What is the Recovery Time from a Lumpectomy?

A lumpectomy is a breast cancer surgical procedure that involves the removal of just the cancer cells and an area of healthy breast tissue that surrounds the malignancy. With a lumpectomy, the shape and look of your breast is usually not dramatically altered. Healing time varies between patients. You might experience fatigue following the breast cancer surgery and you’ll need to rest to recuperate. Most people will fully recover in two weeks from a lumpectomy surgery. However, recovery can take longer if you must undergo radiation or chemotherapy following the lumpectomy.

If you are faced with undergoing a lumpectomy, then you’ll want to discuss the procedure with our surgeons at Sierra Pacific Surgical in Folsom or Roseville, CA. Our team will evaluate your medical history to determine what you can expect from the surgery such as recovery time. During the pre-op consultation, our surgeons will discuss with you where they will perform the lumpectomy. Our team has surgical privileges for both inpatient and outpatient surgeries at several accredited surgical centers in the Greater Sacramento, CA area. A lumpectomy is usually conducted as an outpatient procedure.

Following the lumpectomy, you might experience numbness, swelling, and bruising at the incision site. Our team will monitor you closely post-surgery to ensure the wound is healing and there are no signs of infection. If an infection should occur, then you’ll usually experience a slower recovery.

What to expect from a lumpectomy

As mentioned, lumpectomy breast cancer surgery is usually carried out as an outpatient procedure, so you’ll be allowed to go home the same day. The surgery usually takes around one hour to complete. Prior to undergoing the surgery, our team will mark out the area, so the surgeon knows the tumor’s location and how much tissue to take out around the lump to ensure all cancer margins have effectively been removed to reduce the possibility of metastasis. To locate the tumor, a small chip is then placed in the breast, or a wire is inserted so our surgeons can more effectively remove the tumor.

What happens during a lumpectomy?

A lumpectomy takes a small amount of tissue around the margins of the tumor while removing the actual tumor. Removing the healthy breast tissue around the tumor is a way to try to remove any breast cancer that might have entered the surrounding area. The tumor and healthy breast tissue margins will be sent to a laboratory where a pathologist will determine if the surgery results. The lab results often take up to 10 days to determine.

Following the surgical procedure, our surgeons will inject medication to help reduce the pain while you recover. Small marking clips are also placed in the lumpectomy site to help guide the radiation oncologist so they can effectively direct the radiation. The incision is sealed with dissolvable internal stitches.

Schedule breast cancer consultation in Folsom or Roseville, CA

A diagnosis of breast cancer is scary. You’ll want to ensure that the breast cancer lumpectomy surgery is carried out by a skilled surgeon. We invite you to schedule a pre-op breast cancer consultation with our surgeons at Sierra Pacific Surgical in Folsom or Roseville, CA. During the pre-op consultation, you can discuss the expected recovery time from the lumpectomy with our team, so you know what to expect.