slow especially on the days that I get a fill. My PT addressed this amd said it was fairly common for women to avoid jarring movements.

    I can't wait to have the exchange done but will have to wait longer than usual since I have to go through chemo & radiation first.

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  • Lanne2389
    Lanne2389 Member Posts: 229
    edited August 2017

    Hi Ready - I'm having similar pain issues although probably not quite a broken glass feeling - I'm closer to sand paper or feeling like I've been in a wet bathing suit for a week. I'm 8.5 weeks post surgery (double m), also expanders on top of muscle. My skin feels "scritchy" if anything is touching it. Just started radiation so I'm sure that won't help.5 mg oxy works for abt 4 hrs but my dr won't renew the Rx. Another submitter suggested alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen, which I'm going to try and will report back. I had no idea expanders/recon would be this painful/annoying for so long - not something I'd heard associated with breast augmentation.

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  • ready2bedone
    ready2bedone Member Posts: 95
    edited August 2017

    Lanne2389 - After my original post, I saw my PS again and mentioned the broken glass feeling. Turns out it was nerve pain from so many nerve endings being disturbed with the mastectomy. Probably the same with your sandpaper feeling. I was told to increase the gabapentin to 300 mg (I confessed I hadn't been taking it before since I didn't know what it was for) and that helped dramatically. It's supposed to help with nerve pain. Nothing else made a dent in it and the gabapentin worked very quickly.

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