BMX?

The time line depends a lot on two things:

1) If you're planning for immediate reconstruction; if so, the recovery time is a bit longer and your lifting restrictions are in place longer. For a BMX without reconstruction, it's about 6-8 weeks before all your restrictions are done, and I was feeling back to myself (despite the lifting restrictions of 15lb) after about 4 weeks. For the first 2 weeks, either way, you'll want to be off work and make sure you have people to help you as you'll be tired (an want to sleep a LOT, it was 3 weeks before I could get through the day without feeling like I needed a nap) and your range of motion won't allow you to reach fully over your head for about 6 weeks without recon.

2) On you personally; everyone is different in how fast/easy healing is. The better your overall health in general, the easier recovery from surgery usually goes. If you're the sort that's stubborn and will insist on trying to do everything yourself back at your regular levels before it's recommended, it'll be a rougher time and take longer, but if you can make yourself take it easy for 4-6 weeks (longer with immediate recon) you'll probably have an easier time. Your 11 year old should be old enough to be able to help you out around the house and help out with watching younger siblings, so that may help make things a little easier.

One week will not really be enough time off to get back on your feet for most people with or without immediate reconstruction; most people have their drains in for at least a week anyway. If you don't work summers and can wait, I'd wait for summer break so you'll have ample time to recover.

Overall, if you have a desk job that'll let you sit most of the time, 2 weeks is usually the minimum people take off for a BMX. If your job requires you be on your feet or be active, a lot of people take short term disability or use PTO to have 3-6 weeks off before going back. I have a pretty easy going desk job and even I took two weeks off--well--one week totally off and one week working from home so I could sneak in naps. Even by the third week it was hard to make it through a full 8 hour day without feeling exhausted; by the 4th week I felt more normal, and it took 6-7 weeks before I could fully raise my arms over my head without pain again.

Since it sounds like you'll be having treatment at/around the same time, it'd be worth erring on the side of caution and planning for needing several weeks off for recovery, even if you don't do immediate recon.

I had a BMX without reconstruction in Feb 2016. Unfortunately, I had a LOT of complications which necessitated that I go to the doctor 3 times a week for 8 long weeks. It took 16 weeks for my chest to completely heal and it looks awful. I was not expecting all that.

I did not have small children at home, so I can't speak to that. Thankfully my DH is retired, so he was home to help me. And I needed a lot of help the first 2 weeks. I wasn't allowed to lift ANYTHING, not even a jug of milk. My friends provided meals twice a week for over a month. I had a more pain at night and I don't sleep well on my back (you can't sleep on your side or stomach at first, but I wasn't allowed to get off my back for 16 weeks). That resulted in severe depression and anxiety, so my doctor put me on something for that. I wasn't allowed to drive until I got off all those meds, about 6 weeks. I went back to work at 4 weeks, only because I work part-time 4hrs a day and I can work some from home. If I had had the sick leave available, I would have stayed out another 2 weeks. I was exhausted all the time, probably because my body was desperately trying to heal and it was going slooooooowwly. About the 7th week post-op, things began to improve and I felt like I finally was getting my life back.

By comparison, I had a total hysterectomy, including ovaries, in Oct 2016. By comparison, the hyst was a piece of cake. I had very little pain, just soreness. I watched a bazillion hours of HGTV because I wasn't allowed to do much. By the 10th day post-op I was on the phone, begging the doctor to let me go back to work~!

Why am I telling you all this? Because it can happen to anyone and you need to know that. Maybe you'll be one of those lucky women who breeze right through this, land on your feet, and get on with things. Or maybe you'll have some set-backs like I did. No way to tell. As the Girl Scout motto says, "Be prepared!"