5 Must Haves for DIEP Flap Surgery Recovery

Here’s the TOP 5 Must Haves for DIEP Flap Surgery Recovery as a breast cancer patient that makes it a bit easier and more comfortable in the weeks following surgery

If you are needing a list for what to pack for the hospital for DIEP Flap or PAP Flap, check out my Comprehensive Packing List for the Hospital here. If you are having a PAP Flap surgery instead of or along with DIEP, I also have a Must Haves Recovery Items list for PAP Flap when you get dismissed from the hospital. My case is complicated so I have had a DIEP Flap and a PAP Flap (most patients only have one or the other).

At the bottom of each section is a link “Get the ____ ” you can click to go straight to that item.

Wedge Pillow System

After a mastectomy or DIEP flap surgery, you will need to sleep more upright than flat. Since your abdomen is also recovering, you won’t be able to stand up straight or lay down flat. So, having a way to be propped up, knees supported, and back able to rest is essential to having a more comfortable recovery.

With so much time resting and in recovery, you will want a few different places around your home you can comfortably lay in addition to the bed. This pillow set works on the couch, too.

Get this Wedge Pillow Set

Pillows for Seatbelts in Car

Even if you don’t think you’ll be leaving home or your recovery site much, you will have to travel for follow-up appointments with your surgeon. Riding in the car can be one of the most difficult experiences to get comfortable. Make it a little easier on yourself by getting a little cushion for both the belt that goes across your tummy and the belt that goes across your chest.

Get the Longer Ab Pillow Get the Shorter Chest Pillow

Shower Chair

Showering after a mastectomy or DIEP flap surgery recovery can prove challenging and even emotional. It takes a ton of physical energy and focus to not unintentionally pull on your drains. Then throw in the emotional components of seeing your body looking different and it can be an exhausting experience. Give yourself the gift of having a place to sit down or prop your arm while you are taking care of yourself in the shower. Using a shower chair or stool was a huge key to me having more independence quicker.

There’s two options listed below. One is the chair with armrests. This is lightweight and fairly easy to move. The second option is a rotating shower stool. The stool is an easy option if you are traveling for your surgery and staying in a hotel or somewhere that is not your home for recovery weeks.

Get the Shower Chair with Armrests Get the Rotating Shower Stool

Drains Holder for Shower

A DIEP flap surgery recovery includes having to manage the drains from the procedure. You may, like me, have several drains to deal with at once. Having this open mesh bag that has buttons to help secure the drain tubes from slipping around during a shower, and being that it could be tied up and worn in a few different ways (over chest or at waist above ab incision) made it a big help for shower time. It was nice to just put all the drains in this one carrier during the shower. Drains can get wet and the mesh bag can get wet while it lets the water flow through it. After the shower, dry off your drains with a towel and hang up the mesh bag to dry.

This particular set also includes a fabric belt with pockets to hold the drains the rest of the day. You can remove the pockets you don’t need if you have less drains to start with or as the surgeon may remove one drain one week and another drain another week. Having drain belt options during mastectomy and DIEP flap surgery recovery can be very helpful and empowering.

Get the Drains Holder Combo Set

Pocket for Your Walker

During a DIEP flap surgery recovery, you will be told not to stand up straight (and you won’t want to!) and will likely be given a walker through Physical Therapy before being dismissed from the hospital. A fabric pocket that adheres with velcro to a walker to hold items like phone, drink, lip balm, and other supplies during your recovery can be so handy! Since your hands will be busy holding onto your walker when you move from room to room or to the car or down the hall to the surgeon’s office, it’s very HANDY (see what I did there) to have a sturdy pocket on your walker to hold some essential items. It just makes the tough life of this type of surgery recovery a bit easier on you.

Get the Walker Pocket

BONUS TIP ITEM:

Heating Pad with Shoulder Wrap

It’s common to have lots of back pain while recovering from DIEP flap surgery as a breast cancer patient because of the unnatural way we have to hold our bodies for weeks after the procedure. Heat on the back can provide such a relief! Having this wrapping electric heating pad was one of the only things that gave me nearly instant comfort and back/shoulder blade pain relief, so much so that it comes on trips with me!

Get the Heating Pad

Want to chat 1-on-1 with me about the DIEP flap experience?

It can be reassuring to talk to someone like me who has actually gone through the procedure. I’m a fan of being real. We can talk about preparing your space before your surgery, dealing with ICU and what to bring to the hospital, what to expect as a patient who’s actually gone through it and worked hard to support my body using nutrition and supplements as well as using the “best of both worlds” with the surgeon’s recommendations and RX.

You are welcome to read up on all the blogs I make about it here on my site and look behind the scenes on my instagram story highlight called “surgeries”. And still there’s nothing like talking in real-time one-on-one about your actual questions and thought process. I have some 1-on-1 spots reserved each month just for this! Go to my coaching page here, fill out your name & email address on the bottom of that page and click submit. It will then automatically send you a quick email to reply to and we’ll get a time to talk set up from there.

_{These are my own recommendations based on my experience having several procedures and DIEP flap surgery as a breast cancer patient. This post contains affiliate links from Amazon. This means I may earn a commission should you chose to make a purchase using my link. Any commissions I earn from my work, time, energy, and effort spent on Shrink the Mutant go back to paying for the resources needed to keep this running or to my on-going medical treatment. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration and support of my work.}