After mastectomy problem.
Hi
My mother has triple negative breast cancer,stage 1,tumor grade 2, no lympnode are affected . After the doctor said it was cancer, the operation was done. The type of operation was mastectomy. It has been 44 days since the operation but the seroma is still not closing. Now what can be done in this situation?
What could be the problem if the seroma does not close?
Our cancer specialist has said to give him 8 cycles of chemotherapy now. But I'm worried that the seroma is not closing but can chemotherapy inside it cause any problems?
Looking for expert opinion.
Comments
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Hi abubakkarsiddik, We're sorry to hear about what your mother is going through. Here is a page on Managing a seroma. As you'll read on that page, most seromas are reabsorbed back into your body in about a month, but in some cases it can take up to a year. Here is a page on what may be done to treat a seroma if it doesn't go away:
As for chemotherapy, we assume they will certainly wait to make sure there is no infection, and that the healing is going in the right direction. Definitely bring it up with her doctor.
We're here for you!!
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abubakkarsiddik, I had no issues after breast surgery but I did have a seroma after a thyroidectomy for a large goiter. The surgeon told me it developed because his nurse practitioner removed my drain too soon. She felt badly that I would have to make another four hour round trip so she took out the drain even though the fluid levels were still too high. I ended out making many more long trips to have the seroma drained by fine needle aspiration. The NP always provided me with a homemade treat since she felt a bit guilty about it. It took about a year for it to resolve. The surgeon then did another operation to remove the pouch of skin that remained.
A medical professional should be monitoring the seroma since sometimes there is infection or lymphedema involved. I wasn't able to have my neck compressed but in other locations binders are sometimes used to help speed the process along. As the mods said, chemotherapy can probably go ahead if there is no infection. I hope your mother has a good outcome.
Just a note for anyone plagued by postsurgical drains. Drains are a pain in the neck (or wherever they happen to be) but it is worth putting up with the discomfort and inconvenience if they are still doing their job.
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Thanks maggie15, for your nice comment. Now can the doctor remove this seroma with a syringe? Can then start chemotherapy?
If chemotherapy is given in this seroma condition, will there be any infection or any other problem or not?0 -
abubakkarsiddik, It will take many weeks of removing fluid with a syringe (the fluid removed gets replaced by more) so your mother will probably be having chemotherapy at the same time the seroma is being treated. You will have to ask her doctor about whether doing both together is possible.
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