Surgery Advice Please

Hi Irishgirl16

Bring something to keep yourself occupied as there can be a lot of waiting around before you have your operation. When I had mine I had a wire inserted into my breast as my lump was so small after chemo so that my surgeon would know where the lump was. I also had a dye injected into my arm to show up the lymph nodes that needed to be removed. The procedure to insert the wire and dye is painless. Before you leave after your operation the hospital will give you a prescription for painkillers. It should only take you a few days to recover from the surgery..

Wishing you the best of luck with your surgery.

Best wishes

Daisy53

Agree with everything Daisy53 said. Waiting at the hospital seems like forever, so definitely take something distracting, especially as you can't even drink anything within a couple of hours of the op.

I had a magseed inserted rather than a wire as mine was also very small after chemo. The magseed was pretty similar to the biopsy - I didn't feel it as the area was numbed.

I had blue dye injected as well as radioactive dye to check sentinel lymph nodes. The blue dye takes a long time to fade and it looks like you are bruised (but I wasn't). I am 5 months post-op and I can still see the faded dye. The surgeon said 6 months for it to go so I guess that is about right.

As Daisy53 says, getting over the operation is pretty quick. I had my operation on the Wednesday and was working again on the Monday (from home).

You can't lift anything too heavy for 4-6 weeks and the first few days or so you're not supposed to lift much at all, but you soon get your strength back.

They will give you arm exercises to do from the day after the surgery. Do these as prescribed as you need to be able to lift your arms over your head if you are getting radiotherapy. I was surprised at how stiff I was afterwards. Even now, I still don't have full mobility back though it is coming and I am not restricted with what I can do.

I gave myself 4 weeks before I started running again and 6 before I lifted anything really heavy, though I did build up to more and more heavy things.

Good luck, I found the operation and radiotherapy a walk in the park compared to chemo.