@Sheliaray, I had just one breast removed August 2019. One thing that helped me was physical therapy. I went to the therapist prior to my surgery. She took range of motion measurements, as a baseline. She discussed what therapy & exercises I may be doing depending on how I was feeling. She specializes in PT for breast cancer patients. The stars were lined up when I spoke to a gal in our local cancer services facility. She was local too - 20 minutes. My surgery went very well. I stayed in hospital over night as I was an hour away from home. My surgeon ❤️ Was great. I did not have any pain. The first night home I took a pain pill just in case but did not after that. I had one drain, & like others have said it was a nuisance but all was ok. All in all not a bad experience. 3-4 weeks later I started PT & it was such a great experience. It helped me tremendously. I did the exercises, so I gained all of my range of motion back. If I had to say recovery time , it different for each person but if o worked o could have gone back to work proving a week if not sooner. I never felt bad just ‘different’ as experiencing some new. It is so important to do the exercises to keep the muscle & tissue pliable snd moving. I thank God everyday that it went so well. I also am thankful I handled it emotionally so well. Doing the massage on the chest is important & it was difficult for me touching the scar- but little by little I handled it. Give yourself time. 🙏🏼
I did go to a plastic surgeon and he explained the procedures & options. I was going to do reconstruction, as I was under & there. Well it turned out that my surgeon and him couldn’t get a schedule together for 6 weeks. My surgeon said there weren’t any studies that showed that waiting the 6 weeks would be bad but he did not feel good about waiting. I did not feel good about it either. We went forward with surgery only. It gave me time to think about reconstruction. I really had not gave it much thought. I chose not to do reconstruction now. It’s another surgery and what they - doctors - thought was safe today as an implant may not be 3-5 years from now. Then another surgery. I was 66 yrs young and married for 44 yrs. My husband & I discussed & I opted not to do reconstruction. I’m happy w/ prosthetic & it works fine. Good decision for me.
Best of luck to you.