Breast Cancer Support Group

Hey there! Personally I did not have a mastectomy, I had a lumpectomy, but as a nurse who has taken care of ladies who had had bilat mastectomies I can tell you what I know. They say that there is not that much pain involved and are usually surprised by that. The drains are not bad... i did have 2 from my surgery. They usually stay in about a week, and you can go home with them and empty them, it is not hard, they will show you how at the hospital. You will have to record how much you empty.. they should give you a chart to record it on. I would highly recommed that you get in contact with your local "Reach for Recovery" chapter. Do you know much about them? It is sponsored by the American Cancer Society and some one will come and visit you post op and explain exercises to you and give you hints on differnt things, These volunteers are all breast cancer survivors. If you contact them before you go in the hospital they may come and see you in the hospital.. or they will come to your home if they can. Ask your surgeon about them or one of the nurses. Well take care sweetie. Suzie

I had my bilateral done in 02/07. The pain was very minimal. Took extra strength tylenol once while in the hospital. Dr. sent home a prescription for painkillers, never got it filled. My stay there was 27 hours, I was able to drive when I left. When I got home I cleaned house, took a nap and went to church. The physical therapy exercises were very much like sweeping floors and cleaning ceiling fans, so I figured I might as well make the most of what I needed to do for exercisies and I cleaned house. It was left up to me when I wanted to return to work, Dr. K. said I could go back to work the following day if I felt up to it. I did take two weeks off which was nice and I rested alot but overall felt really good. I had four drains, two on each side, one drain was taken out in about a week and the rest came out over the course of the next 5 weeks. The one where the lymph node was removed at took 6 weeks, waiting for a rerouting on the lymph fluid to drain. There was very little pain but I felt irritated under the skin a little bit while the drains were in. It doesn't hurt to have them removed as the whole breast area is numb. As I got the tubes removed, I began using air tape to tape the tubing to my chest and then put a large piece of tape over the bulb to keep it in place. I liked this much better than the dangling feeling I had from the neck band they sent from the hospital that had a velcro loop that hooked through the loops on the bulbs on the drains. When I got down to the last drain, I taped the tubing on my skin and tucked the bulb in my pants pocket, wouldn't ever know it was there. The only pain that I really recall having was in the muscle where the lymph node was removed. It was uncomfortable to stretch it at first, reaching to wash my back in the shower was probably the worst of it, it occured to me one day, that it wasn't even so much pain to move my arm as much as I was having to make my mind retrain my arm to move. I was able to shower the morning after surgery, I had no bandages or dressings to change and Dr. used dissolvable stitches so I didn't have to have any stitches pulled either. Truly for as bad as this surgery sounds, it really wasn't bad. My scars are fading out already, the breast area will always be numb, but I am glad that I had both of them removed because of the symetry that is there. I have talked to many many women who have had a mastectomy done that wish they could have had the bilateral done. It has not bothered me to be breastless and I have not considered reconstruction. I looked at lots of pics on the internet before I made a final decision and everything I saw made me very comfortable with doing the bilateral. I don't feel less of a woman for not having breasts and it sure is nice to not have to wear a bra when the weather is 100+ degrees outside. Keep thinking positive, you will do fine, if you want/need to visit, I am here for you.

I'm amazed at Judy's mastectomy experience ! I'm 63, so maybe age makes a difference. I also had many nodes removed.
I needed lots of help for the first month. Couldn't lower my arms w/o smuching the drains, two of which were in locations I couldn't reach, so they had to be "milked" by someone else. The third week I had a staph infection in one of the incisions - a week in the hospital. A month later, another infection from my port-a-cath, this time MRSA, more weeks in the hospital. I finally returned to work parttime 4 months after the surgery.

I think we've given you two extreme responses. The usual is somewhere in between. Don't expect your experience to be as bad as mine, but don't think you're not "trying hard enough" or somehow failing if your recovery involves complications, or isn't as speedy as Judy's - bless her lucky heart ! :-)
You'll have your own experience, go with the flow, rest when you want to rest, eat lots of protein, don't feel you have a deadline to meet. Accept and enjoy the help and affection from others.
Hugs, Jessie

Hello, I had a bilatteral mastectomy and I also had my overies taken out at the same time. I was never in any pain and I started moving right away. My hospital stay was 23 hours and then I went home. I live in the mountains on a dirt road. When I went home we had to go down a washboard dirt road. The ride was rough on the lower part of me and about 2 days later I was able to drive myself down the dirt road with no pain. May I suggest that if you have cats (as I do) wear baggy pants so that you can keep the bulb in a pocket or something. My cats wanted to play w/ them if I left them hanging around. I had them about 10 days and then had them removed. NO PROBLEM! Good luck to you!

I had a bilateral mastectomy in mid-August this year. For me the worst part was the drains. I went home with two. I hoped like hell they'd be removed the following week, but I had to keep them for 4 more days.

My surgeon, who is kind of a medical geek - he loves what he does and finds it fascinating, said with glee that he thought I was experiencing phantom pain when I described a discomfort that ran all along my chest.

He also said gleefully that the area would get really hard and then soften up again, because that's how we heal. "The healing process is really neat", says he. What a dork, but a lovable dork.

Truly, the worst part was the drains. Sometimes the area where they go in would hurt. I found it difficult to take a shower with them in. I finally tied some fabric around my waist and hooked the bulbs to that, so I could move my arms with ease.

I felt mostly exhaustion after the surgery. I went back to work 7 days after the surgery, but felt very tired after half a day. Then came the weekend and on the following Monday, I made it 3/4 of a day.

It wasn't bad at all. I rarely even used the word pain, it was more discomfort. I never used the pain meds the doc gave me, just Tylenol III.

The drains have to stay in until you are draining less than 25 ccs (in my case, at least) in a 24 hour period on each drain.

Good luck to you.
Wendy

I had bi-lateral surgery 11 years ago. I had a lot of pain, but I don't think I got very good pain management. The drains were no big deal, they were removed after about 4 days. My biggest problem was having to sleep on my back for about six weeks. I was taking pain medication because my back hurt so desperately. I have posted my full story in my journal if you are interested in it. Good luck to you.