Posted on May 24, 2012
Let’s say you are out from your breast augmentation by 6 months. You had the pain after surgery. You had numbness in your skin. Then it got hypersensitive, pins and needles, zings of pain. And then it returned to normal.
Now, 6 months later, it is sore again. What is going on? First, let’s start with questions to ask yourself.
- Where does it hurt?
- How much does it hurt? (Scale of 1-10)
- How often does it hurt? (is it once a day? all day? only when you move your arm a certain way?)
- When did it start? (did you change your activity? Start a new work out routine? Move and were packing boxes all day?)
- Does anything make it better? Worse?
- Is the pain improving?
- Is there any redness? tenderness? temperature? change in size of the breast?
Now once you have analyzed your pain, then it is time to figure out what it is.
- Go see your doctor. This blog does not substitute for seeing your doctor. I am happy to see my patients anytime they are worried about anything.
- If your pain started after a new workout/exercise, then it could be musculoskeletal (ie a pulled muscle). These tend to get better with Advil, not using the muscle, and time.
- If you have any objective visible change in the breast- redness, tenderness, increase in size- you MUST see your doctor. You could have an infection, seroma, something. See your doctor.
- If your pain is in the lower outer part of the breast and your breast and skin look normal, then I always consider if your skin is thinning. As your breast implant settles, it pushes on the overlying skin. This pressure over time can cause the skin to thin. When your skin thins, it stretches the nerves in the skin. When nerves are stretched they get irritated, which manifests by things like itching, numbness, pain. See my blog on down and out.
If your pain has gone on for over and week, had redness/swelling/fevers, or is getting worse, please go see your doctor. It is always better to be safe.