continued Tissue expander pain!!

Yes, I would love to know this site too!
Thanks,

JMJ

Greeting from Michigan,

Well Ladies, I knew I should have gone on vacation...Today I feel like a duck, we have rain, rain and more rain. And of course tonight the forecast is for snow, but at least is was around 40 today.

I hope you all get a chance to look at the photo's on the photo site. I am displaying a t-shirt that I think you all will like. Alot of the women on the other site are insterested in buying one, so I'm waiting for my girlfriend to give me a bulk price. I'll let you all know how much they are and if you want I can ship them out to you all. They can be our "club expando" shirts

Hanna, how's it hanging............I sang that song all day, I even sang it to my husband and he laughed to hard..........he thinks we're all so strange, but in a good way. He still can't believe that I posted photo's of my boobs on the other site. Did you get the horse and donkey and duck yet???? Speaking of horses, during my down time over the last 4 months of recovery, my dear darling daughter was suppose to be keeping up on my stalls..........what a mess, it took me all day today to get them done the right way. I lost count after 20 wheelbarrows full of horse poop! Good thing I had on my bra of steel!!!! I'm sore, but it's a good sore, I'm trying to get the extra 15lbs. that I gained during my down time.

Well ladies, I wish you all well and stay dry and warm.

Love Sharon

Hi Ladies,

Hanna Orbison,

That song still makes me smile. I think that we should call you "Hanna Orbby" or just plain "Orbby", or  "The cool lady with the sunglasses."

Michelle,

Glad that the gabapentin helped your Mom. Let us know how her first fill goes. Maybe she will get some relief from it. I hope so. Funny, today I feel more pain than usual. Like I have a bra on that is riding up and I always want to pull it down. But there is no bra there. Must be the RAIN!!! Blame everything on the weather!!!!!!!!!

Take Care Ladies and let's hope for painfree fills and foobulous foobs with lovely nipples that look like we are 19 again.

Kerry

Jen,

Good for you for getting a new ps. That's empowering. Anyone who tells you "you can handle it" is being demeaning and insensitive. No pain meds for fills? There are only a handful of women who don't need something during this time.

Sometimes I think some of these docs need tissue expanders on a very delicate part of their body. See what babies they turn into. Not that they need to grow biggers balls, but I think the experience would be empathy-producing.

Anne

Hi I just wanted to be post number 1000!!!  Go Expando Girls!!!

Hey Ladies, Greeting from the wet, wet, world---my yard is starting to look like one big pond, from the pond, that is now overfilled!!!!!

The good thing is now I don't have to drag out that damm hose to water the horses

Hanna, you silly, silly girl, how could you edit your post before saving the words to your song??? Now we are all going to have to remember the words together.

Okay ladies, who remembers Hanna's song..this is what I remember..

Pretty woman, walking down the street...pretty woman your boobs are so neat........you look so lovely is must be true...(then I can't remember the next) but I do remember something about "my boobs now look at my feet"

Sorry Hanna, I should have saved that one, especially since it was dedicated to me and all.

Welcome new ladies to the "expando club" I hope we don't give you the wrong impression that we're all crazy from the drugs that the dr's give us, just a few, I take great pride in that!!!!

Oh, back to Hanna, you snot!!!I wanted to be 1000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, here's my latest and greatest idea, I think sometime this year we (as in the expando club) should all meet somewhere for a girls week-end. Wouldn't that be a blast!!!!!!!We could make it somewhere that would be fun, like Vegas. You know, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. We could bring our DH's (how else would I get my gambling money?) Or we could go to Key West and show off our foobs! Wouldn't that be fun. I'm open for suggestions.

Anyways, it was just a thought, I mean, all you ladies are very special to me, and someday I really would like to meet you all.

Michelle, I hope your mom's fill went okay today, I remember when I got all of my fills, I went every other week for 4 months. My fills were always small 30-40cc's and they hurt like hell. I think that this was because I had no chest to speak of before bc, (and I was and still hoping to be physical). So when they starting expanding, I had alot of muscle soreness. If your mother has this problem, tell her to try and take a bath and rub vicks on her chest. I know is sounds strange, but it worked for me.

Have a great evening........

Love Sharon

Hi Ladies,

Hanna,

Nobody will recognize you with the shades on, so don't worry about any copyright infringements. I prefer roulette at the casino because I always have toooo much to drink  (free booze, gets me every time)and cannot keep track of the cards in blackjack(no short term memory with that much wine in me) Prefer to loose all my money on a game of chance, at least that way I don't blame myself.LOL!!!

KES

Well I have alloderm and as time moves slowly by, I do believe I see the skin where the alloderm was placed has gotten thicker.  More substantial - rather than the thin skin that was there right after mastectomy surgery.  Now, everything I've been told is that there is no way to reject alloderm.  It is true the alloderm is donated human tissue that has been reworked to where it is the cellular matrix left only.  Kind of like a garden trellis that you put up and your vines and ivy start to grow into it.  Well, at first I thought my alloderm skin was lumpy looking!  It was! But, as the book said, the cellular matrix that is put there against your own skin allows your skin cells a place to grow into.  That's apparently how the lower half of my breast skin has gotten smooth and not lumpy or thin anymore.  I think it has more substance to it. Oh, by the way, alloderm arrives dehydrated and it is rehydrated in the OR.  So that's something else to know.  Once it's in the whatever they use to rehydrate it with - it plumps up, then they put it where you need it.

I have to say, I am finally in the right thread here - because I am truly tired of "continued tissue expander pain"!!    I knew this was no fun at all for most here, what with terrible pain for some right at the start.  This is what the alloderm spared me from I believe for a good while.   But now the sheer constantness (is that a word?) of expanders is driving me crazier than I usually am.  I'm about ready to lose my mind!  Gosh! OH, I'm dreaming of something soft in my chest now.  I could care less if I'm small boobed if that's what turns out.  I don't care!!  Just soft little pillows...I was radiated before so I'm not expecting boobs of beauty here.  JUST SOFT!  I don't think I'd even care if my nipples ended up looking wall-eyed.  Sometimes it just seems like my muscles have moved around and things just aren't sitting right like they should.  Urrrg. You know I've finally started to use the pain meds the past two nights??  Oh, I forgot to take it tonight. I better take my 1/4 pill. I think the pain med sort of take the awareness of the doggone things away some.  I just have to call the ps and get this switcheroo show on the road soon.

OK, plus the fat injections are sounding pretty good too.  What do you all mean about those?  Do they suck fat out and just pop it into where you want it, or is there more to it than that? 

My patience had a long run, but now I want my softies too.   Goodnight all you lovely ladies,

Hanna      

Greetings Ladies from "Sunny Michigan" - we hit a record 51 degrees today!!!!!

Hanna,

My dear friend, I think you're having a bc and ps moment:) and I completely understand where your coming from. I was so sick of just everything having to do with bc and pain, and to tell you the honest truth, I don't know how my family put up with me some days. I was and still can be such a bitch on my off days, but lucky for you, that's what I and all of us other ladies are here for - YOU! So go ahead and give us your best, I truly understand, when I was expanding I was always in pain right from the start, considering I had no chest to start with and then the ps stretching skin without alloderm, (can you say Yikes!!!!) My suggestion to you is this, forget the 1/4 pill - go for the whole thing! If your in pain, take something, don't play superwomen, don't worry about becoming dependent on a drug - that's what their for.........pain. Anyone who tries to tell you that tylenol is going to get it, hasn't had chest expanders in, or to say the least, has never tried to sleep with two softballs under their skin! Also, try taking a bath, just relax, look thru all those garden catalogs you must have, anything to try and forget about your chest. It takes practice but I learned first hand that it can be done, just try.

Okay, enough with the bc talk, I have a little funny story for you all. Last fall a man down the road, where I buy round bales of hay for my babies, has this really big, I mean hugh, angus bull. Well this bull, was the meanest thing I have ever seen, always going after anything that got to close to him; dogs, other cows, I even seen him chase a cat that got to close! Anyways, Rich the man who owned him, hated this bull! One day I get a call from him, he asked if I need any meat. I was kinda shocked because it really was not "meat season" around here. So I asked him, "what do you have?" he says "oh, about 900 pounds of bull", "that damn bull got out of his pin, and made his way up to the house and I couldn't get out of my front door, the next thing I know, the damn bull starts head butting the front door of my house and I had to shoot the damn thing before he got into the living room!" I never laughed to hard in my life!!!  So Rich sells me the best beef I ever had for only $1 a pound, he ground the whole thing up into hamburger, he was so pissed!

So ladies, the moral of this story is this: If you think your having a bad day, at least you can get out your front door!!!!!!!!

You all have a good night, Hamburger Helper is one our menu tonight!!!!!!!!

Love Sharon

Hannah,

You had radiation. I did too. How is the radiated side behaving? Are you having pain on both sides  or only on the radiated one? My good side has no pain at all. The radiated side is the problem one. The skin is so tight and eventhough, that one breast has more ccs in it, it is still a little smaller. I am not sure it will work and it makes me sad.

Sue,

This was also a common side effect for me as well. For me, I think it was because the muscle was trying to release to stretch more for the expander's. I used to take alot of hot baths before bed and that seems to help alittle. How much did your ps place in your expander at the time of surgery? The only good advice I could offer you at the moment is; take your fills small and slow. Mine were everyother week at 30-50cc's at a time. The other thing is: are you sure you're really up to going back to work so soon? I know we all like to think that we're super women (I think I was president of that club) but when I had my bi-laterial mastectomy with reconstruction I took off work until after the reconstruction was complete. I work with special education children and my job is pretty physical, but even if I had a desk job, my team of doctors told me in the beginning not even to think about work for at least 6 weeks. That meant "home" work as well as "work" work. Your body has been through a major trama and if you do not take time to let your stiches heal, your outcome will hurt you in the end. I'm sorry if I sound like a Dr. but my husband is a physician and he preached to me until he was blue in the face, and I finally just gave in and let people take care of me for a while. Just remember what you don't want is an infection---and infections are usually picked up from the germs of other people or more common than not stress, mental or physical.

Please take care,

Sharon

Thanks, Sharon. I think I probably have been trying to do too much. I'll take it easy this week since I start chemo Tuesday and have taken the rest of the week off. I keep saying that I'm going to call a maid service and get some help for the duration, but I haven't done it yet. I'm a teacher too - h.s. English, so my PS said it was OK to go back to work, but it's not really a desk job, as you know. No heavy lifting or anything, but lots of walking around, and plenty of mental stress. One of the hardest things is getting dressed since I can't put on a bra yet. I wear a tight, stretchy camisole, pull up the real boob, pad the mast. side, and put on a big, heavy jacket. I know that some of my seniors spend most of class trying to figure out which side it was!! More interesting than English.

Thanks for your advice. Much better to take it easy now and not pay later.

Sue

Hi Jani,

I think that you look great. What a great job your PS did. WOW!!!!! I think the perspective is really different with the nipple sparing and the placement of the incisions at the bottom. Wish I could have done that but the BS recommended for me not to. Do you have any sensation in the nipples? No one would believe that you actually had the surgery done unless you showed them the incisions. I am amazed by the good job your PS did. My exchanged is APR 25/08. The count down is on.

Take Care,

Kerry

I tried body butters on my chest too, but I broke out with little pimples. So I went back to the tried and true olive oil. My grandmother swore by it and used it on her stomach for carrying 13 babies, my mom used it for carrying 9 and I used it for both of mine ( my sister used it for both of hers too)- none of us got stretch marks, but who knows probably just in the genetics. It did feel good on my chest though and it did not give me skin problems. I am sure though that there are many, many good lotions for massage and stressed, stretching skin.

So good to hear that the first expansion went well. Please don't push it too fast - and if she does find that she has taken too much have them remove it. There are no points for martyrs in this process!

And please don't give up searching for good quality care. Your mom deserves the best.

Take care,

Jani