mum has terrible swelling under her arm, any advice?

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On Wednesday mum has swelling under her arm where the nodes were removed. The doctor who saw her at the Marsden said he was reluctant to do anything at the moment incase of causing infection?? And that she was to keep an eye on it. Well it has got worse and is quite painful. She said it feels as if there is something under her arm. Any advice?

Thanks ladies.

xxx

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Dear Jules
I had mastectomy just over a week ago.I also have swelling but told it is called a dog ear and is where breast tissue meets back tissue. It feels very strange and as if my arm is resting on this lump.I also have numbness and tingling not comfortable but hope its all normal. hope your mum feels better soon.
love jocie

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Dad is now looking up on a website about lympodema, hopefully that might tell her what to do.

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Jules it may be fluid gathering and that will explain why they didn’t do anything the other day as they try to drain as little as possible to stop infection. It is quite painful - mine was more on the back where they had removed my muscle and I found it very painful to sit as it was so swollen. If she rings her breast care nurse tomorrow she will probably ask her to go straight down…mine did and the relief was instant. If she can’t wait I would take her to the hospital.
xx

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Dad has just looked up on a website and its called Seroma?? Does that sound right. He said that he didn’t want to mess around with it on wed in case of infection, I am seeing her this afternoon, I will ask her what she is doing about it.

Thanks Holly.

Joice I hope you get some answers to your postings, the ladies are very good on here with advice.

Jules xxx

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hi jules,
yes seroma sounds right, might be as well for her to ring BCN tomorrow…definetly needs attending to.

karen x

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Hi Jules

Is your mum doing her excercises as these seem to help me to reduce swelling after mast.

Karen

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Hi Jules

Yep does sound like a seroma. There’s 2 schools of thought, drain them and don’t drain them. Draining removes the fluid, which makes it more comfortable but it usually refills. Basically I was told that eventually the body will adapt and it will drain away naturally but that takes some time to happen so if it’s really bad they often drain but otherwise prefer not to interfere.

Personally I’d go see the breast care nurse and get their opinion on it as to whether it’s got worse and needs to be drained.

Exercises certainly help reduce the seromas from what I’ve read on here. I recall one person having a mad hoover and hers suddenly improving… not saying you should go get the hoover out mind you, this was about a month post surgery.

So a little gentle movement to try and get things flowing might help but not if it causes much pain of course. I was happy to put up with a little discomfort and did my exercises like a good litle girl and my seromas never got to build up. That’s not to say your mum’s being slack though, don’t mean that at all.

Hope this helps

Angie

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My underarm seroma got so large I couldn’t put my arm by my side. It was the size of a small melon and very uncomfortable. I had to go back to the hospital to have it syringed off. It reformed a couple of times, so had it done twice more. This was despite having drains in for a full ten days! The body will eventually absorb it, BUT don’t let it get too big and uncomfortable.

xxx

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Mum has had it drained twice now but it keeps filling up. Unfortunately she got stung by a wasp in her bad arm last week at Hever Castle, they managed to get the sting out very quickly, but I doubt this has helped! Poor mum bless her.