Expand-o-Boob

Daniel drove me into my appointment and we met with Travis, PA.  He said everthing is looking good, no signs of infection and my incisions are healing well.  He also said I won't be wearing my compression bra anymore and can keep it as a souvenier.  He said I could let the glue on top of my incisions peel off now. 

He also gave me some exercises to do to improve my arm mobility.  I am to hold a soup can straight out in front of me and write the alphabet in the air, then do that with my other arm.  With my arm hanging straight down, I am to make arm circles both ways.  Also, I should slowly finger crawl up the wall to a point where I am stretched and hold it for 30 seconds and repeat.  I should do these exercises a few times a day.

Travis said at this visit we would try to fill me with 120 ccs.  We actually filled each expander with 110ccs this visit, bringing my total volume so far to 200ccs.  Apparently these expanders hold 350ccs.  Travis said that after they are filled, I will have some pain for a few days...a mucle aching, like I worked out too hard. 

So, Travis again found the metal port in my expanders and marked the area to inject with a small circle.  Then he filled a LARGE syringe (but he said the needle is very small, so that made me feel better) with saline.  I told him he looked like a Mad Scientist with that HUGE SYRINGE lurking over me.  Poke.  and up filled my expander "balloons".  It was kind of funny to see my left side filled and the right side, smaller and waiting to be filled. 

I asked a lot of questions. 
-One of them was how soon after surgery can I swim? 3-4 weeks and when I don't have any more scabs.
-When can I drive?  When I can make arm movements large enough and be able to maneuver well in a "situation" case I need to.
-What are these little pointy corners in the side of my boob that I can push in?  They are folds in the expander since they aren't filled all the way.  The expander wall is folded over and making a pokey corner under my skin.
-What about bras?  Don't wear an underwire since it can rub and rub through my skin over time.
-Why are we waiting 3 months after my last fill to switch the expanders for implants?  He said that we will continue to fill the expander until it has reached capacity and then I will wait at least 3 months before we switch the expanders for the implants.  During those 3 months my breast muscle will contract around the expander. Since the expander is harder and stiff, it will be able to push back on the breast contracting. This will help form a pocket for the implant.  It's important for the breast to come close to forming it's final shape before we slide in the implant. If the implant were put in immediately after the expanders are filled to capacity and the breast didn't have time to form it's final shape, then the breast muscle would contract around the implant. The implant, being soft and squishy, would be squeezed and bulge out in certain areas. This is called "encapsulation".