Post-mastectomy home care, 79-yr old lives alone: practical post-op care advice

Hi Norton850,

My name is Keith and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialist’s

Welcome to the online community.

Its always a worry when a loved one is due to have cancer treatment and how they will cope when going home. Especially when they stay alone and aren’t known to ask for help when they need it.

Its good the consultant is optimistic retreatment out comes.

Mastectomy recovery times are usually around 4 to 6 weeks, but with you mum’s age and possibly other health conditions this may be a little longer.

Everyone is different and the team looking after your mum would assess the situation and she wouldn’t be discharged until they were satisfied it was safe to do so.

So, discharge planning can be very straight forward to being very complicated dependant on the individual care needs. If your mum needs help getting washed, this support should be arranged before she comes home.

It will probably be very helpful that you are going to be around in the initial period when your mum is discharged, to make sure she is OK and make sure she is settled before you must return home yourself.

It may also be useful to have a chat with her clinical team to understand recovery times specific to your mum and the dos and don’ts, so there is no confusion of what she can and can’t do on returning home.

This also gives you the opportunity to raise any concerns you may have before discharge, so a proper risk assessment can be carried out if needed before discharge.

  It can also be a good idea to ask who to contact should you have any issues or concerns during the first couple of days of her discharge home.

This is so you have a plan B, so to speak, just in case you encounter any issues or complication that may not have been apparent before discharge.

Pain management or any other issues caused by surgery  would also be assessed before discharge.

The team looking after your mum would make sure that any pain control /discharge medication has been prescribed and explained before she comes home also.

Cancer diagnoses affect everyone differently both physically as well as emotionally regardless of the individuals age looking at this information may be helpful in explaining this further .

It’s important you encourage your mum to let her treatment team know of any worries or concerns she may have. This is so they can give her the best possible support.

We also have this general information regarding going home from hospital that may also be useful to have a look at.

We hope that we have answered all your question.

On this platform it can be difficult to have a two-way conversation and to fully understand what you are going through.

If you’d like further explanation or have any other questions, please feel free to recontact us. Or if you it may help to discuss things with someone outside the loop please feel free to give us a call or contact us via our web chat platform.

 take care

Keith, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.

Ref KM/KS