As a former nurse in MD Anderson’s Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU), I felt pretty familiar with breast cancer surgery. So, I thought I knew what to expect when I scheduled my own mastectomy last August.
But, as it turns out, going through the process as a patient myself held some surprises. Here are five things I didn’t anticipate and how I handled them.
1. Embrace your range of motion exercises
When I was a PACU...
Over the last two decades, I’ve learned a lot about MD Anderson as a caregiver, an employee, and most recently, a triple-negative breast cancer...