Temporary implants called expanders.

During surgery they put temporary implants - expanders in if you are going to have reconstructive surgery. These expanders are sutured into your chest muscles. Then they are filled with saline. If you have to have radiation they need to fill them to the maximum they can hold because they need to stretch the skin. Radiated skin does not stretch

They do not fill the implants up all at once usually it is done in three fills. Just like with the port for the chemo, the implants have their own ports, and they use a magnet to find the center of the port and then insert the needle with a syringe and fill the expanders.

The feeling that you get when they fill the expanders the best way to describe it is when your milk comes in after you’ve had a baby and you can’t breast-feed but the heaviness of your milk in your breast it’s like that and uncomfortable and heavy and sometimes it can make you off balance. This lasts a few days until you get used to it. Usually the fills are between a week or two. The first fill usually happens when you do your first follow up visit and is usually the most uncomfortable because you have not healed from surgery so everything is uncomfortable to the point of painful.