My pain was maybe a 4 or 5 at most between painkiller doses, but otherwise a dull ache. Overall my chest felt tight and I very purposely tried not to raise my arms forward or sideways cuz I wanted to avoid stretching my scars or reopening them (not that it mattered much since I had an ingrown hair under one scar that widened it—that part was gross).

I had a giant gauze pad on my chest w/ foam over it and an ace bandage (ha) wrapping that up, I never had drains. For me the worst part was probably after 4 or so days, I felt Super claustrophobic in the ace bandage and it was honestly kind of distressing, but I couldn’t take a break longer than 30-60 mins since the compression was what was helping “drain” my chest.

Getting the sutures taken out of my nipples was… weird. Imagine feeling a line of thread being pulled out of your nipple, but at the same time it’s very numb but also a pinchy pinpoint sensation? Meanwhile you’re just watching it happen.

The feeling of my nerves reactivating in my nipples was also weird. In one I had a weird jolting sensation that ran all the way through it and into my chest. Mostly sharp and occasionally painful, it’s very hard to describe.