TE leaked & infection, waiting for surgery

vr423

after 5 months of recurring redness, swelling and pain in my breast, and only once being treated for an infection, now I am told I have a bad infection that has most likely been there all this time. Also the expander which was filled to 800cc in late February right before my symptoms started, now only has less than 300 cc left. I woke up yesterday and a tiny sore that had been on my very thin, stretched skin was now an open wound the size of a dime and fluid and pus were POURING out of it. I am being told that the expander will be taken out, but first I am taking oral antibiotics for 7 days, and then my name goes on a wait list for surgery! The minimum wait will be 2 weeks, but I was told it will probably be longer. I’ve read MANY posts here about infections and/or expander leakage and everyone indicated that their expander was removed almost immediately. I am very concerned. Did anyone else have infection and/or expander leakage and have to wait long for surgery??

MountainMomma57

Hi there VR423,

I cannot speak to infection but I had just had my TE exchange because of a leakage. I was alarmed and they were not. I thought we would go to surgery pretty quickly but they scheduled it for 4 weeks later. I had all of my fills and was just waiting for a better time in the epidemic to have surgery. I live 2 hours away from my surgeon and had to go in every week for an additional amount of saline to try and keep the problem TE/pocket from shrinking. Most of the saline would leak back out within a day or two.....It was frustrating in that I had to go into a virus hot spot to do this. I am waiting to see my surgery notes to slueth the cause of leak! PS said it is sometimes near the tabs or at fill sight. If it is any comfort, I am so happy to have those out, the implants are so soft! Hope some one can offer insight into the infection aspect and hang in there!

M_and_G

Hello Vr 432,

Did they culture your infection? Without that information, I am not sure how they are treating your infection appropriately. There are several different types of bacteria and some require intravenous antibiotics. I have had a nightmare with reconstruction and have been hospitalized twice with different infections plus six surgeries. I did wait for surgery a week following this last infection due to another shutdown in surgical procedures in Houston, but my surgeon was granted OR permission because of the infection. Hope this information helps and wishing you the best.

Michelle