Complications after flap surgery

lorigene

My mom found a lump first of August and turns out she has breast cancer. She has the Triple Negative Aggressive Breast Cancer and that is why this lump came up so sudden since her yearly mamo in December. By the time we got into surgery it had spread to 3 other places in her breast. They do surgery first on this type of Breast Cancer instead of Chemo first. On Tuesday 24 she had a double mastectomy with the flap reconstruction. Surgery took 11.5 hours and while in there they came across other issues we didn’t know about. She had 4 hernias so they had to call in a hernia specialist to do that and close in the hole from that before they could finish their part of the flap. After the surgery it was issue after issue. She needed 2 units of blood, kidneys were failing, she was barely urinating so they put her on Lasix, then she started filling up with fluid so they inserted a tube down her while she was awake to suck the fluid from her stomach out. My poor momma was in so much pain, gagging, throwing up and crying as I was. Just horrible to watch and there was nothing I could do to help her. Then with that tube she couldn’t eat or drink anything and she just gagged and threw up daily for 6 days. She feel into deep, deep depression. She didn’t want to see anyone, you would go in the room and she would cover up and turn away and close her eyes…even to me. They thought maybe they pinched her bowel, but CT Scan and Xray later they didn’t and there was no other blockage it was just simply her body was still asleep and wasn’t moving yet. Last Monday they pinched her tube closed and waiting all day then hooked it up and nothing came out so they took it out being her bowel had started working, urinating etc. She went home Tuesday night late, home all day Wednesday, then Wednesday night she started running fever. I went over to help her shower and she was so swollen and red around her incision etc. I went to my moms to check on her and she had been running 102 fever all night so I called doc. And they wanted her in ER right away. So we go there they didn’t an US to make sure nothing ruptured and it hadn’t and she just had a bad infection in her incision. So they put her on anti. Thursday through Sunday and swelling had went down and she wasn’t near as red, but still swollen down there. So Sunday night at 8 she went back into surgery and they cut some of her incision and inserted a sponge and drain to absorb the infection. So now today she had another surgery this morning to remove that sponge and insert another one and they will do that again on Friday and Monday. Each time the sponge will be smaller. Whenever she does finally get to go home, home health will come out twice a week and change this sponge till the infection is gone. They said its excruciating pain to change it so that’s why they are doing it In the OR. They will try one time at bedside to do it to see if she will be able to stand it. Just been a long, exhausting, emotional time. I could drive down town in my sleep as many times as I have made the trip back and forth. We have been swapping out nights when I can and I stay so dad can go home at night. Just sad.

If anyone had an issues after I would love to hear...or are we alone on this?

cathy1955

Oh you poor thing I am so sorry to hear this.  I'm sending prayers your way for your mom, you and all of your family.

Ariom

Lorigene, my heart goes out to you and your Mother. I am so terribly sorry she has had such a terrible time. I can imagine what it is doing to you.

I had a similar experience back in the 90's when my Mother had a Radical UMX and Axillary clearance. She was sent home with the beginning of an infection, and ended up extremely ill. My Father had only passed away 4 months earlier and I feared I would lose them both.

I had a terrible time trying to get her back into Hospital, but with the help of the visiting nurses, my Mother improved and got better. It took time, but she made a good recovery, and never had a recurrence of BC, she passed away later of unrelated illness.

I wish you and your Mother all the very best, and a speedy recovery for your Mother. She is very lucky to have you!

MaryR12

OMG, my heart, prayers and positive thoughts go out to you both. I am glad you are there for her, as my daughter was for me. Unfortunately my daughter is leaving 12/1/13 for a new job where she will be on a cruise ship, and unreachable most of the time. This leaves me alone for my reconstruction.

Hope your mom is doing better