So what's left behind?

[Tonyp1]

I'm 2 months out from gyno surgery, with what I'm pretty sure is incomplete excision.  The tissue left behind on the right side only, leaves me with a noticable moob.  The left side looks fine, though a bit uneven.  The moob has improved a bit in size since the first couple of weeks, but the tissue under and around the nipple is still there.  It becomes firm every 3 or 4 hours, then with deep tissue massage it softens up.  When it's firm it feels like a very firm lump about half the size of a egg.  I can push it around in the souunding tissue.  After massage, the tissue becomes soft for a few hours to the point where the mass is almost indistinguishable from the sorounding fatty tissue, but then firms up a few hours later.  Is this probably breast tissue that was damaged from all the ultrasonic lipo that will continually swell for a while?  The physician assistant still says its soft tissue swelling, but I seriously doubt it.  It's not a puffy nipple, it's a moob that is completely obvious through a shirt, while the left side is flat.  He said in another month or so he'd give me a steroid injection to reduce the swelling.  Any suggestions what's going on?

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

Can only comment in general.

If there is a significant disparity between the two sides, it is possible that some tissue (gland and fat) might have been left behind on that side.

The firmness you feel is actually swelling -- that is why it feels softer after you have massage -- you have temporarily squeezed out some of the fluid.  But then it returns.  Only time will allow for this swelling to decrease -- I refer to that magical 6 month time frame for most of the healing to occur.

Would definitely be patient and allow for full healing to occur.  then recommend returning to your surgeon to discuss the situation and what, if anything, needs to be done.  Kenalog is great for localized scar tissue -- it doesn't work for large areas of residual tissue/scar.

Dr Jacobs