Mastectomy and time off work

If your experience is similar to mine, absolutely. You are talking mastectomy without node dissection, correct? I had two separate mastectomies, one with axillary node dissection (cancer side) and the second one without.

The first week, in both cases, I was still dealing with the drain, learning to move around little by little, kind of sore and uncomfortable, but getting out and about, especially towards the tail end of it.

The second week:

• With node dissection I was still very limited in range of motion -but already going to physical therapy, going out for long walks and doing stretching exercises everywhere; still not working, not even remotely, because I wanted to have the time to focus on recovering mobility, which takes time because of all the stretching reps three times a day.
• Without node dissection, I was pretty mobile, back to work full time (not remotely) and going to the gym for spinning classes after work.

I had good support at home though -my parents were around and taking care of all things domestic so I could focus on my recovery.

Best of luck with all!

Suzze, I had a BMX, no reconstruction and within two and a half weeks they were getting me set up for radiation because they thought I'd healed so thoroughly (when I had to hold my arms above my head during the process for what seemed like an hour I was not so sure I agreed with their assessment). The night of my surgery I could lift my arms above my head and purposely started the stretching process, very gently. I only had one sentinel node and there was no cut made to get to it, so I'm sure that would have made my recovery easier. I work from home and was able to resume as much work as needed within five days. One thing that I believe made my recovery easier: they gave me a nerve block. By the time my nerves "woke up," I was three days past surgery and I hardly took painkillers. I would highly recommend asking for one.