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MLE59's avatar
MLE59
Member
12 years ago

MLE59

Hi there everyone-I am 54 years old, married, and mother of 2 grown children. I have newly diagnosed early BC, confirmed 26 March 2014 as Infiltrating Lobular Carcinoma. I opted for a uni lateral left mastectomy with a sentinel node biopsy and this was done early April in a private hospital by a great breast surveon who I felt very comfortable with. The histopathology report showed the tumour was larger than seen on mammo 35x26x18mm, stage IIB and tumour grade pT2, oestrogen and progesterone positive, HER2 neg, whilst macro report on 2 nodes taken was neg-so did not have an axillary clearance, micromets have been found in 1 of them. Liverpool Hospital is easy for me to get to by public transport so I have asked for a referral to the oncologist there-just waiting for an appointment to start the next stage of treatment. I am glad to have found a support group nearby; it is comforting.

Fair to say that it felt like things moved very quickly between lump discovery to discharge home after total mastectomy. I thought I was travelling pretty well until last night when I got home from a family function and noticed that the dressing on my suture line was soiled -I took it off and found a hole about 1.5cm long on my suture line with pus coming out.

I went to local hospital ED (not Liverpool) and was given IV antibiotics and was discharged home with oral antibiotics. I was really shocked that they didn't clean my wound before putting steristrips on it and another water proof dressing.

Given the holiday weekend I cannot contact my surgeon or GP- has anyone got experience with this? Should I be doing anything else? Any thoughts would be appreciated as the last thing I want is to have the infection spread.

Cheers MLE59

2 Replies

  • MLE59's avatar
    MLE59
    Member
    12 years ago

    Hi ChristineM thankyou for your reply. Yes they did take a swab and some blood-the fluid was much thicker than what had been drained via my drainage tube (that was in for 10 days before it was removed last Monday). They said my white cell count is elevated and that I had a temperature-which was weired because I felt ok yesterday. Today I have felt yuk and headachy but put it down to stress and the antiobiotics.

    Thankyou for telling me your light at the end of the tunnel; congratulations on your  past five year mark. Could I ask if you had chemo- the surgeon said I was right on the border for needing it or not, it may depend on the treatment regime followed by the oncologist, but I may choose not to have it because the results of hormone treatment alone is almost just as good.

    Many thanks again

    MLE59

  • MLE59's avatar
    MLE59
    Member
    12 years ago

    Hi ChristineM thankyou for your reply. Yes they did take a swab and some blood-the fluid was much thicker than what had been drained via my drainage tube (that was in for 10 days before it was removed last Monday). They said my white cell count is elevated and that I had a temperature-which was weired because I felt ok yesterday. Today I have felt yuk and headachy but put it down to stress and the antiobiotics.

    Thankyou for telling me your light at the end of the tunnel; congratulations on your  past five year mark. Could I ask if you had chemo- the surgeon said I was right on the border for needing it or not, it may depend on the treatment regime followed by the oncologist, but I may choose not to have it because the results of hormone treatment alone is almost just as good.

    Many thanks again

    MLE59