top surgery

[anibioman]

hi guys people who have had top surgery i need a timeline of recovery with time in days please. so i can get a better idea of the amount of time ill be unable to go to school and plan accordingly.

when did you?
-get drains out
-could walk around
-could lift things
-removed bandages
-lost the vest
-allowed to drive (even though i dont drive)
-free of pain

plus anything else about recovery

[Make_It_Good]

Rightio, I thought Id start off with giving you a quick run down of my experience, although I know its different for everyone.

I got my drains out the next day. Compared to others' experience, this seems very early, but I was pretty glad about this, the drains were just abit annoying. (Having them taken out felt weird though).

I could walk around alright straight away I guess. I remember shuffling to the bathroom that night, so I wasnt immobile, just abit stiff.
I remember 3 days post op, going to this nature reserve place. I was still sore, but able to go round, and this is with my brother who was 4 at the time, so thats alot of energy I had to deal with.

I couldnt lift things for awhile. Youre ok with lighter objects aslogn as youre not lifting things over your head. You wont be doing that for a good month at the least.

I had my bandages removed at, I think it was 12 days post op.

I didnt ever have to wear a vest, which was one of my biggest reliefs! I wouldve been the biggest moody grump ever if Id had to have worn a vest,right after finally ditching the binder. I dont know why some people do have to, and others dont, but Im glad I was one that didnt.

I dont drive.

I was free of sharp pain within a few days. It honestly wasnt nearly as painful as I thought. This goes for all of it, the moment I woke up after surgery, to all the healing.
But the incisions were still sore up to about a month. This was only when trying to exert myself, like lifting or raising my arms. But just doing your every day stuff, I felt fine.

And for the record, I had Double incision, not peri.
I hope that helps.

*Edit: I think Shawn's response below is very good, and he rightly said that while we can give you our experiences, your own will be your own.
But anyway, I thought Id add abit more info after reading Shawns response.
I was taking Co-codamol for about a week, and I too had someone there for me for about a week, mainly just incase I needed help.
I went back to work at around the 4 week mark. If I went through it all again, I wouldve left it atleast 6, I feel I went back too early. But atleast I didnt do damage, I just reckon it contributed to the stretching of my scars.
Also, at the time of surgery I was 20. None smoker, and fit and healthy(ish :p), so my healing went pretty smoothly.

[shean R]

It is very different for everyone.  I had DI and had a lot to remove (38 D), and I am in my late 40's.  I am currently 10 days post op, so can only give you my experience to date.  I had my drains in for 1 week, they were very annoying and it did make it difficult to sleep as the exits were on my back side, so I was really glad to get them out.  I was prescribed pain killers and an antibiotic, but ended up having a reaction to the antibiotic so stopped taking it after 3 days.  The pain killers I took for the first two days then switched to extra strength Tylenol and only took the pain killers right before bed time.  I had someone with me 24/7 for the first week as it was a pain to move too much to wash up  and stuff.  I was able to move around on my own right after surgery, just sore.  Dr. says I am out of work for two weeks maybe three and I would agree with that.  My job is not really physical in nature but I would be using my arms a great deal.  I had to have a compression vest put on right after the drains were removed and must wear it 24/7, only taking it off while I shower.  I may have to have it on up to two weeks depending on the swelling.  I was able to drive as tolerated after my drains came out, I have drove around town and seems to be fine.  I still can't do anything that involves raising my arms up or lifting more than 5 lbs and anything that raises my blood pressure, i.e. exercise of any kind not even slow walking on a treadmill, or sex. 

I am very healthy and active and am actually surprised at how long it is taking to get back on my feet from this.  I am not really in a lot of pain, just very sore most of the time, but I still get tired pretty easily.  Hope this helped.  I am sure you will see from the responses you get, everyone's experience is very different.  The surgeons all have their own ways of doing things, there are different procedures, your body heals differently, etc.  We are happy to share our experience with you, but you will find that yours will be your own.   Good luck to you.

[Berserk]

I just had top surgery four days ago so some of the answers aren't totally complete, but hope it helps!

when did you?
-get drains out
I didn't need drains at all. I had a double incision mastectomy with Dr. Hugh McLean (including the nipple grafts and a curved instead of straight incision) and he performs double incision in such a way that he doesn't need to use drains and leaves nowhere for fluid to collect in the body. 100% recommend him as a surgeon, he's brilliant at what he does, he and his staff are really professional and definitely know what they're doing. I was really happy that I didn't need drains since that can seem to complicate recovery time.

-could walk around
Pretty much later that day since I had my surgery early in the morning. But walking safely (not feeling wobbly because of lingering anesthetic) not until the next day. I was able to walk around and do stuff around the place two days post-op. Going outside I've only managed to do in really short walks, but its getting better every day. I assume by mid-week I'll have no problems.

-could lift things
Right now I can only lift light objects. First two days after surgery I couldn't even lift stuff out of the fridge or off shelves and needed someone to do pretty much all that stuff for me. Day three I was able to do all that for myself and do other stuff around the place. But still can't lift anything over 5 lbs without feeling a pull in the incisions. My surgeon said I'll be able to lift a little heavier after two weeks and only to resume going to the gym/lifting heavier after 6 weeks. It's different for everyone, I'm sure, but that's the general timeline. I took two weeks off of work as recommended by the doc since I do have to do some lifting there, and he said I should be fine to move light stuff around after that two week period.

-removed bandages
I haven't done so yet since I'm only 4 days post-op, but I'm getting the accursed nipple sponge thingies off about 13 days post-op and more instructions for the bandages after then.

-lost the vest
They (the clinic/surgeon) recommend around 6 weeks post-op. Unlike others, I'm actually pretty happy about the vest. It's actually a pretty sweet one and no ace bandages like I've seen with some guys. It's basically a velcro vest with straps. Bandage lies loose underneath and just do the velcro up at the front. No wrapping and struggling and the doc said it doesn't even have to be on very tight, just needs to keep things in place. Given how paranoid I am about my nipples (don't ask, lol) I'm kind of happy its there to protect them. Basically it has a bit of a hard outer shell that makes sure nothing gets banged up if you accidentally touch something or move wrong or whatever.

-allowed to drive (even though i dont drive)
Don't drive, but my roommate who had a similar procedure with a different surgeon was able to drive within a few days, apparently.

-free of pain
It's hard to say because I never really felt any real excruciating pain. I was given a prescription for Tylenol 3s. The first two days (day of the surgery and the next day) I took 1-2 pills every 3-4 hours as recommended in order to stay ahead of the pain (instead of letting it kick in and having to wait an hour for the pain meds to kick in). I definitely started to feel strong discomfort in my nipples and some of the incision line around the 3rd hour after taking the meds the first two days. After the second day it started to fade and I weaned myself off the meds quite a bit. On the 3rd day I was able to go 9-10 hours without feeling serious enough pain to take meds (so only one pill within that time period). Now its day 4 and noon and I took one pill around 8 this morning when I woke up, still doing fine and didn't have to take one overnight last night. So the pain has reduced itself pretty steadily and I probably won't need meds at all in a day or two.

EDIT: Extra info that I saw others added: I'm 27 years old, non-smoker, healthy (never been overweight or had any weight-related health complications, good blood pressure and all that jazz) and have been pretty active most of my life. I'm not sure what size my chest was before surgery since I stopped wearing bras a long time ago and even when I was I tried not to pay to much attention... but they took off around 4 lbs total apparently. I'm finding recovery generally pretty easy so far. When I was first going into surgery, I was told that I would be spending a lot of time feeling groggy and sleepy for the first week or so. Honestly, I haven't felt that much grogginess or sleepiness at all. I woke up about an hour after surgery and was pretty groggy then. They gave me some ice cubes to eat since I couldn't have water yet, and after that I slowly got a bit more energy and grinning like a madman. For a lot of the afternoon I had quite a few spurts of being hyper as hell and I don't know if its because I was excited about the surgery or what, lol. I came home, ate a sandwich and soup then took maybe a 2 hour nap. After that I got up and chilled until later in the night. Next day I had more energy, but would occasionally crash...but overall I haven't actually spent that much time napping like I was told I would.

Also, I found that until last night I was only able to sleep for an hour and a half to two hours at a time. I'm not really sure why (it wasn't because of the pain since I was taking the Tylenol 3).

A few weeks before surgery I received a booklet from the clinic and one of the instructions to promote healing was getting in Vitamin C supplements and avoid Vitamin E pre-op, so I did that and am still doing the Vitamin C post-op. As far as healing things seem to be going well. I haven't had any bruising really (Really light bruise in the middle of my chest but its barely visible), only very mild swelling also in the middle of my chest (nothing at the sides or anything) and no bleeding or leaking of unidentifiable fluids *crossing fingers that doesn't happen*. I'm not sure if the Vitamin C's been helping or not, but I definitely haven't had any complications and everything looks good.

The main thing for pain is just every once in a while you really feel the incisions and the nipple grafts and especially when trying to walk outside for more than a few mins at a time. And I can't stand totally straight when I walk yet, though I can do so while not walking for some reason lol

Also, heads up since I've only noticed some people bring it up. You get really ->-bleeped-<-ing constipated after the anesthetic and pain meds, lol. Until this morning I hadn't shat in 3 days (cause you really needed to know that, lol! ) Some people find it really uncomfortable and I saw some videos from guys who said it was one of the worst parts. For me it wasn't that bad to be honest. You just start to feel really bloated. Like I wasn't eating that much and still felt kind of bloated...probably from the ->-bleeped-<-ting that was not Hunger is also weird...like I haven't really felt hungry since surgery and only know to eat when I start to feel light-headed, lol. So just be careful about making sure you get in enough nutrition if you also end up not feeling hunger.

Also, pain meds might make you feel nauseous on some days. My roommate recommended gravol in conjunction with the pain meds and it definitely saved me since I had a really bad bout with nausea on the second day right before having to make the drive over to the clinic to get my bandages changed by the nurse and see my chest for the first time. So Gravol can be your friends...preferably the chewable tablets so avoid making nausea worse.

[anibioman]

also how long do you guys think i would need to get back to school if i get up at 7 school by 8 then every 42 minutes i walk briskly for 4 minutes to my next class and i do that 9 times carrying a 25lbs or so backback on my back/shoulders. i can always get a note to get like 9 minutes to walk  and  have a friend carry my bag the teachers are usually really good about that as they would rather you be in school with accommodations as aposed to missing days.

[Berserk]

also how long do you guys think i would need to get back to school if i get up at 7 school by 8 then every 42 minutes i walk briskly for 4 minutes to my next class and i do that 9 times carrying a 25lbs or so backback on my back/shoulders. i can always get a note to get like 9 minutes to walk  and  have a friend carry my bag the teachers are usually really good about that as they would rather you be in school with accommodations as aposed to missing days.

I would give it 2-3 weeks as long as you have someone who would be able to carry the backpack for you...especially since you'll be carrying it on your back. It's not only the weight but having something forcing your shoulders back too soon can cause your chest discomfort. And even the weight, like 25 lbs may not seem like a lot, but like today I carried 3 items home from the grocery store and even that I could feel causing some tugging

Since you said you have 9 classes in a day, I take it you're in high school? If so, is it possible for you to leave some of your books in your locker? Do you have to bring like 25lbs worth of texts everywhere with you everywhere if you can get away with taking notes? I could see teachers being accommodating about that sort of thing and totally giving you more time to get from class to class if you need a few extra mins to grab books and such in between a class or two to lighten the load.

The getting to school and walking to classes really shouldn't be a problem after 2 weeks, imo. But we all heal differently. Or you could have surgery over Christmas vacation, I think that's what my roommate did, that way he didn't have to take time off from uni.

[wheat thins are delicious]

I agree with Berserk, trying to schedule surgery over Christmas break would be your best bet, but in the case that is not possible, you will likely need 3 or more weeks.  I would be extra cautious and just say I needed a month of help, because I'd be worried about damaging the surgery site.

[anibioman]

my longest breaks from school besides summer is 10 days i can always skip a few days giving me two weeks and using my locker wouldnt help as removing a binder from my bag wont make it all that much lighter but i can minimize the weight by switching the newest stuff the stuff i need for class into a new binder and leaving the older stuff at home.

[Berserk]

I agree with Berserk, trying to schedule surgery over Christmas break would be your best bet, but in the case that is not possible, you will likely need 3 or more weeks.  I would be extra cautious and just say I needed a month of help, because I'd be worried about damaging the surgery site.

Yeah, I'd get someone to help you for as long as you feel uncomfortable for sure. My surgeon said it would be about 6 weeks before I'm able to lift normally again/not feel discomfort doing so, so that might be a good rudimentary timeline for you to follow as well as far as how long you'll need someone to help you out with carrying you're backpack. You don't want to take unnecessary risks when dealing with the healing process and getting the best outcome for your chest.

my longest breaks from school besides summer is 10 days i can always skip a few days giving me two weeks and using my locker wouldnt help as removing a binder from my bag wont make it all that much lighter but i can minimize the weight by switching the newest stuff the stuff i need for class into a new binder and leaving the older stuff at home.

Yeah for sure. Like even with only 10 days off for vacation, I think even the school would view it as better for you to only have to take 4 days off instead of 14. Doing it over the 10 day vacation period (Xmas vacation?) would probably be the most practical, and you'd have less school to worry about getting caught up in. And yeah, the more you can do to minimize the weight, the better.