The experimental group received education and exercise training before a mastectomy.

Received routine hospital care which did not include any exercise education

The intervention group received pre-surgery education and training on therapeutic exercises in addition to the routine hospital care. The educational material was developed by the principal investigator (PI) and included a power point and a booklet with instructions on the exercises as well as information about the surgery and what to expect after the surgery. The educational material was based on previous research and adopted to our population after consultation with a panel of experts including two nurses and three physicians. Eligible women were approached while waiting for their appointment with their surgeon. If they showed interest in participating they signed a consent form. The PI explained the study and what is involved in participating including the weekly phone calls for women in the intervention group. Participants were told that they will visited at home by the PI to assess their ROM and to fill out a questionnaire.

Measurement of shoulder range of motion using a Goniometer at two time points. The goniometer is a reliable tool which has been used in several studies to assess ROM of the of affected shoulder in patients after mastectomy. The goniometer assesses the range of motion, flexion, unbending, abduction, external rotation, and inward rotation of the shoulder joint. Normal values are abduction: 150 degrees. adduction: 30 degrees, orward flexion: 150-180 degrees, Extension: 45-60 degrees and rotation (test with elbow flexed to 90 degrees). The "Goniometer" is a nonintrusive and the most commonly used method to assess the ROM of a joint due to its simplicity and ease to implement The goniometer is a reliable tool which has been used in several studies to assess ROM of the of affected shoulder in patients after mastectomy.The goniometer assesses the range of motion, flexion, unbending, abduction, external rotation, and inward rotation of the shoulder joint.

Measurement of shoulder range of motion using a Goniometer at two time points. The goniometer is a reliable tool which has been used in several studies to assess ROM of the of affected shoulder in patients after mastectomy. The goniometer assesses the range of motion, flexion, unbending, abduction, external rotation, and inward rotation of the shoulder joint. Normal values are abduction: 150 degrees. adduction: 30 degrees, orward flexion: 150-180 degrees, Extension: 45-60 degrees and rotation (test with elbow flexed to 90 degrees). The "Goniometer" is a nonintrusive and the most commonly used method to assess the ROM of a joint due to its simplicity and ease to implement The goniometer is a reliable tool which has been used in several studies to assess ROM of the of affected shoulder in patients after mastectomy.The goniometer assesses the range of motion, flexion, unbending, abduction, external rotation, and inward rotation of the shoulder joint.

Qaulity of lfe was assessed at points in time. The Quality of Life Instrument: The Breast Cancer Patient Version (QoL-BC) was used to asses QoL. The QoL-BC is a patient self-reported scale assessing concerns of cancer survivors.It includes 46 items assessing four domains: 1) physical well-being (8 items), 2) psychological well-being, (22 items), 3) social well-being,(9 items) and 4) spiritual well-being (7 items). The itmes are scored form 0 to 10, 0 = worst outcome to 10 = best outcome. Several items have reverse anchors and therefore when you code the items you will need to reverse the scores of those items. Higher scores indicate better outocme.The overall and the subscales instrument have shown excellent internal and external reliability and moderate to strong validity.The QoL-BC has been translated to Arabic and used with breast cancer patients in several Arab countries with good reliability and validity.