Surgery in some form, either a mastectomy or lumpectomy, is recommended for almost all breast cancer patients. The surgery is designed to remove the cancer cells and/or tumor from the breast in order to remove the cancer from the body and prevent it from growing. While surgery has a relatively high degree of success at treating early stage breast cancer, the recovery process may be slow.
Post Surgery
Patients generally are placed in a hospital recovery room for several hours immediately after surgery. In the recovery room, patients are monitored to ensure there are no adverse effects from the anaesthesia or surgery. Patients who wake up in recovery often feel cold, as a result of the anaesthesia administered during the surgery.
Hospital Resting Period
Patients who are given a lumpectomy (a removal of only the part of the breast with the lump and not the whole breast) generally do not remain in the hospital overnight. The procedure is done on an outpatient basis and they go home the same day. Mastectomy patients, and patients who have a lumpectomy that also involves the removal of some lymph nodes, usually have to stay in the hospital for two to three days following the surgery. In either case, in the days immediately following the surgery, doctors recommend patients get out of bed and begin walking around briefly within a few hours from waking from the surgery. Arm exercises should be started the day after the surgery to help stave off and prevent arm stiffness caused by the surgery.
Important Factors After Surgery
In the days immediately following the surgery, the care of the surgical incision should be the patient's first priority. Patients must ensure that they take proper care of the wound and dressing from the incision. Drains are usually attached, especially in the case of mastectomies, to allow fluids and waste to drain from the incision. Patients must empty these drains. Doctors will also warn patients of specific signs of infection to watch for, including unusual drainage, pain at the incision or fever. If these signs of infection occur, the patient should consult a doctor immediately. Pain medications (either anti-inflammatory or opiate-based pain medications) may be prescribed to deal with the pain that lingers for several days after surgery.
They should refrain from sleeping on the side where the surgery occurred during this time period, and until your doctor says it is safe to do so.
Post-mastectomy pain syndrome
Approximately 20 percent to 60 percent of women who undergo mastectomies develop post-mastectomy pain syndrome (PMPS). PMPS is a chronic nerve pain that can result form either a lumpectomy or mastectomy. Symptoms include tingling, itching or numbness on the arm and pain in the chest wall, shoulder, arm, armpit or surgical incision. PMPS is treatable with pain medication.
Exercises
Patients who undergo either a lumpectomy or a mastectomy must do exercises to help minimize the side effects of the surgery and maintain normal motion in the arm. This is especially true for women who also undergo radiation therapy, which can cause lingering problems in the shoulder and arm that last up to nine months after the radiation treatments end. Occupational therapists will design an exercise program tailored to each patient's needs, and doctors will generally tell a patient when it is safe to begin doing these exercises, which may not be until drains and stitches are removed. Exercises include raising the arm above the heart for 45 minutes twice daily, opening and closing a fist between 15 to 25 times four times daily, and/or breathing exercises.
Tags: following surgery, after surgery, breast cancer, days immediately, days immediately following
