Infection following an excisional biopsy

Kimjerun:  Have they already given you antibiotics for the infection if not then you really should have the site (and your blood) culturered for the MRSA infection and unfortunately the results can be scewed if they have started you without a culture.  Did you ask if they knew which type of infection this was?  It's so important for us all to insist that an infection be culturered today, in this world of resistant infections.  (I say that to us all because I am presuming other people will read your question). 

A breast MRI is very useful for diagnosis scans.  I was not that small breasted and had my annual mammo's (well I did skip a year or so) and on the occassion of their finding my DCIS I had had a mammo, a digital mammo, a sonogram all were negative and just for grins they decided to do a breast MRI (I have a strong family history) and there it was a small lession of DCIS..  When I had my final surgery for removal it was true DCIS.. so I am very partial to breasts MRI.  And it is common for your providers to say "they create too many false positives" but that is what they use to say about mammo's - also there is a "drive" from the medical community now not to use them because they found DCIS in 60+thousand women with the breast MRI and instead of finding a proper protocol to address it they decided that too many women were making the "wrong" decision (not my words!) and having bi-laterals.. Such nonsense - when women are encouraged by their docs to HAVE the bi-laterals - do they think that a women with DCIS will just call up and say I'll take two mastectomy's thank you!  The test (breast MRI's) is a good test and all tests produce too many false positives as well, as in my case too many false negitives.. So yes ask for a breast MRI every few years and make your insurance company pay for them and you can be sure, especially as time goes forwards and there are more facilities, docs and tech who are better trained to read breast MRI that they will be the "new" mammograms..  Good luck and congrat on your b9 findings may they always be so!!!  Best

Deidre is right - the doctors really need to culture a wound before giving antibiotics. I believe they RESIST doing so because they do not want to report MRSA - so they don't look bad. In my case, they put me on vancomyacin because 7 days after my free-tram, I returned to the ER with shortness of breath.........when they got my pain under control and I was finally able to cough, they cultured the sputum - it was positive for MRSA. However, they dragged their feet about draining the pocket of fluid in my abdomen (insisting that my pain was due to a gall stone). When the GI specialist finally told them I was in no condition to have the stone removed, they were finally forced to aspirate the fluid and culture it. Even though I had been on vancomyacin for about 8 days at that point, the fluid still cultured positive for MRSA - and they had to add another IV antibiotic. MY PS was very flustered and annoyed when he aspirated the fluid (the pain was pure torture to me!) but once the fluid was removed I felt so much better and shortly after getting a new antibiotic, my fevers ended. My abdominal incision did re-open though and I had to pack this awful wound for 4 months. I hope your wound will heal faster than that Kim..........I'm sorry you had to get an infection just from a biopsy............you should ask for copies of all your reports to see what was actually done to you.

Good luck and feel better soon!

sorry you're having troubles healing. I had trouble with  stitches backing out which delayed my healing--same thing happened with my abdominal incision after hysterectomy. But eventually, everything heals and the scars fade. Mammos should still work for you  even if you're small breasted.