Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
How you prepare
By Mayo Clinic staffYou're likely to meet with your surgeon a few days before your lumpectomy. Bring a list of questions to remind you to cover everything you want to know. Make sure you understand the procedure and its risks. You'll be given instructions about presurgical restrictions and other things you need to know. In most cases, the surgery will be done as an outpatient procedure, so you can go home the same day.
Be sure your doctor knows of any medications, vitamins or supplements you're taking in case something could interfere with the surgery. In general, to prepare for your lumpectomy, it's recommended that you:
- Stop taking aspirin or other blood-thinning medication. Your doctor may ask you to stop taking it a week or longer before the surgery to reduce your risk of bleeding.
- Check with your insurance company to determine whether the procedure is covered and if there are restrictions on where you can have it done.
- Don't eat or drink eight to 12 hours before surgery, especially if you're going to have general anesthesia.
- Bring someone with you. Besides offering support, another person is needed to drive you home and listen to postoperative instructions because it may take several hours for the effects of the anesthesia to wear off.
- Surgery for breast cancer. American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_4X_Surgery_5.asp?sitearea=. Accessed Aug. 24, 2009.
- Morrow M, et al. Breast disease. In: Mulholland M, et al. Greenfield's Surgery: Scientific Principles and Practice, 4th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com/spa/ovidweb.cgi. Accessed Aug. 17, 2009.
- Surgical treatment of breast cancer. In: Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, 18th ed. Saunders, 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/154656547-3/875806831/1565/335.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-3675-3.50038-1--cesec62_1699. Accessed Aug. 17, 2009.
- Kass R, et al. Breast procedures. In: Souba W, et al. ACS Surgery: Principles and Practice. 6th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: BC Decker Inc.; 2007.
- Carcinoma of the female breast. In: Doherty G, et al. Current Surgical Diagnosis and Treatment. McGraw-Hill's AccessMedicine. http://www.accessmedicine.com/popup.aspx?aID=2064014&pr. Accessed Aug. 17, 2009.
