I was told not to pick up anything over (I think it was) 10 pounds using the arm on that side for a week after the surgery. My 11-lb cat was too heavy.
I’m so sorry. A friend of mine went through it and both of us were…well, it would not be too much to say appalled at how difficult the immediate post-surgery circumstances are. I went with her to all her appointments before the surgery and we didn’t know exactly what was coming. Another friend who had a bilateral said, they don’t tell you everything ahead of time, and she works in a plastic surgeon’s office, so she thought she knew all about it.
All that and chemo, too…although one is grateful it’s available…still a bummer. 
Miss Mapp, thanks for the info. Very helpful.
My mother had a mastectomy and had a great deal of trouble getting it to heal. They had to go back twice and cut new margins before they started to heal together.
My sister had a lumpectomy and chemo and radiation. Her radiation was targeted with radioactive pellets being inserted via a coffee-stirrer-looking straw then withdrawn for 5 or 7 days. Chemo was relatively short-term, too. She did need three surgeries before they got clear margins with the lumpectomy. Late that same year she had to have two surgeries for thyroid cancer.
As for walking the dogs, when friends say, “Can I do anything to help?”, take them up on the offer. If you can buy or borrow a dog pen for exercise, that might be an option. I had surgery on my foot and was feeding horses and bringing in wood for the wood stove on crutches and in a boot.
Good luck. This is very survivable.
StG
Well, y’all, my surgery is about 12 hours from now. They want me at the hospital at 5:00 am. Might just as well sit up all night in the parking garage. 
I’ve got food in the house, visitors lined up, ducks in a row. See you on the flip side.
Sending positive, healing thoughts your way ThelmaLou. Good luck. 
Thinking good thoughts for you.
Best wishes, from me and my aunts, both of whom had breast cancer decades ago.
Good luck, Thelma. We’re all rooting for you.
Happy, quick healing thoughts!
Surgery went great, but anesthesia left me sick as a dog. Surgery was over 12 hours ago-- still queasy and dizzy. Spending the night in hospital.
I hope morning finds you feeling much improved.
I hope you’re feeling better today.
I am. Thanks. The anesthesia thing really came out of left field. Totally unexpected.
I’m only having the very mildest discomfort from the surgery-- just a little soreness. She said she took out an amount of tissue equal to a small biscuit (that would be a bun/roll, not a cookie, for the Brits on board). Fortunately I had acreage to spare.
I’m glad to see you’re doing okay–the thing with the anesthesia was worrying. Did the surgeon tell you how your margins were?
She said she tried to get everything. I was pretty out of it when she talked to me.
ThelmaLou. I just saw this thread, I wish you all the best, and a speedy recovery.
Seems there’s a lot of current Dopers involved with cancer, or their loved ones.
Please keep us updated.
Update: It’s a week since the lumpectomy. Starting to have discomfort in armpit area, but not bad. I think the tissues are waking up and screaming “We’ve been robbed!”
Speaking of screaming, did any/all of you have “wire localization,” which means a wire is inserted in your breast to guide the surgeon to the tissue that needs to be removed? During the biopsy, the doctor leaves a marker inside the breast at the site of the bad cells, and the wire is a physical roadmap to the location. (This is as I understand it.)
Some reading around the internet about various people’s experiences told me that the breast should be numb during the WL, just like during the biopsy.
My biopsy was painless. The WL, however, was sheer torture. Supposedly there was lidocaine in the tip of the needle that they stick in there to serve as a conduit for the wire. Even if there was, my whole breast did not get any shot or any numbing drug. My impression is that the needle went in through my nipple (EEK!), but I’m not positive. The tissue to be removed was on the underside of my breast.
I cried loud and bitter tears while they were sticking the needle and then the wire in there. The people doing it (at least one had an MD on her name tag–the others, not sure) kept saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” over and over. Then they had to do a mammogram/x-ray to make sure the tip of the wire was in exactly the right spot.
When they got me back to the pre-op area with a plastic drinking cup taped over my nipple to hold the wire in place, the surgical team had already been by twice to get me. That makes me wonder if they were in a hurry and did not take the time to numb my breast.
Yeah, that was the worst piece of breast-torture for me too. My two biopsy sites were on the upper portion, about half an inch apart. The tech staff who was putting the needles and wires in kept saying “Don’t look down,” but of course I did take a glance at one point before she put some tape over the site to hold the wires in place.
Wires–two pieces about 5 or 6 inches long sticking up out of the top of my breast and waggling around like two little antennae for some cyberpunk-Borg electronic implant. Decorated cheerfully with little pink-flowered bandages. Not just painful, but completely surreal.
A little later, just before I went into the surgery, someone asked me if I had any false teeth, prosthetics, implants, or body piercings. “Only the ones you just gave me…”
This! 
Was your breast numb for this procedure (like I assume it was for the biopsy)? Or was it “somewhat numb”? Or not at all?