A favorite topic for me-- the drive through mastectomy. Only in America! You can get both breasts taken off and then be back home 24 hours later. It's totally fine, right, since the hospital provides you with lots of pain medication To Go! There's your aftercare, right in a little bottle. Meanwhile, you still have lots of medication in your system from the operation, a crazy high level of pain, limited ability to even pay attention to instructions (restrictions, drain maintenance, etc.) given by the nurse, BUT you are considered fit and ready to leave. Yep, take your crappy plastic toy and your bag of fries and head on home.
What, you don't have a staff of nurses at home to care for you?
I actually feel fortunate that I had a good set of circumstances: fit and heathy going in, relatively young, no complications post surgery, lots of friends/family to help post surgery. Even so, I thought the nurse had taken some of my morphine when she told me, "We are getting ready to discharge you" the morning after my mastectomy. I finished surgery around 7pm and by around 10am, they were putting the paperwork together. I was out the door by 1pm.
I guess that's safe?? It just seems insane to me that women are sent home so quickly after undergoing such major surgery.
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