How much will I be able to lift?

I had a lumpectomy and 2 nodes and had trouble lifting period. My left side became a bit stiff, wanted to keep my arm at 90 degree angle and my first shower was terrible to do properly. That's just me though. I was able to lift gallon in about a week (without thinking about it).

P.S. My surgeon gave me a heads up so I bought smaller containers.

UMX plus SNB here too. It's a definite "No" to a gallon of milk. Or a large bottle of laundry detergent. Or a heavy bag of flour or heavy baking dish or pot. You might be lifting something with your other hand, but you may need support from hand/arm on the MX side and that's a no-no.

After a MX you will have both external and internal incisions, and you don't want to strain or compromise those incisions. The usual instruction after any surgery where there are incisions in a location that can be strained is to do no heavy lifting, no carrying of anything heavy, no reaching, no pulling and pushing (no vacumning), etc. for 6 weeks. Starting to exercise your arm soon after surgery to regain full mobility is important, and you may be given exercises to do, but the advice from my surgeon was to not proceed if I felt pain or pressure/pulling on the incision.

Some surgeons don't give their patients the 6 week rule, and you are likely to feel fine well before the 6 weeks are up, but I read somewhere that it takes an incision in the skin 6 weeks to regain 90% of the skin's original strength, and I'd guess the same is true with incisions in muscle. So the 6 week rule makes sense.

Hope your surgery goes well!

UMX and many nodes out here, and I agree with everyone. Even if you already have good upper body strength (I did), not only does using your "good" arm also indirectly use/impact your chest muscles and pull on tissues, but relying on your one hand for everything will create it's own over-strain. I developed shoulder pain in my "good" arm from such overuse (I pushed it with things like vacuuming and soon regretted it). It can be so difficult if you're used to being very active with your hands, but it's much better in the long run to let your body rest and heal with minimal lifting until your surgeon fully "lifts" (pun intended) restrictions.

May I inject (I almost wrote "infect") a little humor in here? It's a quote from a Jan Karon book. If it's inappropriate or insensitive, tell me and I'll delete it.

On strengthening: Start by lifting a 5-pound potato sack and hold it out to your side for one minute. Work your way up to a 10-pound, then 20-pound, and up to a 100-pound potato sack. When you can comfortably hold a 100-pound potato sack straight out for a full minute, start putting a few potatoes in the sack, but try not to over do it.

I didn't use her exact words, but I thought that was so funny and cute when I read it. By the way, my dad (an ortho) told me definitely NO vacuuming for at least six weeks, and an onco at our church told me no picking up dog poop for at least six weeks. They both said it with a smile, but hey, doctor's orders, so who am I to argue?