What does your implant feel like after a few years?

Options
pesky904
pesky904 Member Posts: 402
edited January 2020 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

I’m just trying to get a sense of what is normal. Double mastectomy in 2017, radiation early 2018, exchange surgery end of 2018.

so I’ve had my implants for 13 months and it’s been 22 months since radiation ended.

my left non cancer implant feels smooth and squishy.

My right cancer/radiated side feels mostly smooth and squishy, with a now very firm hard spot in the center (I guess where my nipple should be) and with a weird painful lump on the underside, but not in the implant rim - it’s actually like a lump in the implant. It almost feels like when I had real breasts and would get a cyst around my period.

Except now I have what I’m told is virtually zero breast tissue, and so little space between my implant and my skin that I’m not even a candidate for fat injection to make it look better. My breast, I’m told, is all implant.

So what’s this annoying lump. And this weird firm/hard skin? And if scar tissue can still form where there’s no actual tissue left, I wish I knew that before because I probably would have chosen not to get these ugly implants.

· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • trinigirl50
    trinigirl50 Member Posts: 343
    edited January 2020

    My cancer side is much firmer and tougher than other side (radiation effects). Hard lumps in various places, I am guessing scar tissue. I have no fat either and my implants look like balloons under my skin. I can see all the ripples. I am three and half years post exchange.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • pesky904
    pesky904 Member Posts: 402
    edited January 2020

    Thanks for replying! Do you get new lumps now or are they all lumps that have been there?

    Also, how long was it for you in between radiation and having implants put in? For me, it was almost a year

    I'm supposed to tell my doctor about any new lumps or areas of firmness/thickness, but I feel like why bother if it's scar tissue.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited January 2020

    I’m seven years out. The upper pole has tightened quite a bit. It doesn’t hurt, just smushes the implant down. One or both sides have bottomed out. I now realize that this is probably going to be a continuous thing. It doesn’t bother me. I’m good with having a place holder and not having to wear a bra - ever. If they ever need to be redone, I’ll probably just take them out.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • pesky904
    pesky904 Member Posts: 402
    edited January 2020

    Sorry for my ignorance, but what is the upper pole?

    Mine doesn’t feel tight per se. There is a pea sized lum about 3/4 of an inch below my scar line. I am sure it is just more scar tissue but it’s annoying to still have to be worrying about lumps when I had my entire breasts removed.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited January 2020

    It is the top 1/3 area for me. My incision was the lollipop type with nipple removal, so the area above the incision. I’ve read a lot here about lumps and bumps near the scar line being undissolved stitches. I had some in the early years but they were symmetrical and my onco wasn’t concerned. I don’t feel them anymore.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • pesky904
    pesky904 Member Posts: 402
    edited January 2020

    Yeah, I have a little bumpiness near the scar linethat I’m not too worried about. I’m more wondering how common it is to have pea sized lump in the center of the implant rather than at the rim of the implant. I was told to look out for lumps Around the implant edge/rim where scar tissue will build up. No one ever told me I would develop lumps literally in the center of the implant.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • OnTarget
    OnTarget Member Posts: 447
    edited January 2020

    I am two months out from exchange, and I have a few harder spots, and they hurt. If I go in a dark room and shine a flashlight thru my breast, I see those spots and my scars as dark spots, which indicates thicker areas. I'm assuming they are thicker scar areas.

    I don't know what these spots mean, but I have them!

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • pesky904
    pesky904 Member Posts: 402
    edited January 2020

    My right (cancer) side implant always had lumpiness around the rim. But now we’ll over a year out from exchange surgery, I’ve got lumpiness in the center of my breast (implant).

    I’m just confused. If there was virtually no tissue left (which is what they told me, that only a negligible amount of any actual tissue might be remaining), then what is this scar tissue made out of. It went from “no” tissue existing and just a squishy implant to now lumpy scar tissue. So how did the scar tissue form in a place where there wasn’t any tissue to begin eith

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • pesky904
    pesky904 Member Posts: 402
    edited January 2020

    My oncologist saw me today an is going to order a breast MRI because of the lumpiness. I’m also going to see a new plastic surgeon because I’m unhappy with the aesthetic results of my reconstruction.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories