6 things to pay attention to when having a mastectomy!

Mastectomy is an important surgical procedure for treating female breast diseases. It also has a great mental and psychological impact on women, especially for women who love beauty and feel that they are not complete. After the operation, you should avoid emotional excitement and depression, eat more foods rich in vitamins such as vegetables and fruits, eat more whole grains, and try to eat low cholesterol and high protein, which will be beneficial to recovery.

1. Family members should keep the patient in a good mood after surgery and avoid emotional excitement or depression.

2. Postoperative exercise: During radical surgery for breast cancer, the pectoralis major and minor muscles are often removed together with the breast, and the axillary lymph nodes are cleared at the same time. Therefore, problems such as upper limb lymphedema, limited shoulder joint motion range, low muscle strength, rapid fatigue after exercise and fine motor dysfunction may occur after the operation. In order to reduce or avoid such obstacles, reasonable functional exercises should be performed in time after the operation before scar tissue is formed at the axillary incision.

3. Keep the shoulder joint immobilized within 24 hours after surgery to prevent postoperative bleeding and subcutaneous effusion.

4. From the first day after surgery to the period of axillary negative pressure drainage (usually about 7 days), the main movements are those of the fingers, wrists, and elbows. Avoid large-scale shoulder abduction movements, do not use the affected limb to support getting up from bed, and do not perform excessive flexion and extension.

5. From the 8th day to 2 weeks after surgery, focus on shoulder joint activities to prevent scar adhesion. At the beginning, the abduction and flexion angles should not exceed 40°. From the fourth day after surgery, the flexion can be increased by 10° to 15°, but it must not exceed the patient's tolerance. After the stitches are removed two weeks after the operation, the patient should take care of himself in daily life, such as eating, washing face, brushing teeth, combing hair, etc., as soon as possible to improve his mobility.

6. The three months after surgery is a critical time for functional training. Regular and sufficient exercise during this period can prevent intra-articular adhesion caused by long-term joint immobilization, promote the formation of loose connective tissue under scar tissue, expand the range of upper limb motion, and shorten the time for upper limb function recovery.