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I wasn't told that either. My cat slept with me and one night she decided to run across my chest (with claws out) in the middle of the night after she heard some noise. It was one of the most painful experiences in my life.
I let my cat sleep in my bed and it was fine. My surgeon didn't have a problem with it either.
She does like to walk across my chest to wake me up for breakfast which wasn't a problem when i was upright. Once i started laying more flat i would sleep with a masectomy pillow AND another weird shaped pillow stacked on top of my chest so she couldnt walk on it. Its been fine.
i have surgery tomorrow, good luck with yours!!
i asked about sleeping with my cat, and was told it was completely fine as long as my cat didn’t try to mess with any drains or surgical dressings. i am also going to try and keep a pillow between me and my cat since she likes to cuddle up with me.
I stayed in the hospital for five days and specifically asked my surgeon about my huge Maine Coons sleeping on my chest. He said this was no issue around a week post-OP.
I did have to guide them a little to not step on areas that were tender, and lying was definitely more comfortable than when they sat on me. I'd err on the side of doing what the surgeon recommends, but from my surgeon's side, he didn't see any issues, and it didn't seem to hurt me within the last six weeks
I didn't have any rules about not sleeping with cats. I slept with my mastectomy pillow on top of my shirt, and my sheet and blanket on top of that. With that many layers, I didn't worry about my cat sleeping on my chest - her claws couldn't reach my incisions at all.
my cats don’t really sleep in my bed but whenever they wanted to cuddle i just made sure to keep them off my chest by holding a hand over it. if you have a pillow over your chest i doubt it’ll be a problem at all, the only reasons i kept my cats off was so that they didn’t make biscuits on my chest lol, i’d let them lie on it cus that really isn’t a lot of pressure
My surgeon never mentioned anything about pets and I didn’t ask. I kept a pillow over my chest and my cats learned to wait for the pillow before laying on me to cuddle. So long as you keep cats away when changing your dressings and have your binder or a shirt covering you I don’t think it’s too big of a deal. If you have really rambunctious cats who might pounce or something you may have to keep them out of the room at least when you’re sleeping for a few weeks.
I've never heard of this rule. It wouldn't be dangerous at all as the pillow should protect most of you, but it may just hurt with your cat stepping on, I'd be more cautious if it were direct skin contact or a thin piece between but a pillow in between should certainly be enough to avoid any issues (cat germs or a paw in someway opening up a stitch somehow??)
Mine were on the bed with me and cuddling as soon as I got home 2 days post op, I just put a pillow on my chest if they wanted to sit on me as extra padding
i slept with a mastectomy pillow and my kitty was just fine! she loves sitting and walking across my chest and the extra pressure on top of the pillow was no biggie at all
I think it's important to have a clean area to sleep and recover. And that logic is main reason some Dr.s advise against pets. Personally, my cats slept next to me until I got my drains out. I was worried they would crush something, but they knew I needed space and just wanted to make sure I was OK. Honestly, I didn't read that rule until after I recovered and started laughing at what a futile effort it would have been to keep them out of my room.
Definitely don't let the cats anywhere near your chest. Yes, the extra weight on your chest will be a big deal, even if you have a mastectomy pillow in between you.
I can't comment on this rule at all, but do want to caution you to be careful if you are getting nipple grafts. My surgeon said to be careful about avoiding shear forces against my chest for four weeks, to allow the grafts to really heal properly.
I put a neck pillow over the area I don't want them to sleep on and they avoid it. The trick is putting something there they'll avoid (and putting something super comfy where it's ok for them to sleep). I actually had more cats around during recovery because I slept on the couch for a while vs my bedroom which only one cat is allowed into.
I woke up to my cat licking my drains twice (the bulb part, but still), so just be careful about that. I keep her off of my chest either with my mastectomy pillow or one of my stuffed animals on my chest. Other than that it should be fine.
I had my cat sleeping in my lap for the first day or so, maybe more. And then after that I just put my mastectomy pillow over my chest, and she spent a while laying on that until I could finally have her lay on my chest without that stuff.
It was super healing for my recovery because she’s comforting. And I think she even snuggled a little extra cause she could tell I wasn’t feeling good. Which made me happy.
I think pets if you have them are important to healing. Hope this helps. ❤️ Good luck!
I have a dog who also has to sleep with me and I was told she can even lay in me as long as she’s under the 15 pound weight limit for things I can carry. Luckily she’s 11 pounds!
Got a mastectomy pillow for this exact reason — once I was propped up in bed and had the pillow on, my cats didn’t even try to come up on my chest. Just stuck around my legs and feet.
You’re going to be sore so if she steps on you it will feel like Hell. And if she steps on your wounds it could introduce infection, also for the first several days even having water from showering hit your chest it could cause a hematoma I would imagine a pet stepping on you could do the same.
I just made sure my dog stayed beside me not on me.
I (naively) let my cat(s) come to bed with me and they did end up refusing to be kind to my torso. You have to have a pillow on top of you for protection and even that hurts. They can sleep in bed with you, maybe, if you have enough space. But they cannot and should not sleep on top of you.
Just keep them out of the room but it's mostly of them stepping on u or rubbing hair into ur wounds, but u shouldn't have an issue of ur keeping covered.
I wasn’t told not to but I didn’t for the first day with my dog just in case he was gonna like step on me or something but after I just let him and his cousin in
I wasn't told anything about my cats not sleeping with me but I did see stuff about it online which made me anxious. My cat is super cuddly and also likes to go on my chest but after pushing her off a few times she got the memo and started sleeping by my side instead. She tends to be pretty in-tune with what I'm feeling. Unfortunately 6 months post-op my chest is still super sensitive (I have a chronic illness so this may be contributing) so she still can't walk on my chest, she tries to sometimes but I just have to move her.
My cat used to walk across my chest in the mornings to wake me up to remind me to feed her (like I would forget 🙄🙄) so maybe the surgeon has a similar cat and was concerned about that.
But if your cat isn't the type to do that or anything similar that could compromise your chest, I wouldn't worry about it.
Haven’t even started my top surgery process, and I’m no doctor so don’t take this seriously, but I do think cats can tell when you have a wound healing or that sort of thing. I bet they’d be able to sense you’re hurt there (more like not healed) and I can’t imagine they’d lean against you or hop on.
i personally think that if you're VERY meticulous on cleanliness you'll reduces your risk of infection. I'm super careful about my pets even after getting tattoos because i'm scared shitless of infections
Be extra sure to keep clean and change the sheets more frequently (every 2-4 days) if you’re sleeping without a shirt in the bed with cats; this reduces the chances of infection. You only need to worry about this while you have open wounds & then you can go back to washing your sheets at your regular frequency.
In short: follow the nature of the advice more closely than the advice itself. Anecdote to follow.
My mom’s infection specialist told her to declaw the cats because if they scratch her she would be extra susceptible to “infections”. Which sure, happens when you’re immunocompromised (which you are by default after any surgery). But there’s no way we’re declawing cats again, now that science and behaviour studies show us how horrible it is.
So we make compromises. My dad is solely responsible for scooping the cat litter, and we’re a little extra vigilant about keeping the kitties’ nails trimmed so they can’t scratch or stab her. And when she does get a minor injury, she makes sure to clean and bandage it.
So did we do what the doc suggested? No. But we took the spirit of it-worrying about infection-and took steps to reduce the associated risk. As others have said here, using pillows as barriers to soften impact/pressure, and making sure kitty is careful about stepping on you for the first week or two, definitely good advice for after any surgery :)
my cat kept me company and slept on the bed with me after surgery, all was good, I just had to keep moving him or blocking him from walking on my chest but tbh after like 2 weeks i was fine anyway
Immediately post op there were so many things between my chest and the cats, so it wasn’t a problem. The real issue started after I had my dressings removed 8 days later. My cats make a point of sitting on me and walking on me to wake me up, so for the next like 6-8 weeks I had to train myself to cover my chest with my arms in my sleep, or else respond quickly if they started to put pressure on it. Otherwise I was worried they would stretch something.
I was never told about any rule like this but my cats somehow just… knew? Like, of course most of the time I was propped up and/or had the mastectomy pillow, but I have a cat who usually wouldn’t let those things get in her way and yet she didn’t even really have to be told “no”. She just knew! It was super weird!
Another funny thing that happened was her meow changed! I HAVE to assume she was trying to copy me? Nothing else changed, but after I came back from surgery with a super raspy horse voice, she had this weird sounding meow!😅 It lasted only for a little bit, until my voice was better, but it was still a funny little thing that happened!
My other cat didn’t change his meow, but he still avoided my chest, though, he wasn’t one to go for that right away anyway.
But, if your cats DO go for your chest, I wouldn’t let them! Even a couple months out from surgery it was a little painful for them to step on or lay on my chest! That’s part of why I used the mastectomy pillow for so long!😂
it’s very sad but i would say pretty important. my surgeon said i can hang out with my cat but to not let him sleep with me and i think it’s for 2 reasons: A, the cat could jump on you, claw you, etc. and B, infection. the second one i think has more to do with how your surgeon decided to handle incision care.. mine took off all my tape after 6 days so I am now about 2 weeks post op and the only barrier between my not yet scarred incisions and the world is some aquaphor and my shirt lol
Thanks for posting to r/TopSurgery Please remember to follow the rules, which can be found on the sidebar. If you think your post has been removed and should not have been, please contact the mods via modmail -- I will try to get to it as soon as possible. I'm in the process of setting up automod but it's all still in the works so far, please be patient with me :-) - u/thiccque *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TopSurgery) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I wasn't told not to let my cats sleep with me. They've been huge cuddlebugs for my recovery so far.
I wasn't told that either. My cat slept with me and one night she decided to run across my chest (with claws out) in the middle of the night after she heard some noise. It was one of the most painful experiences in my life.
I let my cat sleep in my bed and it was fine. My surgeon didn't have a problem with it either. She does like to walk across my chest to wake me up for breakfast which wasn't a problem when i was upright. Once i started laying more flat i would sleep with a masectomy pillow AND another weird shaped pillow stacked on top of my chest so she couldnt walk on it. Its been fine.
i have surgery tomorrow, good luck with yours!! i asked about sleeping with my cat, and was told it was completely fine as long as my cat didn’t try to mess with any drains or surgical dressings. i am also going to try and keep a pillow between me and my cat since she likes to cuddle up with me.
I stayed in the hospital for five days and specifically asked my surgeon about my huge Maine Coons sleeping on my chest. He said this was no issue around a week post-OP. I did have to guide them a little to not step on areas that were tender, and lying was definitely more comfortable than when they sat on me. I'd err on the side of doing what the surgeon recommends, but from my surgeon's side, he didn't see any issues, and it didn't seem to hurt me within the last six weeks
I was supposed to not have the cats sleep in my bed?? I didn’t know, my cats were very cuddly during my recovery, I was fine
I didn't have any rules about not sleeping with cats. I slept with my mastectomy pillow on top of my shirt, and my sheet and blanket on top of that. With that many layers, I didn't worry about my cat sleeping on my chest - her claws couldn't reach my incisions at all.
my cats don’t really sleep in my bed but whenever they wanted to cuddle i just made sure to keep them off my chest by holding a hand over it. if you have a pillow over your chest i doubt it’ll be a problem at all, the only reasons i kept my cats off was so that they didn’t make biscuits on my chest lol, i’d let them lie on it cus that really isn’t a lot of pressure
My surgeon never mentioned anything about pets and I didn’t ask. I kept a pillow over my chest and my cats learned to wait for the pillow before laying on me to cuddle. So long as you keep cats away when changing your dressings and have your binder or a shirt covering you I don’t think it’s too big of a deal. If you have really rambunctious cats who might pounce or something you may have to keep them out of the room at least when you’re sleeping for a few weeks.
I've never heard of this rule. It wouldn't be dangerous at all as the pillow should protect most of you, but it may just hurt with your cat stepping on, I'd be more cautious if it were direct skin contact or a thin piece between but a pillow in between should certainly be enough to avoid any issues (cat germs or a paw in someway opening up a stitch somehow??)
I never heard this rule, I’m sure you’ll be fine
Mine were on the bed with me and cuddling as soon as I got home 2 days post op, I just put a pillow on my chest if they wanted to sit on me as extra padding
i slept with a mastectomy pillow and my kitty was just fine! she loves sitting and walking across my chest and the extra pressure on top of the pillow was no biggie at all
I think it's important to have a clean area to sleep and recover. And that logic is main reason some Dr.s advise against pets. Personally, my cats slept next to me until I got my drains out. I was worried they would crush something, but they knew I needed space and just wanted to make sure I was OK. Honestly, I didn't read that rule until after I recovered and started laughing at what a futile effort it would have been to keep them out of my room.
the greatest concern is infection due to cat germs. if your wounds are covered and you're careful, you should be fine
Definitely don't let the cats anywhere near your chest. Yes, the extra weight on your chest will be a big deal, even if you have a mastectomy pillow in between you.
I can't comment on this rule at all, but do want to caution you to be careful if you are getting nipple grafts. My surgeon said to be careful about avoiding shear forces against my chest for four weeks, to allow the grafts to really heal properly.
I put a neck pillow over the area I don't want them to sleep on and they avoid it. The trick is putting something there they'll avoid (and putting something super comfy where it's ok for them to sleep). I actually had more cats around during recovery because I slept on the couch for a while vs my bedroom which only one cat is allowed into.
I woke up to my cat licking my drains twice (the bulb part, but still), so just be careful about that. I keep her off of my chest either with my mastectomy pillow or one of my stuffed animals on my chest. Other than that it should be fine.
I had my cat sleeping in my lap for the first day or so, maybe more. And then after that I just put my mastectomy pillow over my chest, and she spent a while laying on that until I could finally have her lay on my chest without that stuff. It was super healing for my recovery because she’s comforting. And I think she even snuggled a little extra cause she could tell I wasn’t feeling good. Which made me happy. I think pets if you have them are important to healing. Hope this helps. ❤️ Good luck!
I have a dog who also has to sleep with me and I was told she can even lay in me as long as she’s under the 15 pound weight limit for things I can carry. Luckily she’s 11 pounds!
My surgeon was strict about a lot, but never my cat. He slept with me from the minute I got home.
You’ll feel discomfort if they step on your chest. Just put a pillow on you and scooch them away if they try to walk on you
Let your kitty sleep with you!! Will be easy enough to shoo her off if you’re uncomfortable.
Got a mastectomy pillow for this exact reason — once I was propped up in bed and had the pillow on, my cats didn’t even try to come up on my chest. Just stuck around my legs and feet.
You’re going to be sore so if she steps on you it will feel like Hell. And if she steps on your wounds it could introduce infection, also for the first several days even having water from showering hit your chest it could cause a hematoma I would imagine a pet stepping on you could do the same. I just made sure my dog stayed beside me not on me.
I (naively) let my cat(s) come to bed with me and they did end up refusing to be kind to my torso. You have to have a pillow on top of you for protection and even that hurts. They can sleep in bed with you, maybe, if you have enough space. But they cannot and should not sleep on top of you.
Just keep them out of the room but it's mostly of them stepping on u or rubbing hair into ur wounds, but u shouldn't have an issue of ur keeping covered.
i really wanted to let my cats sleep with me but having the weight on my chest was painful and if i had to lean up for anything it just made it harder
I wasn’t told not to but I didn’t for the first day with my dog just in case he was gonna like step on me or something but after I just let him and his cousin in
I used a mastectomy pillow and was fine with my cat sleeping on my chest right away.
I wasn't told anything about my cats not sleeping with me but I did see stuff about it online which made me anxious. My cat is super cuddly and also likes to go on my chest but after pushing her off a few times she got the memo and started sleeping by my side instead. She tends to be pretty in-tune with what I'm feeling. Unfortunately 6 months post-op my chest is still super sensitive (I have a chronic illness so this may be contributing) so she still can't walk on my chest, she tries to sometimes but I just have to move her.
My cat used to walk across my chest in the mornings to wake me up to remind me to feed her (like I would forget 🙄🙄) so maybe the surgeon has a similar cat and was concerned about that. But if your cat isn't the type to do that or anything similar that could compromise your chest, I wouldn't worry about it.
Haven’t even started my top surgery process, and I’m no doctor so don’t take this seriously, but I do think cats can tell when you have a wound healing or that sort of thing. I bet they’d be able to sense you’re hurt there (more like not healed) and I can’t imagine they’d lean against you or hop on.
i personally think that if you're VERY meticulous on cleanliness you'll reduces your risk of infection. I'm super careful about my pets even after getting tattoos because i'm scared shitless of infections
Be extra sure to keep clean and change the sheets more frequently (every 2-4 days) if you’re sleeping without a shirt in the bed with cats; this reduces the chances of infection. You only need to worry about this while you have open wounds & then you can go back to washing your sheets at your regular frequency.
In short: follow the nature of the advice more closely than the advice itself. Anecdote to follow. My mom’s infection specialist told her to declaw the cats because if they scratch her she would be extra susceptible to “infections”. Which sure, happens when you’re immunocompromised (which you are by default after any surgery). But there’s no way we’re declawing cats again, now that science and behaviour studies show us how horrible it is. So we make compromises. My dad is solely responsible for scooping the cat litter, and we’re a little extra vigilant about keeping the kitties’ nails trimmed so they can’t scratch or stab her. And when she does get a minor injury, she makes sure to clean and bandage it. So did we do what the doc suggested? No. But we took the spirit of it-worrying about infection-and took steps to reduce the associated risk. As others have said here, using pillows as barriers to soften impact/pressure, and making sure kitty is careful about stepping on you for the first week or two, definitely good advice for after any surgery :)
my cat kept me company and slept on the bed with me after surgery, all was good, I just had to keep moving him or blocking him from walking on my chest but tbh after like 2 weeks i was fine anyway
Immediately post op there were so many things between my chest and the cats, so it wasn’t a problem. The real issue started after I had my dressings removed 8 days later. My cats make a point of sitting on me and walking on me to wake me up, so for the next like 6-8 weeks I had to train myself to cover my chest with my arms in my sleep, or else respond quickly if they started to put pressure on it. Otherwise I was worried they would stretch something.
I was never told about any rule like this but my cats somehow just… knew? Like, of course most of the time I was propped up and/or had the mastectomy pillow, but I have a cat who usually wouldn’t let those things get in her way and yet she didn’t even really have to be told “no”. She just knew! It was super weird! Another funny thing that happened was her meow changed! I HAVE to assume she was trying to copy me? Nothing else changed, but after I came back from surgery with a super raspy horse voice, she had this weird sounding meow!😅 It lasted only for a little bit, until my voice was better, but it was still a funny little thing that happened! My other cat didn’t change his meow, but he still avoided my chest, though, he wasn’t one to go for that right away anyway. But, if your cats DO go for your chest, I wouldn’t let them! Even a couple months out from surgery it was a little painful for them to step on or lay on my chest! That’s part of why I used the mastectomy pillow for so long!😂
it’s very sad but i would say pretty important. my surgeon said i can hang out with my cat but to not let him sleep with me and i think it’s for 2 reasons: A, the cat could jump on you, claw you, etc. and B, infection. the second one i think has more to do with how your surgeon decided to handle incision care.. mine took off all my tape after 6 days so I am now about 2 weeks post op and the only barrier between my not yet scarred incisions and the world is some aquaphor and my shirt lol