Fluid Buildup Drainage/Aspiration after Bilateral Mastectomy

I had a post mastectomy seroma for about a year. With hindsight I wish I had tried massage much earlier. Repeated aspirations (it just filled up again) and a constant issue of fear of infection in leaving this lovely nutritious fluid for internal bugs to feed on or risking introducing infection through aspirations! Massage helped reduce the fluid slowly but not in time to avoid a third and serious infection. That however required surgery to clean everything out and that, thankfully, killed the seroma once and for all. A nuisance certainly but can be more serious.

Hi there I took my affected left boob off with 8 lymph nodes and had no issues with a seroma, and then decided 6 months later in November last year to take the other one off as a prophylaxis and had no lymph nodes taken and got a seroma in that one, had it drained twice and had to spend a night in hospital on IV anitbiotics it was so bloody painful too, I tried to tell the dr earlier in the week it was getting sore and I thought I might have cellulitis as well but she didn't want to listen and said it would drain naturally. Mine got staph as well so had to take oral ones for some time after too. But after that it was fine and has been since. Margie

I had a Seroma after (L) mastectomy and large amount drained twice weekly (7times) with lots of problems. Recent (R) mastectomy and my PS wasn't taking any chances.... He pumped up my tissue expander 350 mls during surgery which left no room for additional fluid, compression micro foam bandage and compression sports bra for 4 weeks. 
Worked a treat. 
Not one ml of that little sucker got in..

I had a seroma under my mastectomy scar for about 6wks. It had to be syringed off twice a week until it settled down.

I had a seroma after a mastectomy. I had to have it drained a number of times. It eventually settled down, but chemo was delayed by 8 weeks because of it. I got a seroma with my LD reconstruction too. I think I must be prone to them! They do seem to go away eventually. They are so annoying, aren't they?  

One ingenious emergency doctor dragged out a huge sticky compression bandaid and stuck it on me. It reduced the ability of the seroma to inflate and shortened the time to recovery. 

I had a seroma in my armpit after a wide excision and node clearance ( my cancer came back in my axilla) that delayed my chemo by 8 weeks. The bloody thing just kept going. I had it drained 12 times-- no sign of infection but there was a pocket of fluid that delivered over a litre a week. 
It eventually started to septate--strings appeared in the pocket then the sides started to stick together. Then it stopped. It will stop. Eventually.

Hi @kpjm, after my mastectomy I developed a seroma & had it drained 6 times before it resolved but also had a staph infection which required 2 lots of antibiotics. My chemo was delayed because of this. Eventually all settled down. I think seromas can be quite common, hopefully yours is now settling down.