mastectomy

Hi seof and Merry Christmas to you too, I had my mastectomy Dec 19th 05. I came home the same day, they do drive thru mastectomies here now!! Nurse came to me next day to measure fluid and such. You will have a drain, nothing to worry about. It's out in a week. I sat at the table for Christmas apparently but don't remember much about the holidays....slept a lot and was on meds for any pain. Just sleepy but not painful really. You will get thru it, I am going back for my second mastectomy Feb 08....Gods speed hon.

I had my bilateral mastectomy in Nov. I spent one day in the hospital. That really put me in a panic when they told me...one day! As it turned out...that's all I needed and was glad to be home. I had no pain...just some soreness, and still have a few sore spots after six weeks. Do your exercises after the drains are out and you will regain full range of motion. My drains stayed in two weeks because I was over limit on my output, but I had no problems after they came out. I felt able to go back to work after a month, but since I work at a University and we are down for the holidays, they encouraged me to stay home until after the first. You sound like you have lots of help at home and there should be no reason that you shouldn't be home for Christmas! I found the drains the most cumbersome and difficult to deal with. The cancer society sells a camisole with drain pockets. It's great. Also...during showers..put a piece of yarn around your neck to pin the drains to. I expected the surgery to be a much bigger deal. I was totally surprised that I had no pain. My daughter spent two nights with me and continued to come and do household chores for me for about a week and a half then I was on my on (she called it my rehab process). Just use common sense and don't lift, etc. Oh one more thing..I did wind up sleeping in a recliner. I'm a side sleeper and laying flat on my back just didn't cut it. Good luck to you. I know everyone is different, but I hope your surgery isn't so bad. Mine surely wasn't! Have a good Christmas and enjoy the pampering!!

Seof,

I will be thinking of you and adding you to my prayers. I had a double mastectomy in October. I know how you're feeling right about now, actually, I couldn't wait to get it over with and stop thinking about it. I did feel like the weight of the world was lifted after it was over. I was in the hospital for 2 nights, the worst part for me was not being able to move myself into comfortable positions, you can't really use your arms to push yourself up in bed right after the surgery, so don't be afraid to ask your nurse to reposition you, mine came in every hour or so as needed and helped me out. I would also recommend asking for the morphine pump for pain, I initially got percoset and it didn't work really well for me, but the morphine helped greatly.

I found that I was able to get around pretty good after about a week or so. You have much more help than I did, so I think you'll be in good shape. I'm now 2 months out and have full range of motion back without pain.

You will do fine. Merry Christmas & God Bless.