After 2nd Surgery question...

[brianjay13]

I had my first chest surgery November 08..Doctor removed a lot of tissue in both my pecks..Pulled a cyst out that was embedded in the tissue...Non cancerous..Though during my surgery he was scraping tissue off my nipple and the tissue was so stuck that he went through my nipple with his scalpel..Not much damage was done, tiny scar on my nipple and surgery went great and looked fantastic. A year later i felt a tiny piece of what to me seemed as residual breast tissue right on my nipple...So decided to go back in and see if it could be removed..Just got out of that surgery about 9 days ago...and the difference was this doctor did not use drains as the last doctor had, and it seems my nipple is a little more puffed out than before.On the nipple and about half an inch in diameter.I am not sure if its swelling or a collection of blood inside..it also pulsates at times feeling a constant pulse in that area for minutes at a time...Have not been back in for my post op...but hoping it is only swelling and will go down soon...I am addicted to the gym and want to get back to working out as soon as i can...Guess my question is what do you think could cause the swelling more this time than my first surgery which to me seemed to be a lot more intense, with minimal swelling and or pain......??

[decimal]

Post op swelling depends a lot on what was done, how was cutting inside done, the skill of the surgeon and post op care.

Just excessive mobility after a surgery can make a big difference between no swelling and significant swelling. Apply compression on the surgery site.

Secondly, drains tend to get rid of the fluids as soon as they seep out into the surrounding tissue. However, when you are without drains, you need to be extra cautious and use compression as a means to minimize that seepage, because once the fluids leak into chest, there is no means to remove them; you have to wait till the body absorbs it, which is a lengthy process. However, if there is too much swelling, owing to fluid collection, then the doctor will opt to aspirate it with a needle.

My suggestion is that you tell your doctor about it as soon as possible, and send him a pic of ur pec so he can perform some diagnosis remotely.

You could even post in the "ask the doctors" section on this forum.

Thats my 2 cents.

Hope that helps.

[decimal]

A very common problem is that people dont take the same kind of post-op precautionary measures and rest that they would have usually taken if they had drains, because now the surgery doesnt seem that "major" enough. Ironically, this misplaced assumption ends up only exacerbating the problem, and might eventually turn this "minor" surgery into a more eventful "major" one with not so optimum results.