Hi Carrie. I understand your concerns. My son Artur was 2 when I had a bilateral mastectomy with immediate DIEP reconstruction. It was a 12 hour surgery. Have you discussed that option with your plastic surgeon? Not all plastic surgeons do it though because it needs a highly skilled microvascular surgeon to do it. The recovery is also longer. From your description, it looks like you might be doing an implant which require a second surgery later. Either way you'll definitely need help while you are recovering since you'll be limited in terms of movement. I also still brought 3 drains home (1 was removed at the hospital), but I used one of those "necklaces" that hold ID cards to hold the drain tubes and also had a zipper sports jacket that had pockets inside that could hold the drains inside. I walked a lot with them while having them and they didn't bother me that much. I used to tell Artur those were grenades - I looked weird, alien like with those tubes coming out of my body though... I did most things by myself though, but Artur was little and I needed help with him so my mother in law stayed for 3 months and then my father for another month. I did have issues healing my abdominal incision, but it might have been related with my (heavy) weight and allergy to steri-strips that we only found about later. I don't remember staying that long with the drains, but I remember they didn't all come out at the same time because it depends how efficient is your body draining. Feel free to reach out with questions, and I'm happy to support you with meals or groceries shopping. I'll contact you via whatsapp so you can contact me directly. Stay strong and hopeful!