Hi pink sisters,
It's such an awesome forum, I thought I would update my first post, in the hope it helps someone else along their own journey. I contacted my breast nurse who suggested I go back to see the surgeon which was great advice.
The surgeon thought the swelling was a seroma and so sent me off to have it drained - ultrasound guided fine needle drain. The doc who did the draining did a great job but explained that it wasn't a seroma that was being drained, but the haemotoma. It was difficult to drain as it was 'thick like treacle' in the doc's words and draining through a fine needle was almost impossible. But he persisted and managed to drain about 50% of the treacle like blood from the haemotoma. Having had that removed, my breast was immediately lighter and over the next few days the swelling reduced and my nipple came back to say hello, which was very reassuring. Amazingly the big black shiner has almost disappeared, although the haemotoma remains.
I'm starting rads tomorrow, so hoping the radiation doesn't harden up the hard mass of the haemotoma even further. I'm hoping the rads nurses will have reassuring words for me tomorrow.
Jennie