Recon recovery

Kat1984

Hiya, i had a single mastectomy 6 months ago and am soon to have an expander placed on the side and a prophylactic mastectomy and immediate implant recon on the other side. Could any one tell me what the recovery is like from a mastectomy +implant recon/expander placement (done in same surgery)? I'm wondering how much time I'll need off work, I run a restaurant so am quite active and moving a lot. Would be grateful for any tips/advice!

Momandwife36

hi Kat, I had a double mastectomy with expanders placed at the same time. I'm still new to all this lingo, but I think my situation is similar to yours. My surgeon explained to me that I would be surprised by how little pain there is from a mastectomy, but my plastic surgeon said most of the pain I would be feeling would be from the expanders. Since I didn't have just a mastectomy, I can't attest to the painless-Ness of it...but I'm almost two weeks into my recovery, and have only just been able to sleep through the night and start slacking off on the pain meds. I've always thought I have a high tolerance to pain, but the first week had me totally out of commission. Hope this helps. Breathing through the pain helps and just know that it will get better. Also, I've heard another woman who said two days into her surgery, was completely scaling back her pain meds to almost nothing. So I guess it just depends on the person. Good luck