My aunt had a breast tumor in the early 80s and they took her entire breast in a radical mastectomy to make sure they got all of it and she spent over a week in the hospital and weeks of home recovery before she went back to work.
My mom had a breast tumor in 2015 and it was removed laparoscopically in an out-patient procedure where they determined it hadn't metastasized anywhere else so she kept her breast. She was sore a couple days and fine by the end of the week.
Similarly, my dad had his gall bladder removed unexpectedly in the 70s, was in the hospital a week, and came home with a scar from his waist to his nipple and it took weeks before the muscle wall of his abdomen they cut into healed and he could return to work as an electrician.
I had my gall bladder removed unexpectedly in 2002 and I did spend a week in the hospital since it happened unexpectedly on a Friday night - a 1cm stone lodged in my bile duct and started to leach toxins (I was never in pain, just very uncomfortable until uncontrollable vomiting started) They admitted me, did the surgery Monday and removed it laparoscopically through my navel. (Usually it's scheduled as an outpatient procedure but mine never presented symptoms until it became an emergency) They said they *almost* couldn't get it out due to inflammation but luckily didn't have to cut more. They kept me 3 more days for IV antibiotics due to the fact it had started to go toxic. I have two pencil-diameter scars on my abdomen (the major cut was through the navel so it's not visible) had no major pain except it feeling like I'd done 1000 sit-ups (they explained that internal organs have very few pain receptors which is why I never noticed symptoms and was only mildly sore where the incisions happened.) The latex dressing caused blisters that were more of a problem than the pain; the only traumatic part was when they pulled the drainage tube out of me which was disturbing and only slightly painful at first because it was stuck due to dried blood and then felt so gross having a slimy tube pulled out of me. I barely needed the Vicodin they prescribed. I was back to work (in a casino) within a week.
Science is amazing.
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