Topic: Surgery To Do List

Namaste, there are several conversations on what to do before and after surgery, I will find them and 'bump' them to the top for you. Good luck on your surgery. I had my bilat on June 1 last year with expander/implant recon. Are you having recon also?

sheila

Hi Namaste,

I had my bilateral simple mastectomy with SNB and placement of expanders with Alloderm April 22.  There are many extemely helpful posts here, so read them all as everyone is different.  Let me give you a synopsis of what I experienced and found to be helpful.  Please realize that many (most) of these ideas have been mentioned previously.

In no particular order:

Hair cut ahead of time.

A wonderful friend who came in from out of town for three weeks and was able to do all of the tasks that I normally do (including taking care of my horses) and acted as confidant, chauffer, weight lifter, opener of childproof meds, reacher for high objects, patient advocate, company and shoulder to cry on as necessary among other countless helpful things.  This one was a true luxury, but what a HUGE help!  She also tried to keep tabs on what 5 pounds really is and averted many stupid moves on my part.

Two "Softee Two" camisoles which have a kangaroo pocket to stick the drains in as well as two flapped and velcroed pockets in front that you can stick the provided "falsies" into as desired.  They are very soft material and you can step into them.  They are distributed from California, so order early enough.  I'm still wearing them daily even though my drains came out post op day 12 (4 days ago).  I HIGHLY recommend them.  Apparently some insurance companies cover them.  I just paid out of pocket.

A piece of IV tubing that I tied around my neck to pin the drains to to shower (a shoe lace works well, too I've heard).  I found no need for a bath chair, justed LOVED the ability to shower and wash hair...

Extra large shirts in varying weights which button (or zip) all of the way down in front.  Make sure and include a sweatshirt weight as well.  I have one new shirt with two rather large front pockets that actually makes my new lack of anatomy less noticeable.  I usually wear a large shirt, so some clothes I found in the Women's section worked great.  All are of some sort of soft material which has helped the sensitive areas.

Lots of pillows, and especially a "body" pillow which we could only find in the children's area made of a nice fuzzy plush pink with Cinderella on it.  Go figure, but it worked great.  I found that the right "nest" of pillows worked better for me than a recliner.  All personal taste.

Pain control, pain control, pain control.  Watch the Tylenol dose.  Unfortunately tylenol is included in most oral pain killers like percocet, lortab, vicodin, etc.  The total daily dose of tylenol should NOT exceed 4 grams per day.  That is only 8 extra strength tylenol equivalents per day.  Some formulations have 500 mg, others 325 mg.  Do your math and if you are needing to exceed this dose, call your physician and be persistant that you need a narcotic without the tylenol.  Too much tylenol even short term can cause horrible liver damage.  Interestingly enough, with the expanders there is a component of pectoral muscle spasm (which I did not interpret as spasm, just pain) which cannot be covered with a narcotic.  My physician put me on a low dose of Valium around the clock and it made a huge difference.  Again, this all needs to be discussed with your physician.  He had also sent me home with a pump which delivered local anesthethic subcutaneously for two days and that was extremely helpful.  I sure noticed when it was finished!

Adequate early pain control allowed me to be much more active (without being stupid) and regain range of motion quickly.

Do start two "charts".  One for drain output with each day headlined followed by the time and amount that you emptied from each separate drain.  The other is for meds.  Again, date each page, then write down each scheduled time for some (i.e. 6, 12, 6, 12 ) and circle or cross off when you take each dose (I actually noted the time below because, er, I wasn't always quite on time.  One half hour either side of the schedule is good)  For the as needed meds, make a heading, then note the time and amount each time that you take it (i.e. one ore two pills).

Another note on meds, have a stool softener started a day or so before surgery, and have a laxitive available if needed as the narcotic will be constipating for most folks.  Prune juice or prunes are another great resource.  Also have ibuprofen or naproxyn on hand if your physician OK's the addition of one of these.  Do NOT start without the OK because of the chance of bleeding.

It has been difficult for me to concentrate well enough to read a book yet, but magazines worked just fine.

If you have expanders in and need an MRI, ask your physician if there is any metal in them and if there is, be sure to tell the folks in the MRI suite about it when they ask if there is any metal in your body.  After all, they use a magnet to find the injection port in most models. They may very well wish to scrap the test and try something else.  As a matter of fact, make this known BEFORE the test is scheduled so that you don't waste your time.

In my case, I was on the pill up until my diagnosis.  Now I am abruptly off of the pill and apparently am also going through menopause.  I have hot flashes and have experienced 3 meltdowns so far.  Not my usual approach to things.  Very disconcerting, but everyone tells me understandable.  Yikes.

Along with pain control comes the ability to move around more easily and regain range of motion faster.

This has ended up being more of a novel than a note, but I hope that at least some of this has been helpful.  All the best.