Reddit reviews Leading Lady Women's Plus-Size Zig-Zag Weave Sleep Leisure Bra, Leopard Print, 50 BCD

Good on you for being so considerate!

I just had my surgery on December 16th. Here's what I can recall from the first couple weeks.

1. Ask the doc for a prescription nausea med if one hasn't already been offered, especially if she's prone to nausea/dizziness/vertigo or sensitive to prescription pain meds. Throwing up after surgery puts a lot of pressure on your chest and can pop stitches and be very painful.
   
   
2. Have lots of high protein, easily digestible foods available. I was surprised I was hungry and that the hospital let me eat just a couple hours after I woke up. Simple foods I could eat by the following morning: Yogurt, pudding, jello, mashed potatoes, oatmeal, kefir etc. Protein will help her heal faster and her guts may be wonky because of the antibiotics so Kefir is a good choice.
   
   
3. Pillows! I'm three weeks out of surgery and I still have roughly four billion pillows around me. A wedge pillow is very helpful if she's going to sleep in bed but pillows under her legs and arms, in the arch of her back and smooshed all around the edges of her body (or body pillows) are so helpful. It hurts to support yourself or lift yourself up so the more pillow support the better. If your pillows are very soft and squishy, you can roll up towels or blankets instead. And yes, keep a pillow in the car for trips.
   
   
4. Standing requires using your abs and the muscles over your ribs are sore after surgery so you will probably have to help her to stand from a sitting or laying position for at least a couple of weeks. The same goes for sitting, especially on the toilet. Lowering yourself requires use of your ab muscles so help her to sit and stand so she doesn't pull a muscle or a stitch.
   
   
5. Speaking of the bathroom, reaching to wipe can pull your rib muscles as well or just throw you off balance. It won't be an option for everyone, but I made a point of getting a bidet that attaches to my existing toilet before the surgery and it's been awesome. Also, your gal is likely to be constipated. Stool softeners, fiber and LOTS of water (or cranberry juice to prevent UTI's from the catheter) are her friend.
   
   
6. Bathing: For the first few weeks she can't shower so you'll have to help. Here's how I do it. With my husbands help I strip from the waist down but keep the bra on. I stand in the shower while he sits on a little stool in front of the open shower. I soap up and he rinses me down. I carefully get out of the shower and he helps me dry off well and get new underclothes on. Then we put a towel around my waist and one around my neck and clasp it with a hair claw. I sit on the stool and he sits on a chair behind me and uses a spray bottle of water to wet my hair and then a comb to gently apply soap throughout. Then I stand up and lean over the tub white he sits on the back of the tub and uses a cup to rinse my hair. Then he helps me wrap my wet hair in a towel and we change my bra and bandages. The whole process takes about 20 minutes and is the easiest routine we could fine. We tried other options but they always ended up with water everywhere and usually running down my chest.
   
   
7. Changing the bandages. Your lady's doc will tell her what to do and every doc is different so take this with a grain of salt. I had a keyhole or anchor style incision. One week after surgery, my bandages were getting gross, smelly and frayed so I changed them. I'm very sensitive to glue so the way I do it minimizes tape usage. I remove the bandages slowly. Then I spray a clean cotton bandage with saline lightly and use that to wipe off my entire breast as well as under the breast and close to (but not on) the nipple). Then I inspect the incisions for swelling/redness and other signs of infection. Then I carefully remove any loose glue/scabs etc. Be VERY careful when doing this as it's easy to pull off skin with the surgical glue. The reason you want to snip or pinch off the loose bits is because they catch on the bandages and the bandage pulls it when you move and that stings! Plus, the loose bits poke at you which is uncomfortable. Anyway, after it's all cleaned up, I take the largest bandage I have and open it all the way and then fold it into quarters long ways so I have a thick long band to place from the inner corner of the incision (between the breasts) all the way to the outer corner incision (near the armpit) and I use a small piece of tape to tape each end. Then I take another large bandage and unfold it once and place it over the center of my breast to cover the nipple and about four inches of skin on each side. I use three small pieces of tape to take this bandage, two pieces hold the bottom of it to the strip of bandage under my breast and one goes at the top. Once I put the bra on over the bandages I peel the tape off my skin and fold it over so that the only tape sticking to my skin anymore is the piece under my underarms. The bra does a good job of compressing the bandages to my incisions so I don't need any other tape and it's much more comfortable this way.
   
   
8. Some days she will be full of energy and will have little pain and other days she will become exhausted from walking to the bathroom and her boobs will feel like they're badly sunburned and jellyfish are stinging them. There's no rhyme or reason to it, I feel great one day and terrible the next and then great again etc. The first two days after surgery I felt like I could run a marathon, the two days after that I basically didn't get out of my recliner because I was on so much pain and so tired. She'll take a lot of naps and that's good, she needs rest. I would feel so nauseous and like I never wanted food again and then twenty minutes later I'd be ravenous. Just roll with it. Have some comfort foods handy, but try to eat healthy and get lots of water. The last thing you want is an upset stomach, gastro issues or inflammation because Taco Bell seemed like a good idea. I drank a lot of smoothies made of fresh fruits and veg and I really think that eating healthy has helped in my recovery.
   
   
9. She needs at least two or three bras. They send you home in a surgical bra but mine was very uncomfortable and caked in blood and lymph fluid so I wanted out of it asap. I purchased this one and this one and they've been awesome. They're soft, no wires, close in the front and they don't cut into my sides.
   
   
10. Disappointment. When I first saw my new boobs, they seemed really small and I was worried. After a few days I realized they were proportional to my size and only small in comparison to my crazy enormous boobs from before. The shape is all wonky, I have scabby gross incisions, I feel like I'm sweaty and smelly (I'm not), I'm sore, I'm tired, I itch (thank you Percocet), my whole body was swollen for the first week, I felt useless and lazy and restless. It's all normal. Surgery is hard on your body and when you're stuck in a chair (or bed) for days or weeks with nothing else to do you start to dwell on all the negative stuff. Help her stay distracted (video games, movies, magazines, puzzle books, sketch pads etc), remind her that she's just had major surgery and that her body needs calories and rest to heal properly. Tell her how great she's doing, how proud of her you are for being so brave, what a strong bad-ass she is etc. Be really supportive, empathetic and compassionate. She might cry more or be more anxious and that's ok. It's roller coaster of both physical and emotional feelings but she can get through it if you stay supportive.
    
    Good luck and feel free to PM or comment here if you have any questions!