Now What?

A Patient's Guide to Recovery After Mastectomy

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Now What?

A Patient's Guide to Recovery After Mastectomy

Authors

Amy Curran Baker,

MaryBeth Curran Brown,

Editor

Linda Curran, MSN, APRN

Description

All the information you need after mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery so that you can focus on what matters most: healing and staying well.

Why am I so tired all the time? What about these drains? Should I worry about lymphedema? Your mastectomy (with or without reconstruction) doesn√åt end when you leave the operating room. In Now What?, Amy Curran Baker, an occupational therapist who has had a double mastectomy and direct to implant breast reconstruction, and her co-authors, two registered nurses, answer all of your post-surgery questions in this comprehensive and empowering guide. Now What? helps you:

Consider your options and make the decisions that are best for you
Deal with frozen shoulder syndrome, wound care, swollen lymph nodes, and other side effects of mastectomy
Organize the nitty-gritty issues of wound management post-op care with helpful charts and logs
Hear real stories from other breast cancer survivors who have had a mastectomy

Contents

"Introduction
1. Making the Difficult Decisions
2. Now What?
3. After-care, Recovery and Complications
4. Voices
5. The Forms You Will Need"

Authors

Amy Curran Baker, MA, OTR/L, has over 13 years of experience as an Occupational Therapist, including treating adult populations at all stages of post-surgical recovery. Ms. Baker became interested in mastectomy/reconstruction care in 2008 after helping her sister Linda recover from a prophylactic mastectomy. Less than two months later, Ms. Baker was diagnosed with breast cancer herself and underwent a mastectomy with reconstruction.

MaryBeth Curran Brown is a veteran nurse with nearly 20 years of experience. Ms. Brown has treated patients in intensive care and during all stages of post-surgical recovery.

Linda Curran, MSN, APRN, has practiced for nine years as a board certified Advanced Practice Registered Nurse specializing in women's health. Her professional interests include breast cancer screenings, BRCA, and other hereditary cancer syndromes. She has been previously published in the nursing journal Lifelines and is employed at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center in Kapolei, Hawaii.

Product Details