Breast Reconstruction

When I had my mastectomy, I came out of surgery with the tissue expander already somewhat expanded, so I never had to look down and see flat, which I was happy about. To me that was a blessing. Less traumatic. But I really didn't like that dang expander, I kept bumping into it😄😉Good luck sister 💜💕

Jamie - if you had, and are having, skin sparing mastectomies the amount of surgical fill placed in your expanders should provide a degree of fullness immediately after surgery. Whether your surgeon uses some fill at the time of surgery, and how much, is related to what your skin tolerance is at that time - but that is the standard practice. I am fairly petite, went into surgery a small C cup, and came out from double mastectomy with tissue expanders at least a small B cup, with about 200ccs of fill. This represented just less than half the fill capacity of the particular expander that was placed at the time of surgery. The size and fill volume of the expander used is at the discretion of your plastic surgeon and is based on measurements of your anatomy and assessment of your skin condition. Your plastic surgeon should be able to roughly estimate how much fill will be placed at the time of surgery, if any, and give you an idea of how things will look. You will be in a surgical bra initially, but I wore soft Coobie or Genie bras that have a light padding in them after my surgeon advised I could stop wearing the surgical bra. The expander has a fill port on its surface, under your skin, which is located with a magnet when it is time for a fill, there is nothing external. I would imagine that you will have drains though, which would be external. Did you have a drain with your previous mastectomy?