New diagnosis

Hi Jen Joyce, I had my drain partly pulled out during the night after I got home, ie enough to stop working as a drain.

The breast care nurse told me that it is extremely common once the drain is removed, (whether by choice or by accident), for people to continue to produce fluid in the wound that then needs to be removed with a needle. This is called a seroma, and it does no damage (even if it gets really full) so long as you do not also get an infection). She said to think of it as a kind of big blister. The draining process is mostly pain-free because the area around the operation will generally be thoroughly numb. I found it a relief to have the pressure reduced each time, and looked forward to those appointments for that reason.

in my case, the whole mastectomy site ended up badly infected because a nurse refused to get the doctor to check it out when it first went a bit reddish, and told me to wait for  my appointment with him in 2 days time. He was cross it had been allowed to get so bad and said he would have put me straight on antibiotics and it would have been gone in no time, instead of hanging on for about 3 weeks.. I learnt later that having an infection delayed my start on Chemo, and could have prevented the chemotherapy drugs getting into the badly swollen infected area.

I am sure you know enough to push to get treatment straight away if you need it, though I am sure you will be fine.