About six weeks after surgery, I made an appointment for a mastectomy bra and prosthetic fitting. Good times.
Armed with my prescription that would give me 3 bras a quarter forever, I headed on in to the clinic.
I was measured and given a form to try. The mastectomy fitter slipped the form into the pocket of a mastectomy bra and had me try it on. The fitter asked me what I thought size-wise, and I kept thinking, “I have no clue.” She adjusted the form in the bra, while I was wearing it, to get it in the right place. That’s not the most comfortable thing to have someone reaching around in your bra to make adjustments.
Since the bra company doesn’t know if you had a left, right, or double mastectomy, there are pockets on both sides, which are like those in sports bras or swim suits that have forms in them except the pocket openings are a bit larger.
After decided on the form size, we looked at different bra options. Not sure what I was expecting but my bra size stayed the same. The options presented were either very matronly or very training bra-ish. So I selected a training bra-ish white, a matronly nude, and a matronly black.
The training bra has a seam on the outside of the bra cup, which, given my small cup size, seems a bit strange. That bra will definitely not be under fitted clothing, since you’d definitely see the seams. It’s not a bra I would choose if I were paying out of pocket. Insurance provides coverage for bras, just not particularly stylish ones. I figure I will have one more round of bras this year through insurance. Since insurance is covering these, I will just use these until I can figure out other options.
The matronly ones are not my favorite either because the strap rubs against my port a bit. Even with the prosthetic form in, I can dent my bra cup, which doesn’t seem like that should be happening. But the matronly bras have a smooth cup, so I’m going to dub those my t-shirt bras. Just don’t poke my right breast because it might dent.
May 18, 2019
