Your tissue expander "ringworm" might be nummular eczema

Fryda

Have a wee google of "tissue expander nummular eczema" or "breast reconstruction nummular eczema."

For the last month I've been treated by an infectious disease doctor for what she thought was some kind of super ringworm that was spreading just across my reconstructed breasts. I've got expanders inside of ADM, it's been 5 months since the bilateral mastectomy. After 4 weeks of antifungal medication (Diflucan) not making a dent, the doctor referred me to a dermatologist.

I met with the dermatologist today. She did a scrape, "It's not ringworm." It never was ringworm. She labeled it "dermatitis," and performed a biopsy, taking out a few chunks of skin and sewing me up with stitches. The dermatologist prescribed me Triamcinolone topical steroid ointment, told me to come back in 10 days to get the stitches out.

I'm home, I google "dermatitis tissue expander/breast reconstruction." Every hit on google is for nummular eczema and visually, I'm a match.

So maybe if you think you've developed "ringworm" just across your reconstructed breasts while you're in tissue expanders, maybe it's nummular eczema and maybe your doctors haven't put it together yet. Good luck.

FYI the threat of breast implant illness has put me off from doing an implant reconstruction. If the new plastic surgeon I'm meeting in a month doesn't think I'm a good candidate for DIEP, I'm going flat. Screw this.

Update: I emailed my googles to my doctors and both my infectious disease doc and dermatologist agree with my diagnosis. Point for Dr. Google! After nearly 3 months of dealing with this particular complication, it's a relief to even have a name to call it. Once the "condition of the skin is improved" and if I can go a whole month without yet another complication, I'll be cleared for the next surgery, whether it's DIEP or explant. Hurrah!