Comments on Beating Breast Cancer | Symptoms And Breast Cancer Treatment: Seroma After Mastectomy - What Is A Seroma?

I currently have a draining seroma after a segment...

2010-10-16T21:28:51.773Z

I currently have a draining seroma after a segmental mastectomy, the incision is open to what looks like a hole where tissue was removed and fat cells on the right side that are poking out of the incision site. Just to share, my surgeon has advised to cleanse with peroxide then apply gentamycin and a sterile bandage. His thoughts on showering much to my surprise was that it is okay even with a really gross looking open wound. I am supposed to precede the dressing with a shower. I am 3 weeks post op and have not had any signs of infection or any closing of the wound yet. Car rides are the worst because of the seat belts and trying to find a way to sleep without it pulling open even more and contributing to the discomfort. The suture came out when i took the original dressing off on day 2 post op. It had been a running stitch but as a huge amountof skin had to be removed because of the involvement (everything purplish red skin wise} made it easier I think since I didn't have to also have the pain of pressure building without an adequate outlet.

Six weeks ago I had a radical mastectomy with clea...

2010-09-12T03:17:34.225Z

Six weeks ago I had a radical mastectomy with clearance of lymph nodes. A week after leaving hospital I needed to have the seroma drained. Unfortunately this is still a huge problem. Twice a week i have about 250 ml drained.

This does become extremely uncomfortable. I saw somewhere this affects 30 - 90% of patients, not many miss out.

I had panniculectomy and hernia repair. I would li...

2009-03-01T16:10:00.000Z

I had panniculectomy and hernia repair. I would like to see more information that tells what can happen to the mesh that repaired the hernia when there is an open draining wound.Will I have to undergo more hernia surgery to help with the hernia repair? I have also had a total hip operation ( years ago) and I worry about what an infection can do to me.

I also feel this lump and was not sure if I was do...

2008-10-20T19:40:00.000Z

I also feel this lump and was not sure if I was doing too much with my right hand since it was the right brest removed. It just feels weird and I'm glad to have found this site to see more info on it.

I had a lumpectomy 3.5 weeks ago, with a diagnosed...

2008-07-22T11:19:00.000Z

I had a lumpectomy 3.5 weeks ago, with a diagnosed seroma last week, which is not enlarging, but is still extremely painful. It feels "knotty", like scar tissue perhaps? It does not need draining, however I am wondering if others out there have experienced such pain -- I mean extreme pain, just with a feather of a touch. How long does it last?

thanks for your site. I am three weeks out from a...

2008-06-29T00:17:00.000Z

thanks for your site. I am three weeks out from a radical mastectomy and thougt I had injured myself by doing too much too soon. knowing that the seroma is a normal by product of the surgery is very helpful. It is certainly uncomfortable but knowing that it is a common occurence makes it less scary. I am ready to get back to normal activity! Becky

i am very happy to have found this site! i had a l...

2008-06-07T00:16:00.000Z

i am very happy to have found this site! i had a lumpectomy a few weeks ago and now have a larger mass than what was removed. it would have been helpful to know that i should expect something like this sernoma to occur.
thank you so much for having the information we all need available!

I would like to say how useful your site is. It is...

2006-11-28T15:15:00.000Z

I would like to say how useful your site is. It is so difficult to combine the personal history aspect with clear medical information about as complex a subject as breast cancer, but your site strikes what seems like pretty much the ideal balance. My partner has recently had a mastectomy and lymph node clearance and yesterday urgently felt she needed some further understanding of seroma, which she is finding extremely unpleasant to live with just when she has to visit the oncologist tomorrow to talk about chemotherapy- she had hoped to feel that the first phase (ie the surgical operation) was over with, but this puddling of fluid into the wound has prevented her feeling she has got over it. She is finding it physically repulsive on top of the post-operative scarring etc., and can't bear to have a shower at the moment. In the circumstances, she wanted to know more about seroma, whether or not to 'tough it out' for weeks or months, or have the fluid drawn off as soon as possible. Although the hospital treatment has been good and at almost all moments much better than good, there are still times when you feel you need information from other sources and in other ways - the giving of information (how rather than how much) has probably been the hospital's consistenly weakest point, despite the giving out of appropriate leaflets and a highly sympathetic nursing staff it seems that some information is left out, some only referred to in passing etc. This is understandable given the amount of information medical staff could potentially give patients, and the fact that we all vary so much, ie i guess some patients would probably prefer not to know everything. We had been looking round at websites goggling and searching with various phrases, but could only find information on post-operative lymphoedema in the arm assoicated with lymph node clearance, so it was so good to eventually find your site after an hour or so's searching, and when we had found it, read through as much of it as we could.
Thanks. I am sure Rosi will return to it again in the coming months.