Expanders feel cold on my chest. Is this normal?

Danee, you are less than a week out from major surgery and you've just had a large hard object inserted under your chest muscle - no surprise that it feels strange!

How it will feel going forward with the expanders is impossible to know. Some people notice them for the whole time that they have them but others have no problem with them at all. I was in the second category - I was perfectly comfortable with the expander.

As for the implants, here again it is a different for everyone. In most cases, women find them more comfortable than the expander. There may be a period of adjustment where they feel like a foreign object in your body but after a while hopefully they will become unnoticeable. With sub-pectoral you will notice the implant when you strain or flex your chest muscle - flexing the muscle will misshape the breast - but again, it's something you get used to and probably won't notice after while. Some people do find that their implant reconstructed breasts always feel cold, while other people don't seem to have this. Here again, it's impossible to know what your experience will be.

The most important thing to remind yourself through this whole process is that this is breast reconstruction, and while you will hopefully be happy with the final result, what you will end up with is not and never will be the same as a natural breast with breast tissue. So the look, the feel, and the movement of the breast will be different than a natural breast. It may take some time for your body to adjust to the reconstruction, and that's normal. And it may take some time for your mind to adjust to the feel and appearance. If you go through this knowing that it can be an uncertain and sometimes bumpy process and that the expander might be uncomfortable and feel unnatural, and that there will be an adjustment period with the implant, it will be a lot easier for you to deal with the strange feelings and aches & pains (hopefully mild!) because you will be expecting them.

So be patient, set the right expectations, and then hopefully you will have an easy time of it through the reconstruction and adjustment period and be pleasantly surprised!

My PT told me that one of the complaints they hear about implants is that they are cold. Mine can make my breast skin cold, but it is not painful and I can't feel the cold in my chest muscles. The PT said that the pain from cold is described as sort of a bone pain in the chest.

I'm not yet a year out and my implants feel better all the time. I just had a 2nd revision surgery and they loosened my capsules and my implants feel MUCH better and more natural. I still feel them if I think about it, and it often feels like someone gripping them too hard, but it is getting better all the time. I mostly don't notice them.