Seroma help

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melihowe76
melihowe76 Member Posts: 5
edited March 2015 in Surgery - Before, During, and After

is there any way to help the seroma go down and the pain to ease other than just waiting it out? I'm miserable and it's growing daily and the surgeon said just wait and let my body take care of it.

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  • Kicks
    Kicks Member Posts: 4,131
    edited February 2015

    My surgeon drained my seroma several times and had me use prossure/compression wraps. It tooks months for it to longer show up on CT scans. It was still 6 cms 4 mths later.

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  • MameMe
    MameMe Member Posts: 425
    edited February 2015

    I had a really tough time with a seroma following a lumpectomy in 2003. I had to push my surgeon to get her to comprehend how uncomfortable it was: painful, hot, increasing hardness. She, too was very nonchalant about it. She drained it once, and it came back in a few days. When that grew too painful, I went to the ER and a very nice resident drained it a second time. That began to really make a difference. I had one more draining procedure and the situation stabilized. This is one of those binds in which the doc's knowledgeis out of synch with your needs. Press on! Keep us posted.

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  • ElaineTherese
    ElaineTherese Member Posts: 3,328
    edited February 2015

    I was sort-of lucky. My MO and RO both pushed my surgeon to drain my seroma. RO refused to start rads until he did! So, last week I went in and got it drained. It took five minutes. Then, the surgeon stuffed my sports bra with lots of surgical material to put pressure on it. (The other option is he could have wrapped me up really tightly.) The point was: if there's empty space, fluid just rushes in.

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  • melihowe76
    melihowe76 Member Posts: 5
    edited February 2015

    thank y'all!! I am going to go today and get a tighter fitting sports bra and see if that helps any until I see my surgeon again this Thursday.

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  • BC2015
    BC2015 Member Posts: 86
    edited March 2015

    melihowe76 did you find relief? I just had my large seroma drained for the 3rd time (140 cc's). Bs put in drain today. He said it may take 10 days. Now I need to figure out how to work and have this long tube and bulb hidden in my clothes and worse yet, how do I sleep with this thing and not have it drain out. Cancer is so fun, always something new to learn....

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  • oceangirl654
    oceangirl654 Member Posts: 217
    edited March 2015

    hi all, I too had this problem. I got a sports bra and it went away but now I have a different problem which I think the sports bra caused. It squished my nipple in and now it has healed that way. I am very sad about how it looks. My breast looked so good until I wore the sports bra. So I just wanted to let you know. This happened to my sister too. The plastic surgeon was very mad that she had worn such a tight sports bra. So I'm not sure what the solution is because now I have fluid again since wearing no bra. And the fluid makes me feel very ill.Take care and big hugs.






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  • ceanna
    ceanna Member Posts: 5,270
    edited March 2015

    Sorry you have to deal with a seroma.  I wish doctors were more concerned about the pain and how uncomfortable they are.  I had one develop under the sentinel lymph node scar about 10 days post-lumpectomy.  I had it drained by my BS a few days later, and then, over a holiday weekend, it quickly redeveloped into the size of an egg and burst open at the incision.  After it burst, the BS didn't want to touch it (she said it would heal now that the wound had reopened itself).  It drained large amounts of clear liquid the first few days but did feel better since the fluid was not accumulating.  It took a few weeks to finally stop draining, but unfortunately is still uncomfortable 2 months later since the incision spot seems to still be irritated.  I found a clay-based hot/cold pack at WalMart and froze it.  It had a Velcro strap which allowed me to briefly wear it over my shoulder each time I put it on a few times a day. The cold seemed to help much more with the pain and fluid accumulation than the hot compress my BS recommended.  As long as the seroma area doesn't get red and hot, it's not infected.

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  • GardenGirl808
    GardenGirl808 Member Posts: 5
    edited March 2015

    Hi everybody! This is the first time I think I've ever posted on breastcancer.org. I had a DIEP flap after double mastectomy last July and am going in for my second surgery in one week (nipple construction and liposuction on the dog ears, and hopefully a bit of lifting). I've had lots of swelling in my abdomen ever since my surgery. My PS says that's due to the 12 liters of fluid they put in me to keep my reattached veins open, and that it will slowly reduce then be removed with this next surgery. I sure hope he's right. My waist now is bigger than it was before! I'll let you know. But in the meantime I was thinking about what you said, Oceangirl (btw it looks like we have a LOT in common. I'm looking forward to reading your posts on which is better, mastectomy or lumpectomy with radiation, since we appear to have chosen different treatments for similar diagnoses) about the tight sports bra squishing your nipples. I was wondering if putting something like a plastic drain hair catcher inside the bra would help (brand new and very clean, of course!). That way you could have support and pressure on the breast, but not on the nipple. I'll ask my PS about that also when I see him March 18th, and I'll let you all know.

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