Day 8 → Day 11 (or after your first post op appointment)
CONGRATS! You are probably drain-free or close to it at this point. They’re generally removed when you have 30cc’s or less of drainage over 24 hours. Sutures may be taken out too. It will likely take about 2 days for your drain wounds to close. You may need to apply antibiotics and gauze. Follow your provider’s recommendations. You will likely need to be in compression until 4-6 weeks post op to avoid seroma, hematoma, edema, etc. Compression also helps with scar healing and soft tissue adhering in the chest wall. Be gentle when bathing! If you are off narcotics, your doctor may clear you to drive.
If you have nipple grafts, add daily dressing changes as instructed by MD (my partner took antibiotics and used xeroform with telfa pads).
Exercises
Remember
- No lifting anything greater than 8 pounds (about a gallon of milk)!
- Consider compression socks during exercise if you have help to put them on
Italics indicate what's different from Day 1 - 7 exercises
| GOAL (REST and listen to your body when it is telling you to stop! If you don’t do everything here, don’t stress!) | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breathing exercises: 360º / diaphragmatic breathing (slowly) 10-15x every (waking) hour | ||||
| Walk around the house/ up to a couple miles slowly; keep heart rate low; no huffing/no sweating!! | ____min | ____min | ____min | ____min |
| Shoulder active range of motion: Limit arm movements to shoulder height or lower (T rex arms for approx 1 more week!); can do gentle shoulder rolls, scapular squeezes, shoulder external rotation (be careful), shoulder circles, shoulder shrugs, and shoulder flexion and abduction to tolerance under 90º (NO WEIGHTS) | ||||
| Neck active range of motion (to tolerance): Rotation, Flexion, Extension | ||||
| Elbow, wrist and finger flexion/extension to tolerance | ||||
| Manual Lymphatic Drainage (neck, shoulders, back, and arms only, NO CHEST) |