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Expander placed during surgery-

rene9
rene9 CSN Member Posts: 214
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
Did anyone have their expander placed during surgery and have to go through chemo and radiation before having the expander exchanged for the silicone? Did you have problems with radiation???


rene9
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  • Ritzy
    Ritzy CSN Member Posts: 4,381 Member
    #2
    Hi Rene! I had a
    Hi Rene! I had a lumpectomy, but, I am sure that someone that had expanders will post to you. Good luck!

    Sue :)
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  • dyaneb123
    dyaneb123 CSN Member Posts: 950
    #3
    Hey Rene
    I posted on your
    Hey Rene
    I posted on your other thread, but I'll recap...I had an expander put in last April...had chemo June through Sept. had rads Oct. through November.....The rads didn't do any harm to the expander...but I had some painful muscle contractions a couple of weeks after rads were over.So now I am going to have the expander removed and the implant put in March 16th..It didn't have to take so long from the end of rads to the surgery but my surgeon told me I had to wait for the insurance preapproval....so I waited and waited and waited...and as it turned out I didn't need preapproval! So about 6 weeks after rads you can plan to get your implant.I also have to have the other breast reduced, but that will be a second surgery at the end of April.
    Dee
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  • rene9
    rene9 CSN Member Posts: 214
    #4
    dyaneb123 said:

    Hey Rene
    I posted on your
    Hey Rene
    I posted on your other thread, but I'll recap...I had an expander put in last April...had chemo June through Sept. had rads Oct. through November.....The rads didn't do any harm to the expander...but I had some painful muscle contractions a couple of weeks after rads were over.So now I am going to have the expander removed and the implant put in March 16th..It didn't have to take so long from the end of rads to the surgery but my surgeon told me I had to wait for the insurance preapproval....so I waited and waited and waited...and as it turned out I didn't need preapproval! So about 6 weeks after rads you can plan to get your implant.I also have to have the other breast reduced, but that will be a second surgery at the end of April.
    Dee

    Thanks Dee!
    Ooooh! Thank you for this information. Of course, I don't have a clue on how to find previous discusssions and threads...I just scroll through very often. I get some really good information here. My expander is full and luckily its not bothering me. Now I'm about to have the BRCA test to see if I should have a mastectomy of the other breast and have my ovaries removed. Then I guess I'll b starting over with the expander...Thanks again! This is really helpful!

    rene9
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