My mom is having a mastectomy next week

[Anonymous]

Any experience with this in terms of recovery, support she might need, etc.? She's 69 and will have a mastectomy and reconstruction at the same time. No chemo or radiation is anticipated right now but that will be finalized when the pathology report is available. THey said to expect a 3 - 7 day hospital stay.

She does not want me to come down (she's an airplane flight away). She has a lot of support from my stepfather and other family members, so she will be well taken-care-of, but I feel weird not being there.

[Anonymous]

I had a single mastectomy w/ immediate implant reconstruction last year (also w/o chemo or rads). I had a fairly easy recovery -- stayed in the hospital overnight, then took 3 weeks off from work (although I did do some work from home). My husband worked from home for the first 2 weeks, but I was preparing my lunch and able to take slow walks around the neighborhood within a week or so. Things that helped me out:

-- friends bringing food, so all we had to do was heat it up
-- having a reclining chair on the main floor of the house
-- Stretchy tank tops made dressing easier.
-- I also found that wearing a fleece jacket with an inside pocket made dealing with the drains easier (I could just drop them into the pocket, which I preferred to pinning to my bra strap)

The tricky parts were reaching for anything above my head for the first few weeks, so it's good to put often used things at a low level. I had physical therapy once the drains were out and I highly recommend you mom does that as well as it helps with the muscle tightness and getting back a full range of motion.

We didn't have any family come during this period (my mother actually was recovering from chemotherapy from her own cancer earlier in the year), but we did have friends help out with babysitting and entertaining our daughter. Your mom might have a longer recovery if she is doing a DIEP rather than an implant. If she hasn't already, she should look at the discussion boards on breastcancer.org, I found them to be extremely helpful.

Best of luck to your mom.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP -- that's extremely helpful advice. She is having a DIEP.

[Anonymous]

Just saw this. My mother a double mastectomy a few years ago. The cancer was only in one breast, but she decided to remove the other as a preventitive measure. My mothers cancer did not require chemo or radiation either, but they did find a tiny amount in her lymph nodes and some nodes were removed. I only mention that because she has to be careful with that arm now.

My mother was only in the hospital one night. I was shocked to be honest. My mother did get implants, but that the implants were actually inserted at a subsequent surgery. My mother's recovery was ok. The biggest issue was the drains that she needed help with. My mother also had a reaction to the iodine that was used during the surgery/after the surgery, which caused her some big issues.

One bit of advice that mother tells people is that to shower, wear a belt and pin the drains to the belt.

Good luck and all the best to your mom.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP. Her surgery is going on right now.

Glad your mom's procedures turned out well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PP. Her surgery is going on right now.

Glad your mom's procedures turned out well.

Wishing all of you well.