Recovery for lumpectomy & plastics?

mom2bunky

Hi all,

I tried running a search on this question and wasn't terribly successful. I'm hoping that someone who's had the above done might be able to tell me how long the recovery is?

I've been encouraged by all the women who were feeling great within a week of a lumpectomy. But the size differentiation the surgeon expects for me is too significant for me to live with, so he's going to do a slight reduction in the healthy breast and then a lift on both. Otherwise, I'd end up with a D/DD and a B/small C. No, just no. Not for me.

So given that, has anyone done this that could tell me what the recovery is like please? I'm taking 2 weeks off work, but ideally would like to be back in a week if possible. It's a desk job, so not the most strenuous. I could probably get a ride to work for a week too. The doctors have told me 2 weeks is standard, but some women do better. And that's fine, I'm just hoping for some real life experiences.

Thanks everyone!

April0315

oh my gosh... I actually found a post I can share my experience on!

I just had my surgery Friday. I had 4 lumpectomies and previously placed implants. So my surgery was lumpectomies (making me very lopsided) bilateral SNB, with plastics finishing, doing a lift and swapping out my implants. I am on day 3 post op, and I feel fine. Not like I’m going to run a marathon or anything, but just Motrin and Tylenol for pain and extra rest. My job is very strenuous so I was told 6-8 weeks (I’m a nurse in a busy hospital, lots of transferring pts). I would imagine at 2 weeks you could do a desk job.

I felt very “extra” having the plastic surgeon involved, but I am so happy I did. He needed to different sized implants to even me out. And I could have used the lift and few years ago before BC diagnosis.

Have you found your surgeons already? That was the hardest part for me, finding someone who would listen to me and not just brush me to the side bc I wasnthaving a mastectomy.

Best of luck!

Runrcrb

i think you’ll be fine at 2 weeks. I assume you have sick leave and short term disability coverage from your employer. If you aren’t recovering as expected your surgeon will be able to advocate for more time. In addition to the revisions I had 7 months after my DIEP i had a lift on the healthy breast and some liposuction on both sides at the underarm fold. I was back at work after a week but I will say the lipo areas were sore for 5 weeks! Didn’t stop me but was an

mom2bunky

Thank you both! I'm relieved to hear it went well for you. Hope it does for me too. I have the sick leave, I just don't want to use it if I don't have to with all the unknowns still out there. I guess we'll see what happens! good luck to us.