Yeast in my breast after expanders

Brittney1625

I was diagnosed with breast cancer on 3/16/17 at the age of 31. I had a bilateral mastectomy on 4/7 and a procedure a week later to save my nipples.. the healing of those processes went great.. it kinda felt good not having any breast at all. I went in for reconstructive surgery on 5/19 and had the expanders put in... after this surgery unnoticed that there was a small hole on the edge of the nipple that was oozing blood and there was a red rash that traced the incisions on my left breast.. my doctor placed me on antibiotics but the rash remained.. I went in the hospital on 4/30 for the doctor to go in and look to see if he saw any infection/bacteria inside.. he did not so the expander was cleaned, the breast was flushed and expander was put back in.. results came back from the culture and states there was no bacteria. However yeast was growing!!!! Has this happened to anyone else? Ive been on several antibiotics through Iv. I came home yesterday and will be taking taking several antibiotics by mouth! I also keep getting this burning sensation along the incision area also. Please let me know I feel anyone hasn't experience thins I'm starting to get nervous

Moderators

Bump! for Brittney -- can anyone weigh in?

macb04

Hi, sorry no one else answered. How are you feeling now? If it wasn't contamination, showing yeast by mistake, then wouldn't they be giving you prescription Antifungal medications like Diflucan, instead of antibiotics?

Elzai

Hello Britney! Sorry this is happening to you. I was diagnosed on 08/31/16, IDC stage III, ER+, PR+, HER-. 4 lymph nodes. Right nipple sparing mastectomy on 09/29/16 with expander placed under pictorial muscle right away. A week later, pink spots appeared, another week later, the whole breast was pink. Was placed on oral antibiotics for 3 weeks and signs of infection disappeared. Had 1st AC chemo on 11/09/16, 3 days later my breast was bright red, fever 101.5. Surgery on 11/16, PS thought it looked clean, flushed the area, replaced the expander. Culture results showed Serratia bacteria. Two weeks into IV antibiotics, most of the breast cleared out but the redness and pain kept steady on outer side of breast. The fever was coming and going. Surgery on 12/02/16 to remove expander. Two more weeks of IV antibiotics. Resumed byweekly AC chemo on 12/21. Started weekly Taxol 02/01/17. Surgery on 03/10/17 to place the expander back. Finished Taxol on 04/26/17. 13 out of 28 radiation treatments so far. No more infections so far. Keeping my fingers crossed! How do you know it's yeast? Is your skin red? Any fever?

Elzai

Hello Britney! Sorry this is happening to you. I was diagnosed on 08/31/16, IDC stage III, ER+, PR+, HER-. 4 lymph nodes. Right nipple sparing mastectomy on 09/29/16 with expander placed under pictorial muscle right away. A week later, pink spots appeared, another week later, the whole breast was pink. Was placed on oral antibiotics for 3 weeks and signs of infection disappeared. Had 1st AC chemo on 11/09/16, 3 days later my breast was bright red, fever 101.5. Surgery on 11/16, PS thought it looked clean, flushed the area, replaced the expander. Culture results showed Serratia bacteria. Two weeks into IV antibiotics, most of the breast cleared out but the redness and pain kept steady on outer side of breast. The fever was coming and going. Surgery on 12/02/16 to remove expander. Two more weeks of IV antibiotics. Resumed byweekly AC chemo on 12/21. Started weekly Taxol 02/01/17. Surgery on 03/10/17 to place the expander back. Finished Taxol on 04/26/17. 13 out of 28 radiation treatments so far. No more infections so far. Keeping my fingers crossed! How do you know it's yeast? Is your skin red? Any fever?

Misty1

I have had this type of yeast inf twice in the past six months. Back in Nov, I had rt TE put back in after inf last summer. Doc had me on keflex and cipro because of summer inf. About six days post surg, I got awful red rash with itchiness. Ps was stumped but said no way it was an inf with heavy antib. After a week of it getting worse, he sent me to a dermatologist friend of his. She took one look and saidnyeast skin inf. Put me on a week of diflucan and an antif cream with steroid. Was completely better in less than a week. In April, I had implant exchange and guess what I got back? Yup, yeast skin inf. Did the same drugs and was better quickly. So, deem thought it was combo of strong antib and heat under the surg bra. Hang in there! I got instant relief when I took pill and used the cream.