Fill'er Up...Ethel !

Many women who have undergone double masectomies, also do some sort of breast reconstruction. There are a few different types, but I choose Tissue Expanders followed by silicone implants. I know many of you may be gasping at the thought of the illustration and me just mentioning this stuff on the world wide web. But I feel strongly in using this blog for educating my friends as well as giving them information on what I'm going thru.

This illustration shows a cross-section of the chest wall. Red indicates chest wall muscle, yellow shows the position of ribs, pink is used for skin layer, and blue represents the implant. A: Before implant placement. B: Implant placed in muscle pocket. C: Implant expanded within stretched muscle and skin.

The plastic surgeon will use the chest muscles to create a pocket that will hold the implant. If there is enough space and skin for the permanent, full-sized implant, it can be placed at this time. But if the muscles are tight and there is not enough skin cover the new breast mound, an expandable implant or tissue expander will be placed.

I had my first breast/tissue-expander fills this afternoon, a whopping 50cc of saline. I popped a couple acetaminophen to calm the nerves. Nurse Ethel used her stud finder to locate the magnetic spot on the expanders. This is where the doctor sticks a large needle into the self sealing patch of the tissue expander under my skin and slowly fills it with the saline solution. It takes just a minute or two, I don't like needles so I couldn't watch. It's a very odd sensation, feeling it expand. I COULD feel my chest expanding, it was like feeling a balloon get blown up. It didn't hurt - it was just a weird feeling, kind of a pressure.