Bruising With Bilateral Mastectomy

I can't answer if it slows down hearing, But brusing for me as I was told is and injury that caused blood to form under the skin. I use aloe Vera liquid also a healing agent and spray it on the bruse and I goes away. Aloe is also sprayed on the hands which in us older folks bruse very easily and this removes all my bruses in a chort period of time also used by my friends for the same reason. Good luck, but I think you will find any time the body is injured it bruses. Kind of like closing the barn door after the horse got out. I guess it is Gods way of telliing us to be more careful. Any way good luck in the healing process and God Bless you as you will be in my prayer's.

Thank you.

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I had bruising on one side - and while I thought my bruising looked awful (I had never had surgery before and never bruised much) my visiting nurse said it was minimal - and perhaps the lightest she's ever seen. Since that time I have seen more extreme bruising on other social flat networks. Bruising dissipated in 2 to 4 weeks - and began PT in weeks 6. My surgery was done by a breast surgeon and I have two linear incisions; she typically goes straight across on a double, but I didn't want her to cross my midline. I can't say why other than I really just didn't want to have a scare all the way across my chest. Maybe surgical approach has something to do with amount of bruising - or possible bruising. In any case, good luck with your decisions and journey - and may you not bruise too badly!

@anatomary Hi quietrive here , I found that after the cut is healed I rubbed on my scare the apple cider vinegar followed later by Aloe vera really helped It als made the skin softer. I had major surgery for a crushed wrist. A chunk of bone was taken from my hip to replace the wrist joint that the Doctor hand carved. on my wrist snf hip I had scares in 1944 The sacred I never worried about. When I was proving what Apple cider can do I started putting Raw Apple cider and rubed it on. About an hour later I put Aloe Vera liquid over the top and rubbed it in. Today if you look very close you can see a scare. This is something Braggs the mfg said would happen so I checked it out and it did work some by lighting it so it wasn't so visible. The vains showing on the leg I 'm just starting on. good. luck on what ever you try. personally I have many scares and never cared about covering them or fading them out. I kind of figure they just a part of the choices in life I have to live with. Have a wonderful day.

Thanks for your reply. I wanted to put Arnica or Aloe on the bruising but the post/op visiting nurse said not to use anything on the incisions (other than showering with antibac soap) and that when I go to PT recommendations will be made for my skin and scar care. I have a little bit of residual lymphedema above and below the incision so I wonder if going ahead and using arnica, or as you suggest apple cider vinegar and aloe, would have reduced the inflammation around those tissues and I wouldn't be puffy still. When I saw the surgeon app. two weeks post-op she said I was healing well. I don't believe we discussed anything for bruising, but she did tell me that when I go to PT (four weeks later) I would learn how to begin scar massage. At that appointment, Coco butter or vitamin E oil were recommended for scar massage. On the eighth week follow up with the surgeon, she told me she wanted me to use castor oil because it reduced inflammation better than vitamin E. Apparently vitamin E is better for healing, but castor penetrates more deeply. The oils I used were natural if not organic... and not as expensive as you might think. I purchased mine from Amazon and the brand name was seven minerals.

So maybe the bruising did contribute to my residual lymphedema (puffiness). We all get some inflammation following the surgery; part of the natural healing proces.

I am 5% up on each arm and 2% up on my torso from baseline pre-mastectomy measurements; they actually measure the circumference of your body at particular areas. My lymphedema specialist does not think my condition will be chronic - it just takes time to heal. There could be a relationship between bruising and lymphedema, but I don't think it's really been studied. I'm not too worried because I was told it can take a year or more for inflammation to go down - and the surgeon, PT and OT lymphedema specialist have all said I'm doing well.

Despite bruising and residual inflammation I'd do it again in a minute - very happy to reduce my BC life time risk score to 2-3%.
Good luck to all on decisions and outcomes!

We all could potentially have bruising after any operation. For me, after my BM, I had none. And if I did, would not worry about it. I often bruise after a simple blood draw on my arm/hand. It's blood leaking under the skin from damaged blood vessels due the needle, often reflects the phlebotomist blood drawing skill and always resolves. Unless you develop a big hematoma, my feeling it's nothing to worry about nor hinders actual post op healing, exercises, etc.
I would caution about the product one uses for scar massage post op. First, get the OK when to start scar massage which, of course, is always done very gently. I only used vitamin E oil, nothing else. I would check with my team - perhaps the oncology nurses - for their recommendations. I am not saying another other product is "wrong" but use what your oncology team advises. Everyone is different but this was my post BM self care.
All the very best to everyone on their breast cancer journey.

My plastic surgeon recommended Arnica and Bromelain. I bought them from AMAZON. The brand is Vitamedica. Arnica helps with the bruising, pain and swelling.

@anatomary Quietriver I wouldn't put Apple cider vinigar on anything that isn'healed as it will burn. Both apple cider and aloe are natural healers and many Doctors recomand them. When my wife had stage threee lymphoma we just changed our eating habits from store bought you don't know where it was grown to Garden fresh raised without chemical fertilizers and no meat of any kind or bakery goods. Just vegies, and used Beans for the main course. Six Mo later it was all gone and still is today about 11 years later. Dr Furman wrote a book on (eating to live).very instresting book and if your local library or book store has one it is a valuable read. and It works.

Thank you for the recommendation; I look forward to reading Furman's book.