What are the recovery "must haves"?

By seanswife on 21 Apr 2011

Hi all, I'm seven weeks out from my BR and am just wondering what items were most useful to you in the days and weeks following your surgery. There's a lot of talk about bed wedge pillows, steri strips, extra gauze, Arnica...are any of those things necessities? What things were most helpful to have right at hand the first couple of days while you were mostly in bed?

Comments (6)

seanswife 25 Aug 2011

@Ckmia you can also check out the "Any June Breast Reductions?" topic for a really good, recent discussion on the ups-and-downs of surgery recovery. Really good info that helped me out.

ckmia 25 Aug 2011

I can't tell all of you how helpful this site is. More helpful than any other resource. Thank you for sharing. I feel prepared for my surgery in 2 weeks.

LR128 26 Apr 2011

I would also say that it's necessary to have someone to help you, definitely around the clock for the first 48 hours, and after that you'll still need help, just with simple things. I'm single and rather independent, but there's no way I could have gotten through the first several days without help from my wonderful sister and many friends. You should not do any heavy lifting of any kind for like a month, so you'll have to ask people for help (something I don't normally like to do, but I had to do it anyway!).

seanswife 28 Apr 2011

Thanks LR 128. My husband works from home and will be with my around the clock; I also have some friends lined up as relief duty in case he needs to go out for some reason after the first 48 hours.

seanswife 25 Apr 2011

Thanks, Kimmers! I've read a lot of your stuff on here--looks like you're a great resource!

Kimmers25 (Community Manager) 24 Apr 2011

The most important items are the following:

Ice packs, extra gauze squares for the first couple of weeks, 3-4 surgical bras, extra pillows for the bed for the first week, pain medications, Palmers Oil, and patience!