Did you know that if you have had any type of tissue removal from your breast, that it can greatly influence your shoulder and neck function afterwards?

Studies find that these issues can often occur:

Shoulder pain
Neck pain
Decreased range of motion
Lymphedema
Nerve pain
Muscle weakness

It’s common practice to have these procedures with very little education on post rehabilitation practices. Then patients will come into our clinic 1-2 years later reporting that they are having difficulty reaching over head or exercising.

This can be easily prevented with some PT management. We are highly trained in scar tissue reduction, neural mobilization, and exercise progressions to restore your body to its highest level of function.

Medical practitioners need to start advocating for people with breast tissue and offering education on quality of life care AFTER surgeries too. This applies to any breast augmentation procedure too. So if you are going through the transition process of removing your breast tissue, then this is hugely important for you too.

Hopefully, your surgeon has provided a handout and some education on the exercises to start doing in the first few days/weeks post. This generally will include: shoulder pendulums, gentle pec and shoulder stretches, and rolling shoulders in different directions. If they have not, then you should ask them for that prior to your surgery.

Then after a few weeks and you have been “cleared” to return to work, that is when you should start your rehabilitation process. Find a PT who specializes in this work, and can lead you through safe therapeutic exercises and manual mobilization of the tissue. This will make a world of difference in your long term health and happiness.

Here are some exercises that you can try, if you are at your appropriate stage of recovery —

Open Books - Lay on your side and stretch the top arm forward, then roll to your side and open chest and reach away. Perform 1 x 10 holding for 5 seconds each direction.

2. Median nerve glides - Standing or sitting, place opposite hand on opposite shoulder and gently compress. Extend your arm out to the side and extend your wrist (so that your palm is facing away from you). Now sideband your neck in the opposite direction slowly 10x. This is not to be done to pain, it should be gentle and slow. Only do 1x a day.

3. Latissimus Dorsi stretch at the wall - Stand towards wall with both hands on the wall. Now bend your chest down towards the ground until you feel a gentle stretch. Hold here for 30 seconds, there should not be in any pain.

4. Scar Tissue Massage - to be started at 4-6 weeks post recovery, based off of your surgeon’s approval. Make gentle stretches to the tissue, and over the scar, for up to 5 minutes a day. Start with only 2-3 times a week, as tolerated. Then you can build to every other day.