quick blog, but this is a common question.
Immediate post operative no no’s are listed below. (And know when I say immediate, I mean for 3-4 weeks, not two days. Yes, you are an overachiever Palo Alto kind of girl. Yes, you exercise every day. Yes, you are a fast healer. No, you cannot work out your legs, because your legs are connected to the rest of your body, so anything which increases your blood pressure and heart rate affects your breasts as well.)
If you don’t let your body rest and have time to heal, you will either 1. delay your healing, so it will take longer to get back to your full force life, or 2. CAUSE A BLEED. I have been in practice for almost 20 years now, done hundreds of breast surgeries, and I have had a handful of bleeds. WHEN? They were 1-2 weeks out. That is not that I left something bleeding. It is that something new happened which caused the bleed. WHY? What caused the bleeding? What is the most dangerous activity? LAUNDRY. (Yes, use this as an excuse to not do laundry for weeks. I will support you. Laundry is a double whammy- you bend over and strain to lift something heavy.) So complications are rare, but this is a time to take it easy.
DO NOT:
- Do not strain
- Do not bend over
- Do not pick up heavy things (over 5-10 pounds)
- Do not do anything which will get you hot and sweaty (yes, this includes you know what)
- Do not do anything which will raise your blood pressure.
There are things which help accelerate healing.
- Keep your head slightly elevated
- Keep your elbows glued to your sides- that limits pectoral muscle use (and generally keeps you from doing all those things you shouldn’t be doing)
- Take arnica and bromelain to help lower swelling and bruising
- Avoid NSAID and aspirin (these make your risk of bleed higher)
- and of course, listen to your doctor. 🙂
When are you out of the woods?
Talk with your doctor- everyone has a different protocol and procedure. Generally though at one month I will give the okay to do whatever. IF you still have swelling / bruising / something, then I will delay the full okay. I had a patient once who was just lingering with pain- still puffy, still achy- and was two and a half weeks out. I didn’t get it. Couldn’t figure it out. Then I pressed her. What have you been doing? “nothing.” Really? This is totally unusual. You just aren’t progressing like you should be. “Well, actually…” And then she confessed she had moved houses and had been packing up boxes. Not good. She didn’t get a bleed, but for sure she delayed her healing.
So take advantage of this forced time to relax. Binge watch a TV series on Netflix. Make that Shutterfly photo album you’ve been meaning to do. Read a book. Doctor’s orders.