While we usually restrict our patients' activities for the first few weeks and ask them to avoid strenuous upper extremity activity or excessive reaching or lifting after breast augmentation, there are many things that can be very easily done if proper common sense and care are observed. Things like reaching up gently to do your hair, getting a light bowl out of a cupboard, and things like this are just fine, as long as you are careful and not forceful. In fact, I actually prescribe daily gentle range of motion and stretching exercises for my own patients to keep the pectoralis muscles from becoming contracted and the shoulders from stiffening. In any event, the point is that it is a fallacy that we have to walk around with the arms held to the sides for a month, as many of my patients have described through the years as "T. Rex arms!" I mirror most of what has been said here already by my colleagues with regard to postoperative activity. When it comes to the kids, as many of our patients are young moms with small children, we simply have to incorporate this "common sense approach" into the child care. Thus, full lifting of an infant to a changing table the first week after surgery would probably not be advisable, but getting help with positioning and then snuggling and hugging is just fine. With toddlers and young children who can be cooperative, many of my patients who are moms will make a sort of game out of this, so as to not cause fear in their children. Most children are simple creatures and they like consistency and closeness. If they can get those things, it is very likely there will be smooth sailing. If something disrupts their routine, if someone "moves their cheese" as the story goes, the become anxious and go crazy. If mom is anxious about hugging or providing that closeness that the child needs and is used to, a situation can spiral out of control very quickly as the child becomes frightened and their mind immediately goes to thoughts of abandonment and losing you. This is actually very important to consider, as this kind of anxiety dynamic will have a very real affect on your overall recovery after surgery. I mention these things not to make this out to be a huge ordeal; because it really isn't. It's actually quite easily controlled with a bit of information and planning up front. The other great thing about kids is that they trust us - said another way, they're gullible and can be directed by us with very limited information as long as we show them we're not leaving them and we are sincere. This reminds me of an anecdote with my own eldest daughter that I just can't resist sharing here. She has always been a bit of an “old soul” and somewhat cynical, and when she was just starting to figure out the truth about all of those fantasy characters that parents like to tell their children about (sometimes more for their own benefit than the child’s!) like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, she was asking her mother one day about these things. She ran down the list with a very serious look on her face, asking one by one, “Is he real?” “What about him” “What about her?” In each instance, as her mother and I had decided it was time to level with her, we said (with a twinge of sadness in our hearts for her evaporating youth!) “No, he’s not really real, that was Mommy and Daddy pretending” “No, she’s not really real.” Each time she nodded accordingly, “Yup, I knew it.” Then she got to Mickey Mouse. Her mother got a sly half smile and winked at me, and said, “Oh, he’s actually real.” You know, I actually saw my daughter’s eyes brighten just a bit as she said “really??” and she actually believed it for another year or so. We all enjoyed Disneyland that much more during the last fleeting moments of the innocence and wonder of her “little girlness.” In any regard, as long as you incorporate them into the scenario some way, explain something to them that makes sense to them, and then enroll them into cooperating with the “soft gentle baby bear hugs” that they have to give you (or whatever works for you and your children) for a time, they will be fully on board, and actually very supportive of you. And you in turn will feel much, much better in general during your recovery. I know this was a bit of a long winded response, but this is an important, and very common issue you raise, and I’m glad to have the opportunity to share my perspectives on it. Good luck with your upcoming surgery, and with the little ones!
