I did bilateral mastectomy with tissue expanders placed during the same surgery. Honestly I was in horrible pain after the surgery I thought to myself what in the hell did I do to myself?! My surgery was April 5th and today I am doing so much better! I am so glad I chose the surgery I did. The pain got better every week and my fills aren't painful at all! I only do 50cc fills every 2 weeks. Seeing my plastic surgeon is the highlight of all this cancer crap! But I also love love love my plastic surgeon and that makes a huge difference too I think. He eased a lot of my fears and really pointed me in the direction that was best for my situation. But bottom line for you is get all the info you can and then decide what you feel is best for you. It's all so scary and everybody's experience is soooo different. We are all here for you to give you advice and hugs and cry with you if needed. Good luck with your decision!

I was going to do the all in one surgery but had to go to plan b tissue expanders because the tumor was larger than expected. They fillef my expanders during surgery so they were little mounds. Yes its painful at first but I'm almost done with chemo and hope no radiation. I'm on the border. 3 nodes involved 6.5cm tumor size

My PS only did tissue expanders. When I asked my breast surgeon about all at one time she thought I was crazy. The expanders are to stretch the remaining, remember they are taking skin with tissue.

I had to do expanders for 2 reasons. First, to stretch out my skin over time and second because radiation was recommended. The radiation can cause skin damage and can also damage the implants. I will finish radiation in July and then 6 months later will swap out the expanders to implants. They want to make sure there will be no other skin or tissue damage.
See what the recommendations are for treatments and how the options would impact the reconstruction process.
This may sound vain, but I want my girls to look good when I'm done with all of this! If I have to wait to have the final implants in but I get better final results, then I'm all for it!

I did the BMX then tissue expanders. The exchange surgery was honestly very simple. However, it all depends on the size you want, etc. I couldn't do the immediate to permanent implants because I was small-chested and did not have enough skin/room to accommodate the implants, but that was my experience. But like I said, the second surgery wasn't terrible. It also depends on your treatment needed. If you are going to need radiation, I would wait on reconstruction in general as I've heard it can cause issues with implants. I only had chemotherapy so I cannot speak to it personally but yeah.