comments:
Are you using any adhesives after your procedure? Dermabond? There will be adhesives used during the procedure so if you take any allergy meds, discuss taking it after surgery with your doctor/nurses. They gave me tegaderm and little round antibiotic doobers to place against the drain holes. I reacted to the tegaderm day 1 so there was nothing to keep the antibiotic doobers in place but for the first few days you're just sleeping and short walks to keep from getting blood clots so they will sorta stay in place - I tried anyway. A warm wash cloth with just water to gently scrub any areas with adhesive post-op. Do this whenever you do your drains if I were you. Showers are risky post-op because the water is not sterile and your drains are exposed without an adhesive sealing them in. Any skin irritation or injury is a weak point for infection. Warm soap and water, as hot as I could stand, is how I got the surgical glue off when I busted out the hives a week after it was applied. It generally takes 2 weeks for skin to heal fully, but 1 week was enough to very carefully remove the dermabond. Better than risk infection. Took me two days to work it all off because I didn't have the stamina to shower long enough to do either side in a straight shot. The showers themselves were possibly a bad idea but I did clear it with my surgeon. A big mixing bowl with warm soapy water in it is more easily managed with a washcloth - the larger the better because it will retain the heat longer. If you you want to do this without help you can just put it in the bathtub and fill it up right there and sit next to it in the empty tub - no lifting required. Do all of your sheets, blankets, bathrobes and towels before your surgery and have someone change your sheets weekly post-op - towels maybe every day, up to you. Layers are your friend. I got button up shirts from consignment, ones that I wouldn't mind bleeding and oozing on. Cotton is ideal because it will absorb anything that oozes or drips and keep your skin dry. When you can't keep a wound sealed up tight, keep it as clean and dry as possible. I also had big gauze pads I crammed under the surgical garment. Provided I didn't move my arms (and you won't want to) they stayed in place perfectly. I changed them every time I did my drains to help keep them from sticking to the wound (Not Fun™). I used hibclens in... not recommended ways. It worked out, but hibclens can cause skin irritation as well so bathing in it is a bad idea. Given that warning... I would pour a bit into my hand so I had a little pool of it and then slap it against the drain exit on my chest and hold it there for a few seconds since I didn't want to disturb the tissue more directly (hell nah am I scrubbing an open wound plus stitches). Then rinse it off with water as hot as I could stand (really don't want to leave any behind and can't scrub). I have a history of UTI's so I may have also scrubbed certain sensitive areas you really aren't supposed to use hibclens on. The primary goal is to avoid any complications so be sure to follow the post-op guidelines religiously. I set up alarms on my phone and labeled them and my spouse even made me a spreadsheet I could pull up on my phone to record drainage measurements that would highlight when I reached the threshold for removal in a 24 hour period. Mastectomy Drain Spreadsheet Public I got my spouse this mug as well. Not from that storefront but that's what it looks like.