What Is the Recovery From a Mastectomy Like?

After a mastectomy, you may experience some uncomfortable sensations such as pain, numbness and pinching around the location of the surgery.

You will be bandaged up around the surgery area to protect you from infection, and you will be taken to a recovery room to heal. A nurse will monitor you to make sure you are recovering safely. The nurse will check on things like your body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure.

As you come into consciousness as the anesthesia wears off, you may feel pain and/or nausea. Definitely let someone know how you are feeling as soon as this happens. You will be given pain medication to reduce your discomfort and help you through recovery.

Once you leave the recovery room, you will be admitted to a hospital room where you might stay for up to three days. Depending on the intensity of your surgery, for example if you had reconstruction as well as a mastectomy, you will stay in the hospital for a longer period. If your surgery wasn't as major, you may stay in the hospital for a shorter duration.

After a large surgery like a mastectomy, antibiotics and medications are often prescribed to fight and prevent infection.

Post the completion of the mastectomy procedure the individual may experience certain level of uncomfortable sessions which can include numbness, pain and pinching which occurs around the region of the surgery which has been carried out. The individual would be bandages around the area of the surgery so as to protect it from any kind of infection, after which the individual would be taken to the recovery room for healing.

There would be a nurse who would be constantly and timely monitoring the condition of the individual so as to ensure that the individual has been recovering safely. The nurse would keep a tab on certain things which include the body temperature, the rate of the heart and the level of blood pressure. As the individual comes into the consciousness state when the anaesthesia tends to wear off then they may feel a kind of pain or the nauseous feeling.

It is important at such times to let certain individuals be aware on how you are feeling as soon as any such thing occurs. The individual would be given pain relieving medications for reducing any kind of discomfort as well as to help the individual in a smooth recovery process. Once the individual leaves the recovery room they would be admitted to the hospital room wherein they may have to stay up for a period of three days or more based on how the healing is happening.

Also based on the intensity of the surgery there can be times wherein the individual may have to stay up for a longer duration but in case if the surgery was not a major one then the individual may have to stay in the hospital for a short duration itself. After the completion of the mastectomy surgery the individual would be mostly prescribed to take in antibiotics as well as other medications so as to fight as well as prevent any kind of infection to affect the body.

The morning post the surgery the surgeon or the nurse would show a few exercise routine which one can carry out so as to prevent any stiffness occurring in the shoulders, arms or on the sides wherein the mastectomy was carried out and to also help in preventing the formation of any kind of significant scar tissue. There are certain exercises which are best to be avoided until the drains are removed off.

You can ask the surgeons the questions which may come to your mind on how to ensure which of the exercise would be the right one for you. Also check with the surgeon on how to take care of the mastectomy bandage. The doctor may tell you to not remove the bandage by yourself and instead wait for the first follow-up visit to occur.

Many a times most of the doctors use stitches that dissolve on time hence there is no need for getting them removed separately. The doctor would also explain on how to tell if you have any kind of infection in the incision.