Priority 23 from the Post Mastectomy Breast Reconstruction PSP

Early and locally advanced breast cancer: diagnosis and management Evidence-based recommendations on diagnosing and managing early and locally advanced breast cancer. NICE guideline Published July 2018 

Knowing the timelines and if there will be any restrictions with my athletic lifestyle ~ I think a timeline needs to be provided to mastectomy patients with reconstruction as to what exactly is allowed at which week i.e. range of motion, lifting exercises etc ~ What to expect going forward?..... ~ Recovery took MUCH MUCH longer than expected. Definitely a lot longer than the surgeon suggested. Get real timelines from patients. I was told to expect to be out of commission for 6 weeks by patients and this was accurate. …. Also I spent a week recovering in hospital and a lot of the nurses on the ward were not familiar with my surgery and one tried to make me sit up in a chair right less than 12 hrs after my surgery and I became quite dizzy as I wasn’t ready. The frequent checks while in hospital are not helpful. There has surely got to be a better way of checking integrity of the new breast without waking the patient up every 3-4 hrs . My surgeon didn’t have as much fat as she envisioned so reconstructions is a lot smaller than thought. A discussion about a contingency plan ahead of surgery will be useful.

86  (To see a full list of all uncertainties identified, please see the detailed spreadsheet held on the JLA website)