Hi looking for any help, or advice regarding seroma/lymphoedema. I don’t know what l’ve got, but pretty sure it must be one of them. I had a wide local excision of breast lesion with partial breast reconstruction using a dermoglandular flap and a level 2 axillary node clearance on the 10th of January. I had burning shooting pains in the back of my arm in bed on Tuesday night. The bcns said this was the nerve endings, as they would have been cut during the surgery and was normal. After taking off the splash proof dressing to self check the wound yesterday as advised by the bcns fluid srarted collecting under my arm as the day went on. Today fluid has started collecting under my arm between the shoulder blade and elbow. It feels hwavy and a bit uncomfortable, but isn’t painful. I have been able to do the exercises. I’m just concerned it’s going to get worse overnight and tomorrow - why do these things always happen over the weekend! Is there anything l can do to stop it getting worse?
Hello
Have you got a 24 hour helpline number for your cancer team? If you have then it would be a good idea to give them a call about this.
Hope you get some answers x
Thanks Jayesse. I can ring and leave a message on the bcns answerphone, but it won’t get picked up until Monday. I won’t get a call until Mondqy afternoon when the clinucs have finished. I will ring the nurses at Breast Cancer Now first thing Monday, as l have just found out the helpline closed at 1pm today.
@cat2025 i don’t know if you are under the NHS but I’ve just been going through the info for my surgery next week and they gave me an out of hours emergency number to call if there are any issues post surgery. It’s a mobile and I think it’s a general surgery emergency number.
So regardless of the BCNs you should be able to reach someone at the hospital who is qualified to help. What you’re going through is exactly what they said I’d need to use it for.
Try contacting your hospital for that number maybe?
Good luck, Kath x
Hello warmfuzzies sadly there is no out of hours number given for my hospital. You just get a number for Monday to Friday 8.30am to 4.00pm. When l rang about the shooting hot pains down the back of ny arm on Tuesday l have re-read what the nurse said and have found she said to ring my GP or 111 if redness, or swelling developed over the weekend. I have now rung 111 and will be getting a call back within 6 hours.
Hi
If the pain is too much and your team are unavailable for 24 hours call NHS 111
Hi, on discharge, I was given the ward number and was advised I could phone them anytime with any concern. This might be an option if you are in pain or concerned. Hope you feel better soon x
Thank you - have just done that. Waiting for a call back,
Thank you - no ward number given, just a number for the bcns Monday to Friday. It’s not painful, just uncomfortable. I just don’t want it to get worse and was wondering if there was anything l could do that might make the swelling go down, or at least not get any bigger! I have still been able to do the exercises - so that’s good. I had surgery on the 10th of January and my follow up appointment is not until the 4th of February - which seems like forever away. I really just want someone who knows what they’re doing to take a look at it and say it’s ok.
Sounds like a seroma . I’m not sure if you’re on Ibuprofen or are able to take it ( I know many people can’t ) but I remember saying to my BCN after surgery that I was going g to try to manage on just Paracetamol and would keep Ibuprofen in reserve. She said that if I got a seroma I should take Ibuprofen because seroma is part of an inflammatory response in your body to the surgery and Ibuprofen is anti - inflammatory. Hope you get through to your BCN tomorrow and get assessed . If you’re able to put support / a bit of light compression on it that might help but the position of it might make that tricky . Take care xx
Hi Joanne - thanks for your advice. I phoned 111 yesterday, as the swelling had got bigger and was now very uncomfortable. I got to see an out of hours GP and he thought it was most likely to be an infection, so prescribed antibiotics. I did say l thought it might be a seroma and he said it could be, but still advised taking the antibiotics, saying l should notice an improvement by Tuesday. I phoned a nurse from Breast Cancer Now first thing this morning and she agreed it was more likely to be a seroma and to phone my breast cancer nurse at the hospital. I was really lucky that someone was there to take my call this morning, so l didn’t have to leave a message on the answerphone and wait for a response. I have got an appointment at the hospital tomorrow morning. It is a massive relief that l’m going to be seen by experts that know my full background so quickly - l am really grateful. Not being sure is so scary.
Oh that’s good that you have got a quick response and I hope that you get some help with this and that it doesn’t persist for too long. It might be worth taking the antibiotics until you know what’s what. Uncertainty is always horrible I know. Take care . Xx