Fill Me Up!

Okay, so I know already blogged about my foobs getting filled and stuff, and I was planning on adding pictures that Bryan took during the whole process to that blog, but I couldn't get them downloaded to my computer at the time...BUT good news! Now they are downloaded, and so I decided to make another blog with the pictures.....

I always prefer to see pictures of things that I am going to have done/look like, and through this whole process, I always searched and searched for other women's blogs that had pictures of what their foobs looked like during recovery, what everything looks like....It gives you a better idea of what to expect....So this is why I am photo-documenting my journey...I want to make the journey for others, perhaps, a little easier, and to educate others...

So with all that said....Here we go.....

*These 2 pictures were taken right before my first fills. My scars are still healing and at the time, I was almost 2 weeks post surgery. (Skin sparing mastectomies with immediate reconstruction done with tissue expanders).  I also have drains in on each side too. Each expander had 260ccs of saline here at the time. 

*These two pictures aren't that great.....

The one on top just shows my two stupid drains that I hated with a vengence. The bottom one is just me waiting for the doctor. (In my painkiller/muscle relaxer premedicated daze....)

*So these next few pictures show the instruments of torture. Haha. Just kidding...The first photo shows the two HUGE ASS syringes with HUGE ass needles (that's what the dr. uses to stick in the foob's tissue expander to fill you up), iodine (to clean the site of insertion on your skin prior to stabbing), then two extra HUGE ASS needles (if needed), magnetic device (to find the magnet port on the tissue expander), and marker (to mark the point of the magnet on the skin to stab you with the HUGE ASS needle.)

 This picture to the left. is just an upclose picture of the magnetic thingamajig that my doctor used to find the magnet on my expander, over my skin.  She rubbed it over my foob, and when she was over the magnet on my expander, the little magnet things lined up on it, and she marked me with the marker. The pic to the right is the HUGE ASS needle.

Okay, So these pictures are pretty self explanatory...You can see where she marked, and cleaned with iodine, the areas to insert the needle...There is nothing much to say about this, except for that it feels very strange...The dr. just jams the needle in, the muscle cramps a little (that's about all the sensation I could feel because after a mastectomy, you no longer have sensation of feeling on your skin on your breasts....Anyways...She SLOWLY injected the saline, and I could immediately feel that I was filling up...She told me to tell her when it became "So tight that it's almost painful." Right at the end of the 50 cc's was when it began to feel like that for me...It doesn't hurt, but it's not a pleasant feeling. PREMEDICATE and it won't be as bad...Your muscles won't cramp and spasm as bad!!!

And Bandaids make it all okay! This is the result of having 50cc's added to each expander....So now, each expander is up to 310cc's...I can definitely tell a difference in size, tightness, and my profile is different..I suppose each fill gets a little more painful?? I don't know, but I have to go back up to Albuquerque every other Monday to have this same exact process done. This will continue until I feel like my foobs are big enough OR until I feel like my chest is going to explode...