Sudden wound infection 7 weeks post op? Why?

[BerthaB]

Hi Lisa
Sorry to hear you have an infection. I have had a similar experience. I have been told you can get an infection up to a year after an operation ! Shocking.
I had MX operation January 2012, had radiotherapy which finished Begining of April . Then at the end of May I noticed a red patch which was very painfull, and I started to feel very unwell. I was seeing the GP for something else and showed her, she looked at it and decided it was an infection and gave anti B. I was a bit supprised at it did not occur to me that I could get an infection at this late stage after the operation but thought it would clear.
by the next morning it had spread across the operation site and got more and more painfull, my temperature went up and I went into the out of hours doctors as I was concerned the Anti B were not working. Apparently it takes a few days.
Then I woke up that night and it had opened up and leaked. Yeuch ...... had to go back to the out of hours doc for a dressing. The good thing was the pain was almost gone !
They did a further operation to open up the area of infection so it can " heal from the inside ".
I now have dressings every 2 days while it heals but it is getting better slowly. 8 weeks to completely heal after the op.

Glad you went back to the hosp, hope the Anti B kill it off for you.
Let us know how you get on .
Kind regs,
BerthaB

[Rattles]

Hi Libra,
I was on those antibiotics. Its hard to take so many isnt it? But hopefully you will feel better soon. Thank goodness you did not leave it and went back to the hospital. My experience is that it is sometimes a bit too 'specialist' for my GP to know what to do. Drink as much as you can - little siips, often.
I am thinking of you and really hope you start to feel better now.
Rattles

[Libralady]

Hi Rattles

Apologies, a better explanatiion would of helped lol. I had an MX. No recon yet as I have rads etc.
Went back to hospital yesterday as I was just getting more and more ill, my temp was 38 8 and redness started to cover my chest, plus it was really hot to the touch. I had no appointment at the breast unit I just walked in a begged to see a BCN - who took one look and said she will get a doctor....along comes doctor, does exam and says he wants to aspirate whatever fluid is under the wound.
Anyway, they drew off about 150mls of fluid and have sent it off to see whats growing in there.
Doc has changed my antibiotics, now on 500mg of fluxociliin x 4 a day and 500 of pencillin x 4 a day - lots of tablets but today my temp has started to climb down and I actually feel a bit better.

I go back tomorrow for results of culture and they said they will change antibiotics depending on whatever was growiing in the fluid.

[Rattles]

Hi Libra Lady,
You dont give details of your surgery, but wanted to let you know I had a ?indolent infection and ?radiation from 2010 caused swelling and reaction to an implant/strattice reconstruction. I dont really want t go into details as my situation was rare and had a disappointing outcome.This does not mean yours would be the same at all.
As I understand it, it is unusual, but possible for a tiny bit of bacteria to enter wound and remain there, dormant and to then flare up.
The reason I am emailing you is to advise you to be very proactive. If you feel wound not responding, go back to GP. If you had a mastecomy, my understanding is that it is easy to treat. Go back to surgeon who did operation if you had a reconstruction.
Rattles

[Sascha]

Not infection no but i had mx on 2nd May and last few days my chest area has been a lot tighter than before and really hard feeling, significantly more than before, no idea why.......
Hope you feel better soon

[Libralady]

Hi all

My mx was on 4th may. Had no problems post op, average sized seroma which has reduced significantly since surgery, my wound is closed, no oozing etc but suddenly on thursday my wound started to get tight and tender and cording appeared in my arm. I spiked a temp and felt quite unwell and on saturday had to call the out of hours gp service.

He looked over my wound and straight away send it loks like you have aninfection brewing and your high temp confirms this.
He has put me on a course of penicillin but im just a bit shocked for ths to happen so long after surgery.

Has anyone else experienced this at all? My would is swollen again , red and quite hot to the touch.
Thankyou
Lisa