Help for heavy bruising and swelling - 1 Month post op pics added July 16th

[rowdy99]

Hey,

Am I ever thankful this forum exists, its has been very helpful and easing on the mind.

A question for any of you that could help me.  I am 10 days post op, and have extensive bruising and swelling.  I am wondering what, if anything I can do to relieve this.

Also I am curious to your opinions if my surgeon was rough with me or are some people just more subseptable to bruising.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Time_to_fix_it]

As has been said before.  Different people will react differently to surgery in the form of bruising and swelling.  Try not to panic and let nature take its course.

There is a herbal remedy that my surgeon suggested would help with bruising.  It is called Arnica and comes in tablet and ointment form.  My surgeon suggests his patients take the tablet form a week or so before surgery and for several weeks afterwards. Maybe do a search on here and on Google and see what comes up?

One last thing.  Usually it is a perfectly normal thing to put ice packs on any swelling to help it go down however I have read several times on here that it is NOT a good idea in cases of gyne surgery.  There was comment I seem to recall from one of the surgeons who post on this site that ice could impede the healing process.

All the best.

[rowdy99]

Trying not to panic but am getting a little worried.

A am 12 days post op now and still have heavy brusing and swelling and minor bleeding on my right side.  My surgeon informed me that she spent considerable more time on my right than on my left, and also said there was more tissue to remove on the right.

What was weird was I had less drainage (when i still had the drains in) on my right than my left. 

Any similar expereinces out there?  Is something wrong or should I just wait it out a bit longer.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Time_to_fix_it]

You didn't mention that you were still bleeding in your first post. Given that you are still bleeding after 12 days I would suggest that you get it checked out.

Still no reason to panic but I would ring the your PS.

Keep us posted.

[rowdy99]

Well its been about 40 hours since I got my right side drained.

I have tensor bandages wrapping my chest up and my under armour over that but I can tell the swelling is coming back.  I'm really fustrated with this and am praying that this is not going to be an ongoing saga.

Has anyone heard of having to get one side or the other side drained over and over again.  My left side is feeling and healing normally but my right is giving me some serious problems after 13 days since the surgery.

I got a life to get back to and this is driving me nuts...


14 days post op pics...

my recently drained right side, filling with fluid again.


my left side, swelling remains, but i'm happy with this.

[Time_to_fix_it]

Has anyone heard of having to get one side or the other side drained over and over again.  My left side is feeling and healing normally but my right is giving me some serious problems after 13 days since the surgery.

Sounds like you are one of the unfortunate few who have a problem with fluid build up.  I think many of us have had some fluid build up after surgery but to a much lesser extent than you, and basically it dispersed itself.

To answer your question, yes, I have read a few posts on these boards of patients who needed multiple visits to a doc for drainage to get their chest back on the right track.  I hope yours resolves itself soon.

[rowdy99]

Well, the drain my surgeon did last week did help, but there is still heavy swelling and soreness. here's a few pics, i plan on posting them til the swelling goes down.

this will hopefully help others with the same problem.






these last two pics show the swelling difference in the left and right sides

[rowdy99]

i haven't posted the name of my surgeon for a couple of reasons.

she is considered one of the best in canada and before i give out her name and connect it with poor results i like her and want to give my chest more time to heal.  she has been very helpful and available when it comes to everything post op and i appreciate that.

i've also been told by many on here that everyone heals differently so i'm keeping my hopes up that my recovery is just a little different and streneous than most expereince.

i may in time make public the surgeons name. we'll see.....

its fustrating because many on here seem to be healing alot better than myself and have much better results than i have after two weeks post op.

not much i can do at this point but wait it out.  would really appreciate if anyone with similar experiences could give me some insight..

thanks.

[rowdy99]

July 2nd - 16 days post op....

still lots of swelling, i donno....















DAY 7                                DAY 15                          DAY 17
 

[rowdy99]

Are you sure she did anything?

The initial results right after I got my bandages off looked promising...

This pics is 7 days post op..   
 
minus the bad bruising, my chest was looking flat and good, its only in the last week that its swollen and looks bad....

Hope to see my surgeon tommorow and will give an update...

[oneofmany]

You know.. this is the EXACT same problem i'm having.. but i'm about 8 days post op. My right side is swollen and I know it's fluid build up. I went to the docs today and he tried to drain it but it was a muddy color and thick. Sorry for the thread hijack, but does anyone know how I can speed this along and help it? So far i've heard a heating pad would be good as to counter protein concentrate in one area..

[oneofmany]

Rowdy -- Yes it's horribly frustrating! I'm glad i'm not the only person who has had this problem though.


Thanks for the insight though! Your information was very very much needed for me and I now understand the necessity to cope with this as it will all be 'for the win' in the end.

Oh yeah, a weird thing was after the doc tried to drain me, (it was so thick that he only got about a teaspoon out), my chest swelled up a lot more! As if it was sending a message saying it was here to stay..

I'm not one who enjoys sleeping on his back and this will be day 9 of that. Also, I have to go back to work for the first time in 2 days, hopefully it will go down a bit by then. I can honestly say that my right side looks worse than it did before the surgery but thanks to your link, I understand it is part of the healing process. (SO I HOPE)

I've been taking it very easy but it's very difficult as i'm one who likes to work out alot..




Lets both take it easy alright man?

[rowdy99]

yeah bro mine looks worse too, and i gotta go back to work tommorow..

finally went out today, didn't feel so good taking my truck over speed bumps i'll tell ya that...

seein the doc tommorow, hope she sorts me out, i'll see what she says and pass it along to the rest of ya...

take it easy, i didn't to begin with, i thought i'd be good to go and its defenitley increased my healing time huge.  damn!

[Chodel]

hey rowdy, not had time to read all your posts on this thread so excuse my question if its been answered (flying visit to the forum).  Have you been using plenty of compression post op? 

[rowdy99]

Saw my surgeon today.  She drained alot of fluid from mainly my right side, the one thats giving me problems and also drained a bit out of my left side.

You can see the results.  Also I post last time but I've been taking heavy doses of Arnica pills which have been really helping with my bruising.  I asked my surgeon about them, she said she is a little shy to prescribe them as there is no real 'science' behind it but said it was good I was taking them and Arnica does work.

May have to get another draining but hope this post help those of you with bad swelling and bruising and gives you all some hope that it will get better.

22 DAYS POST OP



Here's a question...

hey rowdy, not had time to read all your posts on this thread so excuse my question if its been answered (flying visit to the forum).  Have you been using plenty of compression post op?

The answer is not like I should have.  I opted for using Body Armour and Underworks.  If I was to do it over again I would go for the real deal compression garment. 

DAY 7                                DAY 15                          DAY 17                              DAY 19
 
DAY 22