[JillaryJill]

I had bilateral mastectomy, tissue expanders placed at that time (tissue expanders were one of the worst experiences of all the breast cancer procedures I had) I never got used to the hard feelign of those expanders and the saline fills to stretch the skin were painful. I had alot of radiation to a large field on my chest. I am of German/Irish descent with very pale skin. My silicone replacement surgery went fine. My surgeon did do some fat injections (lipo from my stomach and I was very bruised from this) and he also used a product called Alloderm which you can google. I did not elect to have nipple surgery or tatoo, by then I had enough of doctors and surgeons. I live on a lake and I am in a bathing suit often, and the result is good. I have a nice shape in clothes. My radiation side is tighter, but I did massage and used alot of coconut oil to keep the skin soft. My result is excellent. There was an argument between my radiation oncologist and my plastic surgeon (lots of Ego's) about the amount of saline in the expanders at the time of radiation. My regular onc had to mediate. The plastic surgeon said I could have full fill in the expanders, my radiation onc wanted some of the fill taken out. She won the battle. Once radiation was complete, I continued with more fills.