When I use a gradient mesh, expand is greyed out in the new version of Illustrator. Any idea why that is? Or is there a work around? This wasn't an issue before...

I create a simple object and distort it with any mesh, then want to expand the image to control it and keep it a vector, but expand and expand appearance is greyed out.  Never been a problem before with previous versions, but now it is.  Any idea why that is? Or is there a work around?