I had a bilateral mastectomy in October 2021, with no reconstruction, after my triple-negative diagnosis. Same situation in terms of doctors trying to talk me out of it (especially the radiology oncologist), but after agreeing to go ahead with it, my surgeon finally admitted that members of his own family would be making the same decision. I had an inch thick stack of medical articles backing up why I felt strongly about it. In terms of timeline, I was only in the hospital one night. Fortunately my daughter came and was with me for two and a half weeks, which was incredibly helpful. Chemo started exactly a month after the surgery. I started driving two weeks after the surgery — with seat belt pillows in place! (Driving independently was the biggest thing before my daughter felt like she could leave!) The hardest thing for me was the pain at the site of the drains; that was more excruciating than anything else. And of course, the business of the drains was a mess, too, but that was doable, as long as I could get to the surgeon’s office about twice a week for his attention to the drainage. Looking at my calendar, ten days out I felt like I was actually recuperating. If I hadn’t had such trauma at the drain exit wound on one side it might have gone faster. I was still lying down part of the day most days at two weeks, but otherwise I was functional at least a good part of the day. I was freaky insistent about walking every day. Hopefully this information helps? I am just about to turn 70 and retired, but most people think I am ten to fifteen years younger than that. There are many other cautions I have about what to watch for and request *after* surgery — no one warned me about what I could do to lessen my risk of lymphedema 😣😩😳 — a very unwelcome surprise! And after six months I had to throw a fit in order to finally get to see a physical therapist. Apparently my particular situation fell into a black hole in the system since I had no radiology after the chemo. Anyway, all of that post-surgery is another story entirely and probably not needed right now!

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