Newly diagnosed and struggling

Hello, I'm really sorry to hear about your diagnose. There are few things in common for all of us: cancer diagnose is shocking, we end up crying for days and eventually star planning ahead. I have been diagnosed few months ago with stage 2 DCIS and NST both ER and HER2 positive. I had my surgery at the beginning of Jan. What you will need at Hospital is post op bra (I found great on Amazon but also M&S do those). I had a belly flap reconstruction so for me it was high pants also. I would advise more than couple of those as you will need to use it for weeks after surgery. You will need a pijama front closing. Mobile, powerbank, charging cable. Any medicine you take additionally as those will not be provided. I got wet tissues, towel, shower gel. I had full breast mastectomy with instant reconstruction. So the recovery time is really long. With lumpectomy you should recover quickly. I wish you all the best in your journey and remember, its OK to cry and feel whatever you feel.

So very sorry you’ve had a breast cancer diagnosis EvelynA  but welcome here.

All that AMDxx  said, plus footwear that is easy to slip on and off. No one said that to me and I didn’t think of it. Doh.

Sending a hug xx

Hi EvelynA , sorry you’ve had to join this club that we’d all rather avoid! It’s a great place though for support and shared experiences. Your case sounds similar to mine (you can click on people’s usernames to read their profiles), definitely a huge shock to learn that you have cancer. Lots of great advice already, in my case I bought front opening bras (poppers) from Royce but there’s lots of choice around. Everyone is different but I found it impossible to sleep on my side after the op so used pillows to support the op side and slept on my back. Some people have used the triangle type pillows too. Front opening everything makes things easier. Recovery again seems very variable, don’t know if you’re working but if you are, would advise not having a fixed notion of how long you’ll need to be off as it depends on a lot of factors and is really hard to predict! 
Wishing you well, you’ll get lots of support here. Love and hugs, HFxx

So sorry to hear you have joined the BC club. I found wearing large tee shirts in bed, with leggings and under pinafore dresses  was what I lived in post surgery. As others have said, anything front opening is a god send. I was lucky in as much as my husband learnt very quickly to wash my hair and dry my back after any shower..... it's these little things that make all the difference.  I hope that your journey is a good one,  take each day at a time and talk about it, it helps with the understandable anxiety. xx