Today I went to my PS I'm 4.5 weeks otr and had an incident last week were a hole opened up on a tension line. Last Friday morning I had old blood gushing out and opened up my incisions on the right breast. Now there are openings on the incison line bottom area and mid way up the T a hole which is quite deep and about 3/4 inch long. Anyway to make a long story short my PS today said in order for this not to happen again I would have to have the hole close from the inside out. To do this I was instructed to stick gauze into the hole with a Qtip to facilate draining tge gauze would act like a wick.
This hurt like hell today when he did it I don't know if I can do this every day. Has anyone out there had to do this type of treatment??He did say he had to cut a stitch out too.
I don't know you girls have been through the same things as me and it helps just reading some of your experiences. I'm trying to stay positive and upbeat but it seems like I'm climbing up this big hill and just before I reach the top I start to slide down. My birthday is today and when I had this done I thought for sure by now I would of been on the road to recovery Anna
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Hi Anna,
Yes, i am also dealing with this ... as we speak. I had a small area of necrosis on the bottom of the incision on my left breast. This was softened with intra-site gel and then cut away a week later - has left me with a hole 1 inch long by 1/2 inch wide and 1/2 inch deep. I am now also having to let it heal from the inside out and am packing it with sorbsan ribbon on a daily basis. I have been told it will probably take about a month to heal. Not nice though is it?
Thinking of you. x
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P.s. I am 5 weeks post op tomorrow so know exactly how you feel! x
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I had 2 holes (one under each breast at the T). My PS had me do almost the same exact thing. I was told to use wet-to-dry dressings. I would wet a gauze with saline wash, put it in/on the hole, then put a dry gauze on top of that.
It takes time but the healing inside-out helps with scaring and better healing. You are less likely to reopen a hole if it heals properly.
Hang in there - it will heal and you won't even be able to see where it happened in a few month.
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Hi Beth
How long did yours take to heal? And how big were they?
Thanks for giving me and Anna some hope
x
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SO sorry you girls are having complications. It's scary that this can happen at any time during anyones recovery. I wish you the best in your healing process! Positive thoughts coming your way
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Thanks for your support I still haven't done it I'll probably take a shower and try to torture myself tomorrow. I'm sure if you girls can get through it I'll have to get brave and be patience and know that this will pass and it will heal Anna
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hi Anna... & happy Bday! well today makes 4 weeks for me and im dealing with the same thing... those evil lil holes.... lol. to make matters worse, today i had to go buy a pair of pants that are BIGGER than my pre op fatty pants b/c of all the bloating/swelling and b/c i need something that wont be tight in the TT incision area where the holes are. i have a total of 4 holes. from everything that ive read and have been told, it is not necrosis rather it is called "dehisence or wound seperation". from what i understand necrosis can happen as soon as 24 hours post op and it gets black and blue. what i have sounds more like you have which is that wound separating. i have 3 on my TT incision line and 1 under my breast (where the vertical incision meets the horizontal one). they are all just millimeters wide/deep but you can see the flesh inside and a raw pink in the center. my PS has told me i can not wear my garments until i am healed, because he wants as much blood flow to get to the areas. i havent bled there in about 1 week and when i did it wasnt much. but he did say that blood was getting to the areas and that was a good sign. my PS just told me to clean it twice a day and apply neosporin. about 1 week ago he took off all the tapes in that area and told me i could begin using soap on the incisions. prior to that or the first 3 weeks, he told me not to soap or lather the area. so now for this past week what i have been doing is washing with /mmh/product/beauty/emu_oil/index.vm?procid=13&catid=1105" target=_blank>emu oil soap in my daily shower and i clean the area gently. i also dry the 4 open areas with the blow dryer (low/cold air) just to make sure they are really dry and there is no room for moistness or infection. then 1 or 2 times throughout the day i also clean it with a spray saline wash solution i bought at CVS and then i now switched to polysporin (which i think is better or maybe it could just be the time that has passed). i havent seen the PS in a week but when he last saw me he would cut the crusty/scab like parts that would develop in the holes because he wanted it to heal from the inside out. the 4 holes are still there but it has only been several weeks that i had all the tapes taken out and been dealing with this. i noticed the holes about the 2nd week but they could have been there before. i see them every day so its hard to see improvement but from all the support i have received on here, im sure they will close. they did for everyone else....so i have to stay positive and hope the same happens for me. i do see that some new flesh is growing in the surrounding areas but i know it will probably a while before they completely close. they say the area will never scab it will just get closer and closer together and close up. lets see....
maybe you healed superficially (rather than the inside out thing) and thats why it opened up...dont know. but the qtip thing sounds drastic and painful. just work closely with your PS and ask a lot of questions... remember you paid a lot of money for this and you have a right to be informed and well taken care of. if it hurts you, dont do it and call the PS again and ask if you are doing it wrong or if there is some other way to deal with it. good luck and hang in there. you are not alone & we'll get through it.
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Thanks for all the information I agree with you mindcandy about talking to the PS and asking lots of questions. I do at every meeting. If I run into major problems doing what he has instructed believe me I'll be on the phone. I have to take this one day at a time. Every time I even think of what he says I'm suppose to do I break into a cold sweat. I'm not into pain that's for sure. Logically it makes sense the drainage in all but if it really hurts no way am I going to be able to do this. When you said the PS cut the scab did it hurt like hell? No anesthia. This seems like torture. I was surprised when my PS started messing around with the holes and it hurt like hell.
Thanks for all the help there is a lot of great information here. If worst comes to worse I can change PS's.
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Hi Anna,
I had to change my dressing again this morning and i have to say my wound is closing - it is about half the size it was last week. It still feels quite tender to the touch and it is quite uncomfortable when i have to put the sorbsan ribbon into the cavity but it seems to be working a treat. Apparently the reason we have to pack the wound when it is healing from the inside out is to allow the underlying tissues to grow and fill the cavity before the skin closes over the top - other wise we could be left with a dent or indentation - makes sense. I was horrified when i first saw the hole last week but it has improved dramatically. The main advice i was given was not to pack the wound too tight (sorbsan expands when it soaks up the moisture from the wound) as we need to allow space for the new tissue to grow. Keep us updated on your healing.
Transform x
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It took a couple, three weeks to completely heal the holes up. Doing great now!!!
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transform
I read up on sorbsan ribbon were do you buy it at can you get it at a CVS or Walgreens? What my PS said was basically use the corner of the gauze while the sorbsan ribbon is made for this type of wound.
Anna
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Hi Anna,
Sorry i can't help you there - I am based in the UK and get it from my nurse. I am sure if you did a search in Yahoo something would come up. If you cannot get that particular brand in the US i am sure there would be a similar alginate cavity dressing available. Good luck - keep me posted on your progress.
Transform x
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Anna,
Others to look out for are:
Sorbsan (Maersk)
Tegagen (3M Health Care Ltd)
Kaltostat (Convatec Ltd)
Aquacel (Convatec Ltd)
Transform x
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Thanks for all the information I agree with you mindcandy about talking to the PS and asking lots of questions. I do at every meeting. If I run into major problems doing what he has instructed believe me I'll be on the phone. I have to take this one day at a time. Every time I even think of what he says I'm suppose to do I break into a cold sweat. I'm not into pain that's for sure. Logically it makes sense the drainage in all but if it really hurts no way am I going to be able to do this. When you said the PS cut the scab did it hurt like hell? No anesthia. This seems like torture. I was surprised when my PS started messing around with the holes and it hurt like hell.
Thanks for all the help there is a lot of great information here. If worst comes to worse I can change PS's.
hi again Anna...
lol...luckily, my TT incision line is still quite numb and thats why it didnt hurt. i just tried not to look and before i knew it, it was over. the one under my breast did hurt a bit b/c the area isnt numb. unlike you and Transform, i assume that the reason he didnt recommend the wet-dry technique for me or that i stick the ribbon inside the holes, is b/c neither of the 4 holes are wide or deep enough for me to do that. i also assume the reason he cuts the scabs off is to help irritate the area and have blood get there and also to help me with that healing inside out thing. all in all, its just 1 big pain in the azz...lol. yesterday i had a tiny blood blister around one of my holes and it popped on its own. its better today, because i cleaned the area again after that happened and slathered on the polysporin. i did a search on here and it seems a lot of people get them from stiches being spit out. although, i did not see any stitch...so go figure. i have the dissolvable stiches and some of them are coming out in other places along the incision line. some people on here say to pull on them slightly and cut them but i tried that and the pulling hurts a little so i just leave them alone. just one more thing to deal with...ugh..lol. i see my PS this coming Wed. so i am going to ask him about that too. every time i feel like complaining, i think i paid thousands of dollars to be going thru all of this...lmao... puts things in perspective really quick. i know there are 2 dr.'s that come on the forums often... i think im going to post a thread and ask how they deal with it? would be good to know, since i did a search and didnt see any of there comments on this.
well Anna...keep me posted on your progress...i'll do the same.
good luck!