After mastectomy now what?

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Hi everyone. Hoping you can help. I work in a snf for decent money. I've been an lvn in California for 16 years. I'm recovering from double mastectomy and not sure I can return to my current position. I can't even lift my hands above my head and in snf there's a lot of lifting, pushing med cart, and crushing meds. My question is what can I do now for decent money? I need to work. Please any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

A lot is going to depend on your recovery and rehabilitation. This is something you should really discuss with your surgeon, since s/he knows your situation better than any of us do; we can only make educated guesses as to what may/may not work for you.

I'm an oncology nurse and dealing with my own cancer diagnosis. In my case, I had to retire early because of complications from treatment, but that was my situation.

I wish you well in your recovery.

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Specializes in Home health, Addictions, Detox, Psych and clinics..

Consider working in a doctors office/primary care clinic or a specialty clinic of some sort of available? There are sometimes utilization review nurse LPN positions too. There are also home health like positions that don't involve hands on care, just assessment, hands off disease management and care coordination, can't remember the term but it's for health insurance companies via contracting agencies.

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A lot is going to depend on your recovery and rehabilitation. This is something you should really discuss with your surgeon, since s/he knows your situation better than any of us do; we can only make educated guesses as to what may/may not work for you.

This is true. In my experience, women having mastectomies will get physical therapy for awhile afterwards to get them back on track. Talk to your surgeon about this.

I wish you the best!

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Thank you all for your input. Just saw dr and not ready to go back to work and in 2 weeks she recommends lite duty. Not to sure what work will do with that. In snf the pay is good but the stress is high. I get so attached to my pts. The last pt that passed before my medical leave just about broke my heart. Wondering if I can emotionally still do this job. Would like to switch over to something where there is no pt care directly. Only experience I have is 11 years snf,3 years home health (not liking that),and 2 years visiting nurse (liked that but no reliable money ) Any thoughts?

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Perhaps look into obtaining a position as a telephonic LVN case manager for a major insurance company such as United Healthcare, Humana, etc. Many of these positions require lifting nothing heavier than a phone or paper file.

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I am a breast cancer survivor. I was diagnosed 3 weeks shy of my 32nd birthday, and I have zero family history of cancer. I had a double mastectomy along with tissue expander placement. I could not lift my arms above my shoulders for 3 weeks, then I began PT exercises to increase ROM and strength. I was able to lift my arms by week 6, but I followed PT advice to the letter. I also ate 100 grams of protein a day, per the surgeon and my knowledge of wound healing.

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Wow you were young. Hope all is well now. I'm going on 4 weeks and can lift arms above head now. How long before you felt comfortable lifting pts? I'm not site I can give cpr,lift pts,or stop a pt from falling mitch less push a heavy med cart. Haven't tried but pretty sure I can't and I'm a little afraid.

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I felt good about lifting at 8 weeks post op. I was seeing a PT though, and taking in 100 grams of protein to ensure good muscle growth and strength.

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