BMX no recon immediate post op

I have bilateral mastectomies but each side was done separately.  My reconstruction was done two years after my mastectomies.

 For each mastectomy, I spent several nights in a recliner until I was comfortable with lying down in a bed.  The first few nights in the bed I did sleep on several pillows so I wasn't completely flat.

 The bummer was that I couldn't comfortably sleep on the side with the mastectomy for several months. 

I had my BMX a year ago and I remember not being able to sleep on my side , had to sleep on my back which I hated. But if you put pillows under your knees that seem to help me alot . I am a side /stomach sleeper too and that was one of the hardest parts of my BMX. I did sleep in my own bed from day 1. Good Luck  Ladies  I just looked in my book of notes that I keep during and after my surgeries and I had written  at 2 months post surgery that was the best night sleep I had had,. so I think a couple of months you should be sleeping  on your side or stomach again. 

Nancy

I had a BMX, with axillary node removal on one side and sentinel removal on the other. I had four drains. Until the drains were out, there was no side-sleeping. Once the drains were out, I was allowed to sleep on the sentinel side, but not the axillary side. However, I found that the wounds from the drains hurt like heck when I lay on them, although they were healed. It took a several months to stop hurting.

During the post-op chemo with taxotere, I developed swelling on the axillary side and eventually on the sentinel side as well. It is not severe on the sentinel side, and it is only in the armpit. But it means that I now have to sleep on my back all the time, which is very annoying.

Also be prepared that you will probably have a tight feeling across the chest for quite a while. I still have it on and off 4 months out. In the beginning there was also an itchy sort of feeling. Not anything terrible, but tiring. Anti-inflammatories can help.

I would strongly urge you to see a physical therapist soon after surgery, one who knows about lymphedema and mastectomies. You can avoid a lot of discomfort by getting some PT right away. 

I had my PBMX no recon just over 6 weeks ago.  I came home from the hospital with 4 drains, and I wasn't prepared for how annoying those drains would be.  You will have to milk them (squeeze the tubing from where it comes out of your body all the way down into the grendade looking bulb, a hint for that is to buy those little alcohol swabs and use it to do the squeezing.  The moistness makes your fingers slide so much easier and disinfects everything at the same time.)  You also have to measure and keep track of the amount of fluid that collects in the bulb daily.  I wasn't able to shower while I still had the drains in so I made arrangements to have my hair washed at a local beauty salon for a few times until I got enough movement back in my arms to not drown myself in the kitchen sink.

Sleeping wasn't an issue for me for the first few weeks.  I had two pillows behind my head and two large pillows along my sides, plus two little pillows to raise my arms up (had 19 nodes removed on my right side, 9 on my left.  Elevated arms helps prevent lymphedema.  I made a little nest for myself and was actually quite secure feeling and comfy.  Of course, the pain killers helped me sleep thru the night too.  I would suggest getting 'slippery pjs' or slippery sheets to help you slide out of bed.  While sitting in a recliner is comfy, I had problems getting the recliner down and had to have my hubby or daughter push it down for me.

My BS wouldn't let me start PT until those dreaded drains were out.  My last one came out 4 weeks after surgery.  PT has helped me tremendously.  I'm almost back to 100% range of motion (althou it hurts like the dickens!) but seem to be developing some sort of rotator cuff problem from keeping my shoulder forward. 

I can lay on my side on the couch and be comfy but it is still a no go in bed.  Both my sides under my arms are still swollen (I call them my bean bags) and numb, yet when I lay on them, they hurt.  I'm a side/tummy sleeper and now find that I spend many nights just staring at the ceiling.  I actually counted the smoke detector light blink 781 times until I gave up.

My incisions never bothered me.  What I experienced was an intense burning sensation in my underarm area.  I would peer into the mirror expecting to see blisters.  Althou I bought a few button down flannel shirts for recovery, thinking after washing them a few times, they'd be soft, they irritated my under arm area.  I started helping myself to my DH's cotton t-shirts and his dress shirts. They would feel so cool against my skin and were big enough to cover the drains while I had them.

Best of luck mskassie and mary625.  Feel free to pm me if you want.

Cats

I am 8 weeks out of surgery, second time around, and a topper on my mattress is like heaven for me, it is a foam piece, about 4 inches thick.

The first few weeks, you can only sleep on your back with pillows under your legs and even at your sides...your body will know when it is time to side-sleep, you will just roll over and sleep away when it is time.

I still hug a pillow to my chest when i side sleep, it just feels better to me.

Once the drains are out, it all gets easier...there are so many threads here to read...I wish you the very best!

Kassie, my sleeping plan was very simliar to Cats's.  I went to Walmart and bought a bunch of their cheapest pillows, maybe 8?  and made myself a sleeping throne on the bed.  I guess it mimicked a recliner, but it felt more like a cross between a nest and a throne.   I didn't find the BMX particularly painful, not as bad as my orthopedic surgeries.  I never used safety pins to hold the drain bulbs.  I got zip-up hoodie T-shirts from Target and put my drain bulbs in the pockets.  It was summer, so I cut off their sleeves.  

Some of the best advise I got was to get a bean bag chair and use it on my bed. I put it @ the head of my bed, placed pillows on/around it and it worked very well. I could sleep in my own bed, but,in a somewhat upright position. I've shared this advice with several others in the same situation and it has worked well for all of us.

sespebadger,

 Do you mind I ask you if you had radiation after lumpectomy? I plan to do BMX soon and I had lumpectomy and 30 runs of radiation on one side. My surgeon told me that the skin on the lumpectomy side would not be easy to heal. I would like to hear your experience. Thanks a lot.