Skin sparing mastectomy with reconstruction recovery time

@KatieA i was back at work after 3 weeks, I had  a DIEP flap recon first then 6 months later had prophalactic mastectomy & recon other side using a chunk of butt back at work 3 weeks later again.

@melclarity i had nipple & skin sparing DIEP recon ...

Two weeks does not sound like long enough to me. It's a big op and even if nothing goes wrong it knocks you around. I had the same in 2006, was a single mum and was under pressure from a leave perspective. Things went wrong and I was in and out of hospital for a month which was bloody exhausting.
It depends on your job I suppose, but if they are sympathetic, try to negotiate a return to work plan that leaves you a bit of wriggle room. That may include some half days or short weeks to let you get some rest and attend appointments. You will not be doing yourself or your employer any favours by turning up looking and feeling like the walking dead. Things may be beyond your control anyway, which I appreciate is not a comfortable thought if you are already prone to anxiety. Hope for the best but plan for the worst. But please have plan B and C sketched up just in case. Marg

Gosh can't help with that one, currently recovering from single mastectomy and diep flap recon. So lost the nipple but kept most breast skin. Bit different as have abdominal wound so far am 10 days post surgery and only just starting to walk again. Kate its still huge a double as Jane explained. I would think youd need double that. I too am a single parent though my kids are late teens now. I chose for them to go to their dads for a few months as too hard. Also financially very hard i like you went through it all exhausted sick leave. Im in education and they have inbuilt component of income protection in their super.  Its 2yrs and i have 1 more left i do work however 3 days a week. You can get sickness allowance but you have to have zero sick leave and no savings! Hugs Melinda xo

Hi Katie, everyone is different, but I agree with the advice above - 2 weeks is pretty optimistic. I had a left vertical skin sparing mastectomy with insertion of a tissue expander and it was pretty painful; for at least 2-3 weeks post-op. During the 3rd week, I began to have episodes of feeling 'normal-ish'...and that was only one side. The issue when you have a mastectomy and immediate recon is that you're having, effectively, 2 procedures in one: the mastectomy on its own isn't wonderful, but it's far less painful than (as Jane says above) issues with inserting an implant beneath the pectoral muscle and the pain this brings in itself.

The good news is, the pain does subside - and we are all different, so some of us experience less discomfort than others, some heal faster etc etc - and then you can embrace your new-normal. :)
Nikki x

Just by way of comparison, I went back to work after one week - single mastectomy, no reconstruction. And most people thought that was really fast! I was told to take two weeks by my surgeon. It's very individual, and the various factors are hard to assess, but the advice may be  an optimistic assessment. If you can do it, great! But a plan B may be worth trying to organise (with some of the helpful suggestions given by Jane above) just inj case.  Best wishes.

@mum2jj ? would you have some information 

Hello KatieA, Firstly sorry for your diagnosis but what great news that there was no lymph node involvement. I had a left nipple sparing mastectomy with immediate implant last August. (Stage 1, grade 1 IDC, 3 nodes clear)
i really feel that 2 weeks is overly optimistic.  I was still black and blue and every other colour in between for the first 3 weeks.  It is painful. The pec muscle is separated from your chest wall for the implant to go under and this takes quite some time to heal.  I was wearing the straight jacket surgical bra for the first 6 weeks.  I had loads of sick leave so ended up taking 11 weeks off work but I can truly say I wouldn't have been physically comfortable retuning to work under 6 weeks.  The other weeks gave me time to fully regain my strength and be ready to mentally face my work routine.  Of course we all heal differently and it does depend on the type of work you are doing.
You have already have the discomfort of node removal behind you where I had nodes taken out at the same time as my mastectomy which added to the recovery time.  
But the reconstruction was a great success. I'm very happy with the cosmetic result.  The scar is under my breast and my surgeon has done a perfect match - other than the light blue node dye marks you would never tell the difference.
You said you were low on sick leave, I wonder whether you have any long service leave you can take. It might also be worth checking if there is income protection within your super that you could access.  Wishing you all the best KatieA, the whole process is stressful enough without the extra worry about leave.  Take care, Jane xx