Next question - on waking

Thanks so much @nikkid   :/ 

Hi @iserbrown - it’s far from ‘curiosity’. It’s a scary and anxious time for me and knowing what to expect and how to prepare for the surgery is exactly what I need to help me go into it with a ‘settled state of mind.’  Everyone is different. I’m a very pragmatic person and I am very grateful to everyone who has generously answered my questions. I apologise if my questions seem frivolous compared to what others have had on their mind prior to surgery. I do realise there are more serious considerations than bandages and cushions. I’m really so sorry if I’ve offended anyone. 

Feel free to inbox w any questions - I’m coming up (April 13) to my 2 year anniversary! So much has happened but at times like this (when someone asks a question) it only feels like yesterday!

Thanks again @nikkid I really appreciate your generosity in giving info xx

Not the ‘scullery’ nerve - the axillary nerve!!!!

Hopefully your curiosity has been satisfied. The questions you've posed were the furthest thing from my mind when I was due to go into surgery. 
Try not to overthink everything and try to go into surgery in a settled state of mind.
Take care 

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

@kmakm Yea bra size  is a dilema. Mine I took in were too small. So the fitting after was better. I'd buy your normal size ...not too many, and go from there. 

They may have someone who comes around to fit you. That's what happened for me - same business that came up on Friday.

How do you go with bra sizing? Do you stick with your normal ribcage measurement, or go up or down a size? My cup size is going to be a mystery box due to pre-existing abdominal complications. I think I'll be online shopping in hospital...