What It’s Like To Get A Mastectomy

I saw this title in my newsfeed this morning and clicked on it with some trepidation but despite its lurid beginning it has some good information. I especially like how it contrasts the two women’s differences in pain perception, one woman describes not even taking any of the prescribed pain meds but just having a sensation of tightness post-mastectomy while another describes the pain as almost unbearable. I had the same experience as the first, aside from the horrid hangover from the anesthesia I had no pain at all and I wonder if the pain others speak of is sometimes from the placement of tissue expanders or implants under the muscle when they opt for reconstruction rather than from the mastectomy itself or if this is just an example of human variability. One of the women quoted also mentions the drains, (see second pic) those were the worst! Not actually having to deal with them but more like worrying about them every time I turned or moved for the ten days they were in place. Anyway, here’s Ann Marie’s article:

After being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40, Ann Marie Otis, now 44, had, as she says somewhat jarringly, her breasts “amputated.”It’s not a term most of us would choose to describe a double mastectomy, but she’s not wrong. After all, an amputation is the surgical removal of an extremity; a mastectomy is the surgical removal of a breast. Thinking of the two procedures as one in the same could drastically change our perception of breast cancer treatment. “A mastectomy is a big life change,” says Otis, who has documented much of her own healing—both physical and emotional—click to read more

Source: What It’s Like To Get A Mastectomy | Prevention