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Hi - I had a skin-sparing mastectomy with a tram-flap reconstruction. So I went through part of what you'll experience. Angi, our "expander" expert, will probably chime in here, too.   My surgery was very long, because of the reconstruction. I imagine yours will be shorter, although having a bilateral, that'll take time. The rule of thumb is, however many hours you're under the general anesthesia, expect to feel kind of "off kilter" for that many days: e.g., under anesthesia for 5 hours, feeling not-so-good for 5 days.   When you wake up, you'll be tightly swathed in bandages stretching all the way around your chest. However, you may find that they've left the bandages loose around the front; this is so they can check things easily. You'll probably be shocked the first time you look at your chest and see 1) no breasts, and 2) probably pretty raw looking incisions. Take a deep breath, and just look; the first time is the hardest. You quickly get used to it.   You'll be on IV pain meds, I'd think, for 24 hours or so. Then oral pain meds after that. Persnoally, I didn't find the pain to be too bothersome after the first day or so. Be sure you tell them as soon as you feel the slightest bit of pain; you don't want to let it get too established before you medicate it.   Not sure how long you'll be in the hospital. I was in 6 days, due to length of surgery, plus they had to go back in and construct my nipple a few days after the first surgery. You may be in less, since with the expanders rather than your body tissue, there's less to heal.   I'm going to hand off to Angi now. Angi, can you talk about expanders post-surgery? Thanks.   Best of luck - one foot in front of the other. You'll be OK - stay in touch, we can help you through this. PJH