Bra and Dressing
After taking the dressing off, you can see the tennis ball size lump under my arm at the incision.
The Jackson-Pratt bulb-type drain had been removed, and the fluid that it had been collecting was now collecting under the skin. Above my finger is the incision on my breast, covered with a steri-strip. One of the red marks below the underarm incision is where the drain had been inserted.
I called Dr. Sanchez, the surgeon, to tell her I had a lump under my arm. They had me come in to the office. Dr looked at it and right away said it was a seroma, a collectioin of serous fluid and lymph fluid under the skin. "We'll just drain that..." She barely touched the incision line with the prick of a needle, and the stuff spurted all over. There was really quite a lot that came out. Dr. Sanchez wrapped me with this wide ace wrap. The wetness that had absorbed onto the ace wrap is what drained just on the way home. I put a peri pad over the wound to absorb the fluid. What you see is the "wing" of the Always maxi pad. That worked really well.
