Hi
Could anyone please help me - what is the recovery time from having a mastectomy. After 4 years of fighting cancer, and just finished my 2nd lot of intravenous chemo in Feb this year, my onc has agreed to have either the lump removed from my boob or a full mastectomy, as my latest ct scan has shown no visible cancer at present on my liver. Whether it is just too small to be picked up or I have sort of won the fight is anyones guess, but least now I can go back to the start and remove the original lump, which I can feel all the time and stresses me out.
So I was wondering what the recovery time is from the op for single or double mastectomy and what to expect really.
Thanks for your time
Dawn
x
Dawn thats brilliant news for you and glad to hear that your surgeon has agreed to operate on the primary - I am not a secondary lady but I know how I would feel if my original lump was still in my body and those cancer cells having the opportunity to continue to spread! I had a Mx last year - following a WLE so in effect had two lots of surgery in one month which emotionally was difficult for me and the feelings of losing a breast etc etc etc… but physically to be honest it is not a big op- no organs involved. I stayed in overnight but was let out the next day with a drain and the nurses came to my house for 5 days to change the drain, and I had it removed on day 6. Obviously having a drain limits what you can do as you have to yank this thing around with you for 5days so I tended just to sit and watch tele/read/sleep etc - but once drain out was above to move around freely and went on walks to get the strength back into my legs. Obviously any anesthetic effects your body and you may feel more tired than usual but compared to all the SE of Chemo it is really nothing to be too worried about. I was back to normal in around 4 weeks (forgot to say I had Mx and full node removal and most of my physical limitations were due to my arm/node removal rather than the max) hope that helps xx