Surgery Mon. with anxillary disection. Any last minute advice?

Carol's advice is very good.  =

Really take it easy at first ...  you want to minimize extra load on your lymphatics that exercise brings.   skip the housework and cooking, and if you have little kids, try to get someone to help out at home.  

Bring a poncho or button down short sleeve or sleeveless shirt to wear  home from the hospital so you don't have to lift your arms up.  You're going to have a bunch of surgical drains, and if your very petite or large, you might want to order an appropriately-sized post-surgical bra (the kind with attachments for the drains).  

I've heard rumor that some hospitals actually have LE therapists visit patients in the hospital to give education etc., but you need to request them.  Lots of LE therapists have a long waiting list, so even if you can't see a LE therapist for baseline measurements done before your surgery or be seen while in the hospital, perhaps one of your docs (if not your surgeon maybe your MO) will write a referral to a LE therapist for AFTER your surgery for education.  

Are you having unilateral or bilateral ALND?  Presumably the docs & nurses known not to do BPs/IVs/blood draws on the ALND side.  I have a question for one of the experts on the board, if a woman is having a BMX and unilateral ALND, is it safe to have post-surgical BPs, IVs etc on the non-ALND side? 

best wishes for an uneventful surgery and speedy recovery.  KS1

I have a question about LE prevention, too.  I did not find these forums till after my surgery.  Not one of the docs or nurses I had seen during the whole thing ever mentioned LE, in fact I had never heard of it till I found my way here and started reading.  There seems to be some conflicting advice i.e. some say elevate the arm, others say don't raise it above shoulder level (a moot point for me as my arm still won't go anywhere near that high 2 weeks after surgery).  When I was in the hospital they told me not to use that arm for BP readings, etc. and the doc said not to stretch it or lift anything heavy.  I just naturally took that to mean they didn't want anything pulling on my arm while the incision/stitches were fresh.  At 13 days post-op, my surgeon checked the incision and pronounced it all healed, and said I could go back to my normal activities and start doing stretching exercises.  Basically he said "do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt."  Well now after reading here it seems those recommendations are more about preventing LE than worrying about popping out some stitches.  Just no one ever said.  Anyway my question is, no one seems to ever say, for how long do you take these precautions?  Is it OK to raise my arm as far as it will go now?  OK to start lifting weights again?  How long before it's OK to have BP taken in that arm?  A month?  Or what?  Appreciate any clarification....   

Pam, how did your surgery go?  How are you feeling?  Hope everything went smoothly.

So glad the surgery went well.  I am not sure how common it is not to be able to straighten your arm, but I had difficulty doing so.  The reason in my case was "cording" (AKA axillary web syndrome).  Ask your surgeon when you see her/him.  In the meantime, you might want to check out the stepup-speakout website link:

http://www.stepup-speakout.org/Cording_and_Axillary_Web_Syndrome.htm