How painful is a mastectomy?

Hi EbonyEyes:

Sometimes it can help you to work through things while you wait.

Time in hospital and the amount of pain will depend on whether you are having mastectomy without reconstruction or some sort of reconstruction procedure. Time in the hospital might also vary with health status or if there are complications.

Mastectomy without reconstruction would require the shortest time in surgery, and be among the shorter hospital stays. I found this thread to be very helpful before my bilateral mastectomy without reconstruction:

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/91/topic/...

I was 52 at the time and in good health otherwise. Surgery was at 6:00 AM and lasted about 3 hours. There was no catheter. I was probably on some sort of painkiller for the surgery and immediate aftermath (likely an opiate), but they get you off that as soon as possible. I stayed overnight at the hospital (1 night) and was home by 2:00 PM the next day.

At home, the pain medication was oxycodone HCl (5 mg tablet) plus Tylenol (1 tablet). I chose to take those for a day and a half, then tylenol only. The ladies in the thread above provide comparisons, and many found orthopedic surgeries to be much worse pain-wise.

Maybe others who do not tolerate pain meds and those with diabetes can chime in about their experiences.

BarredOwl

I had a bilateral mastectomy with tissue expander placement, and I thought the pain was very manageable with the pain medication I was given, which was oral hydrocodone and IV Tylenol (loved that stuff). However, I did experience some real discomfort when the pain medications started to wear off, and, of course, it hurts to change position and move at first whatever medications you're on because... surgery. You should not be in a position where there is no relief at all, though, and the nurses need to know if you are. I was in the hospital overnight, and I was told that the reason for that was pain management only. When I went home the next day I did need to stay on top of my painkiller regimen to avoid discomfort, but it was only a few days later (four, I think) that I found the need for narcotics (Tylenol with Codeine in my case) to be unnecessary. I was definitely anxious to get off the narcotics because the constipation they caused was no fun.

Being unable to urinate is pretty serious, and that's something you should address well beforehand, since you know already what your response to pain medications is. Not only is urinating important, but when you're in the hospital they want to know the volume, and they measured mine by putting a container in the toilet. A catheter is not something that is used willy-nilly (I did have one during surgery), but if you need one you should have it. A propensity toward infection is assumed if you have diabetes, and if you are type 2 (I am type 1) they will likely take you off oral diabetes medications and put you on insulin while you are in the hospital. It's a pretty primitive system they have for managing blood sugar, but you should not be out of control, and since I am a real control freak when it comes to blood sugar (I test about 15x a day and log everything that affects my blood sugar) the nurses just let me do as I pleased, although they were the ones who had to do the actual injections. If you're worried about control and you are already on insulin, it would be helpful to make sure you know exactly what your insulin to carb ratio is, what your correction factor is and what your basal dose is before you go in and do any tweaking well ahead of time. Your primary care physician or endocrinologist can help you do these things and make a hospital plan for you. My insurance company actually paid for the services of a Certified Diabetes Educator who was right there in surgery with me.

But here's to hoping your lump is benign and you won't need to bother with any of this!

Jumping the gun, possibly, but you're right that at least finding out the answers to some of these issues NOW will help settle your own mind in the matter. How long can your mother be left alone? (How long would you feel comfortable leaving her alone?) Often there's someone who works for the local cancer care network--nurse facilitator is the term where I live--who's there to help with issues just such as this.

Hi,

I just had a unilateral mastectomy with breast reconstruction on July 29.

1) I stayed in the hospital 2 nights. After my mastectomy and breast reconstruction they noticed a hematoma, so they wheeled me back in for a 2nd surgery. My blood pressure was low, so they monitored me for a 2nd night.

2) In terms of pain, I only pushed the morphine drip 3 times during my stay and did not take any of the pain killers when I got home. I didn't experience pain from the surgery, I had tightness so have used the muscle relaxer medicine. The "pain" I felt was from the drain tubes that were stitched to my skin. If I moved the wrong way it would pull, but you can tape it to your body.

I understand preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best. Keep us updated.

I Had double masectomy and I had hip surgery and hip surgery was far worse all the way around. After they removed my breasts I was numb the thing that hurt was the drains and over time much later expanders.  Everyone is different so until you know what you are up against and wake up and know what all was removed it's kind of hard to be 100% prepared but I am just like you. Good luck. I was in hospital 3 days.