Is a one night hospital stay recommended for bilateral mastectomy?

Posted by catann @catann, Aug 25, 2020

I am current scheduled for a bilateral mastectomy. I have spoken to 3 women who have had bilateral mastectomies. All of them had a one night stay in the hospital after their surgeries, My doctors are telling me that I will be going home after my surgery. I am feeling very anxious about going home after a 5-6 hour surgery. I think I will feel much more confident that everything in going to be ok after spending one night in the hospital. I think I will feel more comfortable about dealing with the drains if I can go through the procedure with the nurse the day after the surgery when I will be more alert. I would love to hear other women’s experiences in this area.

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Ingegerd Enscoe, Alumni Mentor | @astaingegerdm | Sep 1, 2020

@catann - I had a right sided mastectomy. I stayed one night-definitely needed to be there. I was not comfortable dealing with the drain. All in all- it would have been nice to have a nurse making a well check visit.

elizm | @elizm | Sep 1, 2020

@catann @astaingegerdm
Oh, good idea, Ingegerd! Following a previous surgery, I made the request (at the hospital) for a visiting nurse, just because I wanted to make sure that all was right with the incision. It's a great service.