A little help please

[valleygirl]

I had a double mastectomy on 1/23 went back in on the 26th for emergency surgery because of bleeding.
I am still so sore I have a hard time doing anything. I have such a hard time just showering. Every day activities are so difficult and very painful. How long will it be like this. It's so hard to even comb my hair, my arms just won't move that high. When did you feel normal again?

[Yorkiegirl]

I am sorry you having such a hard time. I myself was doing fine with-in a month and half.

Did they show you any kind of arm excerise to do? I would use fingers and do what they call the crawl up the wall as far as I could go. I did this about 4 times a day and it got better with each day.

[BonnieR]

Have you been speaking with your doctor about this? Is there swelling? It sounds like something that should be addressed by your medical team. For instance, I was sent to therapy where I was shown how to massage to prevent lymphedema and improve range of motion. These are situations where it helps to be the squeaky wheel and insist on attention. It will help your recovery to start work on this now. With your doctor's approval.
Gentle yoga might be a good thing too. Does your treatment center/hospital offer any post op recovery programs?
Keep the faith. It does get better....

[snolan]

Keep working on stretching as tolerated throughout the day. You can also ask your PC for a referral to physical therapy. Sometimes having someone else stretch it is easier and they can teach you a home exercise program to work on. It does take a about 6-8 weeks to get your range of motion back and it still takes longer to fully get the scar tissue adhesions gone. Keep working on it.

[CoolBreeze]

I think it took me about two weeks to feel better, but I had an expander - did you? Make sure you let your doctor know what's going on with you. And, like others before me have said, I highly recommend that you do whatever exercises you've been given. I got frozen shoulder after my surgery and it is not fun. I have not recovered and it's been since November '10 (with my recon). I wish I'd been given exercises. If you haven't, ask for physical therapy.

I don't know why these doctors take off part of a woman's anatomy and don't automatically give us PT. It's like they think breasts are just overgrowths rather than part of our structure.

Good luck and I hope you feel better soon.