Hi,

I'm sorry to read about your diagnosis, and I can only tell you my experience but I found the mastectomy easy to recover from. I actually asked for a double operation but was refused, so if I ever get the cancer back In the other breast I will be a bit annoyed, to,say the leastI

I take a long time to wake up from a general anaesthetic, always have, so I stayed in hospital overnight, otherwise I woulld have gone home the same day. My daughter  had seen my slow wake-up before, but my son was totally freaked out by it and he was amazed when he came for me the next morning to find me on my feet on the other side of the ward helping someone to drink their tea.  I had a drain, painlessly attached, (which was removed 12 days later) presumably I still had painkilling drugs in my system, plus I would be pumped full of adrenaline, but I felt absolutely fine in myself.  Obviously it was a bit sore around the scar - my boobs were big so my scar is quite long but I wasn't in much pain at all. I started the exercises as advised, took the painkillers at night and was able to sleep with no trouble. I had had the sentinel node biopsy at the same time as my mastectomy but can't say that bothered me either.  I'm an old dear so I am not going to have reconstruction, and I can honestly say my recovery was quick and easy. 

Unfortunately I had to go back after five weeks and have lymph node clearance because there was cancer in one of the sentinel nodes.  That has been a bit harder but six weeks later I'm doing fine. 

So if your immediate worry is post surgical pain, I really think you will feel better than you expect. Good luck, it's a rotten time to be having any illness, let alone major surgery. 

Christine x