Surgery Issues

Hadam

• I had my double mastectomy and 2 weeks later the incisions began to leak I would have to bandage them until the physician's office appointment. This occurred for about 2 more weeks. Finally the drainage was sent off cultures and it had contracted an infection, pseodomonas.I was to have surgery and the night before surgery I showered as required with the medicated soap and I looked at the area that was draining. The incision had opened approximately 2-3 inches overnight and you could see the expander. This is my first go round with all of this and just wondered if anyone else has experienced anything like this. The expanders were removed and all my other treatments have been postponed until this can heal. Thank you for any input.

JRNJ

Yes, the same thing happened to me. All the same, except the Dr. put me in the hospital on IV antibiotics to try and save them, but it didn't work and was worse than the infection. They were removed in October. Since then I've done a lot of thinking and researching. It's harder to get implants after radiation and I don't want to delay radiation a significant amount. So I've decided to do DIEP flap in the fall and I have 6 months to try and gain weight and avoid implants. Let me know if you went to a central Jersey Hospital because pseudonomas is a hospital infection.

Hadam

Thank you for the reply. My surgery took place in Kentucky. I’m just ready to get things moving and am really concerned about trying the expanders again for fear of a repeating infection.

JRNJ

when it happened I searched the forums and found a lot of posts. Try searching infection. There are several people that had success later. It is tougher with radiation but still possible.

Hadam

Thank you all so much. I have decided to proceed with the chemo, ancillary node dissection, radiation and then reconstruction.