Breast Reduction Recovery Pillow

Minimize your recovery time and resume your daily activities more quickly. The Breast Reduction Recovery Pillow is a unique, patented design that conforms to your body’s shape, making it the only recovery pillow designed specifically for breast reduction patients. No other pillow allows you to push three different places at once while resting your head back without putting too much pressure on one area. This post also talks about free mastectomy pillows and wedge pillows after breast surgery.

Both getting ready for your operation and your recovery are crucial. You want your recovery to proceed smoothly and your results to make you satisfied and enthusiastic. Thus, below is our list of necessary supplies and preparations for your recuperation period.

There are 10 different kinds of comfort pillows that can help ease pain and soothe aching muscles during breast cancer surgery and treatment.

Seat Belt Pillow

Use a small square or rectangular pillow to place between you and the upper-body seat belt. This comfort pillow will protect you from seat belt rubbing and will distribute the pressure across your chest.

To secure the pillow to the seat belt while traveling, add a Velcro loop to one side. Make sure the pillow is thick enough to protect your incisions but thin enough so that it does not reduce the effectiveness of your seat belt.

Armpit Comfort Pillow

Your lymph node status is important in diagnosing your breast cancer. Your surgeon may remove axillary, or armpit, lymph nodes. Two common procedures to check your lymph nodes are a sentinel node biopsy or an axillary lymph node dissection. These procedures, while critical to your diagnosis and staging, can cause your breast or armpit to be tender, tight, or uncomfortable.  The breast and the armpit are areas where you have many nerves and where the skin often rubs together.  Depending on your surgery, you may also have drainage tubes, which can be a source of discomfort.

Having an armpit pillow between your arm and chest can ease the pain of axillary and mastectomy incisions. Use a rounded or rectangular pillow to cushion your armpit area and decrease the feeling of skin and muscle pulling. You can add a shoulder strap to this pillow to help keep it in place.

Armrest Pillow

Armrest pillows are often called chemo pillows or bar or bone pillows because of the way they are shaped. You can use the same pillow in several different ways.

If you will be sitting still for a long chemotherapy infusion, supporting your arm may make you more comfortable. You may be surprised at how tender your arm can become resting on a firm armrest if you do not have a chemotherapy port (placed in your chest) or PICC line (usually placed in the upper arm) and will be receiving treatment through an IV (intravenous drip) in the crook of your arm.

You could also use this pillow while lying down to support your arm over your chest. Elevating your arm while resting may ease lymphedema (fluid buildup in soft tissue) symptoms.  Use a bar-shaped pillow under your neck while resting or traveling to ease muscle strain.

Breast Support Pillow

After a lumpectomy or breast reconstruction, your breast may feel very tender.  Having breast surgery changes the balance of weight on your chest muscles. Until you heal and your body adjusts, you might like to use a crest-shaped pillow to support your breast or your reconstruction. You can also use this pillow to provide comfort to any underarm incisions.

When your mastectomy heals, if you are having breast reconstruction, you may have tissue expanders in your chest. Your doctor will use the expander to help stretch your skin and muscles to make space for an implant.  The procedure is a slow process, and it is normal to feel tender for a few days after each expansion. Some women find the swelling to be the most annoying (and uncomfortable) part of breast reconstruction. You may find that breast support pillows help provide relief as your skin stretches. 

Pillow Between Breasts

When you have had any kind of breast surgery, the balance of your chest changes. How much your balance changes depends on if you have had just breast tissue or breast and muscle removed. You will adjust to your new balance, but a pillow may help.

If you sleep on your side, the weight of your breasts on your chest muscles may feel different than it did before surgery. You might find that tucking a small rectangular pillow between your reconstructed breast and your healthy breast while sleeping helps relieve the discomfort, especially if you have expanders for your breast implant.

Knee Pillow

Adding a pillow between your knees as you sleep on your side can ease lower back discomfort. When your back is comfortable, you will toss and turn less, and you may fall asleep faster. Try using a square or rectangular comfort pillow for your knee pillow. Having some space between your knees might even make sleeping a little cooler when a hot flash hits.

Depending on how you sleep, there is a potential to compress the veins in your leg. Using a knee pillow may take pressure off your blood vessels and allow better blood flow.

Sitting for long periods of time, spending a lot of time in bed, and crossing your legs can raise the risk of blood clots. Surgery, chemotherapy, and cancer can all also raise the risk of blood clots. Blood clots in the legs are also known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and can be dangerous.

Neck Pillow

Neck pillows are available in many shapes. These come in bolsters, wraparounds, contoured, and even U-shaped pillows. Neck pillows help keep your head, neck, and shoulders properly lined up. Find or make one that works for you—a good neck pillow should make sitting and sleeping more comfortable for your neck and shoulders. 

If you will be sitting for chemotherapy treatment for more than an hour or resting on your back for a good while, try a neck pillow and see if it helps you stay comfortable.

You will be especially glad you brought your neck pillow if you are receiving the chemotherapy drug Taxol (paclitaxel). Often, doctors prescribe Taxol to reduce the chance of an allergic reaction. It can take from one hour up to 24 hours to infuse Taxol, depending on the dosage.  Many times, familiar objects like support pillows help make the experience more comfortable.

Lower Back Pillow

When you are going to sit or ride for a while, having a pillow for your lower back can help you stay comfortable. Place the pillow between the curve of your lower back and the chair. Having extra support in your low back (lumbar region) can assist in preventing back tension and muscle strain. When your lower back is properly aligned, you can avoid nerve pain (sciatica) from sitting down for long periods.

Try different shapes and sizes of support pillows to see what works best for your body shape.

Donut Pillow

A donut pillow is a hollowed-out round pillow that is shaped like a donut. These comfort pillows help to relieve pain in the tailbone (coccyx) that can be caused by spending a lot of time sitting. The opening in the pillow reduces pressure on the bottom of the spine. 

This pillow can also be useful if you are having hemorrhoid pain as a side effect of medication-induced constipation (difficulty with bowel movements). Pain medications, chemotherapy, and the drugs used to prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting are important parts of your treatment but can lead to constipation.¹⁰

Some people can also use donut pillows to relieve anal or hip pain.

Wedge Pillow

A wedge pillow is a triangle-shaped pillow that can be used in different positions. 

If after surgery you must sleep on your back while managing surgical drains and dressings, you will need to keep your head and shoulders elevated. A wedge pillow can be very useful for this. When placed under the head, a wedge can keep you from turning onto your side and accidentally lying on an incision or drain.

If your lower back is sore or achy, a wedge pillow can be placed under your knees and lower legs to elevate them. This flattens your spine to a more neutral, comfortable position. 

A good wedge pillow may be useful to people with asthma, acid reflux, and snoring problems.

Cancer Rehabilitation Can Help If Discomfort Persists

Comfort pillows can give you a much more positive experience after breast surgery. Unfortunately, some people will continue to have pain¹¹ even when following their doctor’s recommendations. In the past, this discomfort was largely ignored as surviving cancer was the main focus.

With survival rates improving, the long-term effects of treatment are now being better addressed.  Researchers have learned that many people who have had breast cancer continue to have symptoms related to their treatment long after those therapies are done.

If your back or chest has continued pain, tightness, or trouble moving, talk to your oncologist about cancer rehabilitation options. Breast cancer surgery is associated with dysfunction in the back and chest muscles.

There are trained rehabilitation specialists to help improve movement and function after breast surgery. Many cancer centers now have rehabilitation programs to help survivors address ongoing issues.

Wedge Pillow After Breast Surgery

Your medical team will probably advise one if you require a wedge cushion following a mastectomy. Wedge pillows can be useful following surgery, though they are not usually required.

Your body can be supported and positioned well using wedge pillows. For instance, you can place the wedge under your head, shoulders, or knees to ease pressure on your lower back.

Because they don’t have to go as far to sit up in bed while using a wedge cushion, some people find it to be easier to get in and out of bed.

Conclusion

Your doctor may recommend a mastectomy, or surgical removal of the breast, as one kind of treatment for breast cancer. Breast surgery can include lumpectomy, mastectomy, or breast reconstruction. Surgery involves an incision, or a cut in the skin, and may involve the removal of lymph nodes. Your chest area will likely be tender and swollen from the surgery.

A comfort pillow, sometimes called a mastectomy pillow, can help bring relief during breast cancer treatment. Comfort pillows can be used to protect your incisions, reduce the strain on your surgical areas, and keep you comfortable. Your skin may be extra tender in the areas where the drainage tubes leave your body, and many people find that pillows help to make them more comfortable.

Support pillows are small, usually about 8 inches by 11 inches, or the size of a piece of paper. They should be small enough to fit under your arm and thin enough to place between your chest and your seat belt when you are in the car. 

Once you are moving around after surgery, comfort pillows can be your constant companion. You will probably find them useful in the hospital, at home, in the car, and at night.