Help! before, during, and after mastectomy/reconstuction surgery

Hi there. I was diagnosed May 26th and had my bilateral mastectomy July 16th. As farmerlucy mentioned, if you are going to do reconstruction you'll need to schedule the procedure on a day that works for both your breast surgeon and plastic surgeon. The night before surgery you have to stop eating and drinking at midnight, so if you can schedule the surgery early in the morning it may be easier for you.

I opted for reconstruction so my plastic surgeon placed tissue expanders beneath my pectoral muscles, as well as drain tubes to remove accumulated fluid. My procedure was just under 5 hours.

I'm not sure if it's standard practice but I also had a catheter inserted while I was under anesthesia. I found out I was getting the catheter when my breast surgeon came to see me before surgery. I'd never had one before and I was so terrified of it, on top of everything else, that I could've walked out right then and there if they let me.

In addition to the pain meds I received a nerve block. The nerve block is given just before you head into the O.R. while you're still awake. It's uncomfortable but I would say well worth it because I felt little to no pain afterward.

I stayed over that night (didn't get much sleep because of that damn catheter) and was headed home the next afternoon. For the first couple of days my mom and sister helped me in and out of chairs, when I had to go to the bathroom and to empty the fluid from my drains. Everyone's experience is different, but my recovery was very easy. I didn't have any setbacks or infections, and my tubes were out by day 10.

It's very important to make a schedule for your pain meds and stay on top of it.

When you go back to work will depend on the work you do and how you recover. I work in a small office, so I was able to go back to work 4 weeks post op. If you have reconstruction with a flap procedure your recovery will probably take longer.

I hope this was helpful!