Things to Bring to the Hospital for a Double Mastectomy

Before my double mastectomy (with no reconstruction) and bilateral sentinel lymph node biopsy, my friend's friend gave me some suggestions on what to bring to the hospital. It was super helpful because some of the items I definitely would not have thought to bring otherwise.

Generally speaking, the hospital provides everything you'll need, but there are some things you might want to consider bringing if you would like to try to make your time in the hospital more comfortable.

Here are the things I definitely needed:

• Food/Snacks - In case you get hungry between hospital meals, or in case you don't like the hospital's food.
• Phone with extra-long phone charger
• List of people to update directly, and how to contact them - If possible, delegate this to whoever is accompanying you in the hospital. 
• Medication and Drain Log with pen/pencil - No need to keep track of anything while in the hospital, but I recorded the time of my last in-hospital medications so I would know when I would be due for my next doses at home. Once home, I also kept track of how much I was draining, because the drains will be removed when the output decreases to a certain amount per day that your surgeon will determine. (My surgeon wanted 30 mL or less - 20 mL or less was even better - per drain per day for 2 consecutive days.)
• Mastectomy shirt (or any loose-fitting button-down shirt) to wear home - A mastectomy shirt's inside pockets to hold your drains may not be necessary because the drains can be pinned to any piece of clothing, but they were convenient for keeping the drain bulbs comfortably away from my skin. Plus the snap buttons were easy to manage. (I honestly did not own any other short-sleeve, loose-fitting, button-down shirts anyway!) 
• Clean underwear
• Easy-to-put-on shorts/pants to wear home
• Slide-on/Easy-to-put-on sandals/shoes to wear home
• Flat-ish pillow to pad chest from seat belt for drive home - I ended up using a squishy flat stuffed animal!

And here are some things you don't need to bring, but having them might help you to be a bit more comfortable during your hospital stay, especially if you expect to stay more than 1 night:

• Water bottle with straw lid - Drinking lots of water is supposed to be good for recovery. The hospital of course will provide water and cups, but the water bottle with straw lid would enable you to drink while lying down.
• Lip balm - My lips were dry after surgery.
• Mouth wash or breath mints - My hospital provided a disposable toothbrush and toothpaste, but manually brushing my teeth that first day would have been a challenge for me.
• Cleansing wipes - In case you want to freshen up.
• Hair brush & hair tie - If you have long hair and want to pull your hair back, but you'll probably need someone else to do it for you because of the limited range of motion of your arms. Another idea is to braid your hair before surgery. (I got this piece of advice too late to use for myself!)
• Socks - If you're not fond of the one-size-fits-all hospital grippy socks. (I actually liked the grippy socks because they provided traction for safety when walking.)
• Tissues - No tissues in my hospital room.
• Hand sanitizer - My room had a wall-mounted dispenser, but I appreciated having a small bottle of my own so I wouldn't have to get out of bed.

I am so fortunate to have some very thoughtful friends who gifted me some of these items in advance, before I even knew I needed them!

I spent one night in the hospital, and most of that time I was sleeping or just resting. I didn't need anything besides the in-room TV and my phone to help keep me occupied for small intervals of time.

For a list of items that I found useful for post-surgery recovery at home, check out my post about Things to Have for Double Mastectomy Recovery.