Last Tuesday, I had my first appointment to have saline injected into my expanders. Throughout this year-long cancer journey I've had lots of strange experiences, but being "expanded" might take the cake. So, you know I have these rubber/plastic expanders under my muscles and they have some saline in there. I will have these expanders for at least three months, until my body is healed enough to have the surgery to remove the expanders and replace them with the silicone implants. The expanders are hard and don't move. I don't have to wear a bra because, believe me, these things aren't going anywhere. Not up or down or sideways. So, I will visit the plastic surgeon about 4-5 times and he will inject more saline into the expanders to stretch out my muscle and skin. They explained the process to me before the surgery, but I was still very much surprised by the procedure!
My expanders have a port under the skin that's metal and magnetized. Sidenote: They said if I plan on flying, then I'll always set of the metal detectors at the airport and will have to explain. My concern isn't the airport. My concern is the Courthouse. I'm really not looking forward to explaining to the deputies why my breasts keep setting off the metal detectors. Considering the fact that the one time I wore a sleeveless shirt and jeans in there to file something on a Friday afternoon, one of them emailed my boss to thank him for sending me like that, they may be a little too eager to run the wand over me when I set off the walk-through...Anyway, back to the appointment.
The Dr. had me lay down on the table, and he ran something metal over the top part of my breasts and apparently found the magnet. He marked it and then numbed the area. His nurse then came over with a big needle attached to a tube, attached to a syringe that looked like it was made to vaccinate giants, and the syringe was attached to a tube that was attached to a big bag of saline. They injected the needle and the nurse started pushing the giant plunger on the giant syringe. Ok, here's the really weird part--I could feel it expanding. It felt like someone was blowing up my boobs like a balloon. It finally felt really, really tight, and they stopped injecting. I only had 50-70 ccs injected, but you could immediately tell a difference. It's a very strange feeling to walk in the Dr.'s office and leave 15 minutes later with bigger boobs. I'm still really small compared to most people, but it's exciting to see things growing! I'm probably about the same size I was before the surgery, but before the surgery, I was not afraid to use a push-up bra. These expanders are impervious to push-up bras. They do not move. So I'm looking forward to a couple more injections!
Yes, the expansion hurt. I was extremely sore for a few days. Extremely. But it's already better and getting better every day!
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