Next question - on waking
Hi again - still gathering info before my DMX (@kmakm - this might help you too!) and my next question is - what were you wrapped in when you woke up from surgery? I know each surgeon has their own te...
Forum Discussion
Hey @Eastmum - I woke to a tubular bandage over my chest down to my hips, covering the dressings over the wound. The bandage was doubled over for extra compression. I had 2 drains in - one around the top of the breast and one around the bottom. I kept the tubular bandage on (hospital gave me extra) until a week after the mastectomy (I also had a left vertical skin sparing w insertion of aero form expander, as I think I’ve told you before). Then, when I went to see the plastics nurse to review the dressings and healing (and this is when she took out the drains), she fitted me for a post op bra (the Berlei one). Later on, after my DIEP, she fitted me with this really comfy crop top bra - but for the mastectomy it was all about compression. (There’s a pic of me in my tubular bandage after my DIEP in my photostory in the Breast Recon Group.)
The drains were already in a drain bag (pink tartan!!!) hanging off the side of my bed. I had 2 Zonta pillows - one sent to me from my breastcare nurse, the other by a friend. I used them when lying in the bed under my armpit or arm, or even at the back of my neck (your upper back - thoracic spine - can be quite sore as the expander is placed under your pec muscle, over the scullery nerve and against the chest wall....so a lot of your back muscles get pulled around).
No catheter (I did have catheter for 24 hours after the DIEP) - and I was up going to the toilet just a few hours after recovery. X
The drains were already in a drain bag (pink tartan!!!) hanging off the side of my bed. I had 2 Zonta pillows - one sent to me from my breastcare nurse, the other by a friend. I used them when lying in the bed under my armpit or arm, or even at the back of my neck (your upper back - thoracic spine - can be quite sore as the expander is placed under your pec muscle, over the scullery nerve and against the chest wall....so a lot of your back muscles get pulled around).
No catheter (I did have catheter for 24 hours after the DIEP) - and I was up going to the toilet just a few hours after recovery. X