When Your Breast Reconstruction Surgery is Coming up

…and you’ve decided on DIEP flap reconstruction. For those of you who know, you know. And for those of you who don’t, DIEP or Deep Inferior Epigastric Perforator flap is an advanced microsurgical technique that uses excess living fat from below the belly button to rebuild breasts after a mastectomy.

You may be aware preparing for surgery can be a scary and exciting time and my hope is to calm your fears by sharing all the things I’ve found to be necessary when recovering after surgery. Whether this is happening at the beginning of your breast cancer diagnosis, the middle, or the end, it’s one more mountain to climb, AND CLIMB YOU WILL!

Part One: The Hospital Stay Post DIEP Recovery

Every doctor has their own specific rules on how long to keep their patients in the hospital but the average hospital stay for DIEP flap breast reconstruction surgery is about 5 days. At my hospital, I stayed overnight in the ICU for close monitoring, then was transferred to a “regular” room. I was encouraged to shower so that my nurses could assist me and educate me on the proper way to shower once my doctors gave me permission to leave the hospital.

Before you can leave the hospital, you must be able to walk and go to the potty without assistance.

You will be asked to do a lot of walking no matter how short the distance.

When you walk, you’ll feel like you’re walking hunched over and that’s because your skin was pulled up from your pubic area and down from your stomach area. But don’t worry, your skin does stretch to accommodate your body, it just takes time and patience.

You will have JP drains attached to your chest and abdomen area. JP drains are tubes with small “bulbs” attached at the end to collect excess fluid from your body. The drains are removed once the fluid amount decreases, typically a week, sometimes longer. They don’t hurt, but they are sutured in and can be very uncomfortable if they get caught on something and pulled accidentally.

Pre-DIEP Surgery Things to Know

Here are a few things I was asked not to wear before and post-DIEP surgery:

• No perfume
• No deodorant
• No make-up

The one thing I would not compromise on was my eyebrows – I refused to leave home without them! I brought some Wunderbrow to paint them on, knowing I’d be in the hospital for 5 days without makeup. It’s what I needed to feel like me.

There were a few other items that I brought with me that made a difference during and just after my stay. I made sure to have a small toiletry bag with some essentials. I didn’t think I’d shower but I knew I would need face wipes, a toothbrush, toothpaste, my homemade drain holder shirt, and some drawstring pants.

The other thing I was glad to have was a mastectomy pillow to protect my tender chest from the seat belt. I bought one from The Mammy Company, but any small pillow will do.

When you are given permission to leave the hospital, you might get sent home in a mastectomy bra, or nothing at all, it just depends on your doctor. Just something to think about and ask about before your surgery.

You don’t realize how much you use your abdomen until you can’t.

Part Two: At-Home Post-DIEP Recovery

YAY! You made it home! Now the fun part begins…

You don’t realize how much you use your abdomen until you can’t – which is why you will need and want a RECLINER or a wedge pillow!

It is extremely difficult getting up and down, even scooting to a comfortable position in bed, so the recliner will be your “little home” for a few days. These are some helpful items to have right next to the recliner:

• Small bedside table
• T.V. remote
• Cell phone
• ALL your meds
• Water

In addition to the recliner that I needed, I found out quickly that I needed help in the bathroom.

So we bought a toilet lift and a shower chair for me. The lift raises the toilet so it’s much easier to sit up and down, and the shower chair makes showering much more comfortable!

Some doctors ask that you wear compression garments for a few weeks to help with post-surgery swelling. Luckily, you can find inexpensive compression underwear at places like Walmart and Target. I didn’t come home with a mastectomy bra, so it was affordable for me to purchase stretchy camisoles to wear instead of one.

DIY Drain Holder Shirt

It will be a couple of weeks before you can lift your arms above your head to put tank tops on so you’ll need tops with drain holders to start off with.

Lots of companies now make really cute, soft robes and shirts that have drain holders attached to them, but that was a luxury I didn’t feel comfortable spending money on so here’s how to ball on a budget like me!

I had a few men’s button-down cotton shirts (that friends gave me) that my husband modified to hold my drains. He took squares of an old white t-shirt and sewed those squares into the insides of the button-down shirt. IT WAS GENIUS!

I could leave the drains in the inner pockets when I showered, draping the shirt on the back of my shower chair. Once I was done showering, I grabbed a clean button-down, put in my drains (still dry!) and I was good to go!

Last Pieces of Advice

There are two huge pieces of advice I can give you as you embark on this surgery.

1. Take lots of pictures! To the naked eye, small everyday changes in your body go unnoticed, but having pictures to keep track of your progress helps.
2. Slow and steady wins the race! Your body will feel foreign to you for a while, it takes time for you to feel comfortable in your looks and in how your body functions. But you will get there!

Every step you take brings you closer to feeling whole again.