Did I not just say in my last blog "If I've learned anything through this process, it not to get your hopes up...everything changes." Well, lesson learned. Yesterday (Wednesday) I had an appointment with the plastic surgeon to be expanded. That morning when I got up I had an infection in my incision on my left breast. A couple of months ago an internal suture did not dissolve and erupted through the skin, leaving an open wound. I told Dr. Thornton's nurse about this and she said that "Oh, normally we would pull them out, but because it's in your incision I'm gonna leave it alone". Not the right answer. I have been back several times since then for expansions and she examines my chest every time. Therefore I know she knows it was not going away. Anyways, back to yesterday. When I woke up the open wound around the stitch was red and swollen, I could tell that the incision next to it was stretching from pressure built up from the pus. There was no head on it so I got in the shower. When I turned off the water and went to dry off I noticed that it looked like there was a scab covering it, I went to feel it to see if it was hard of soft and it burst under my finger. It drained quite a bit of pus, I turned the water back on and cleaned it off well, then covered it up. Good thing I already have an appointment with the surgeon today. When I saw the nurse I told her what had happened, and she told me that it was no big deal, if the pus came out already it should be healed by tomorrow. I told her I didn't feel comfortable expanding today with the infection and would like to hold off. She had the audacity to make me feel like I was a overreacting for not wanting to be expanded. "Well, we can fill you if you'd like, BUT IF YOU DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE we can hold off. Well good for you bitch, your not the one who is at risk of loosing a breast. In case you forgot, I have chemo tomorrow-you know those drugs that lower your immune system and drop your WBC. Oh, and by the way, I have no tissue covering these expanders, so if the infection doesn't magically go away over night and spreads, they may have to take the expander out. Sorry, but I'm not so cool with that! I've got plenty of surgeries to deal with assuming thing go as planned. Maybe it's just me, but when I do the math, it just doesn't add up. Open wound around a stitch for two months, infection, cover with band-aid and magically the next day infection is gone, stitch dissolves itself and the hole closes! WTF!!! Okay, I realize I'm JUST a paramedic, but it would make since to me to eliminate some of the factors here, for starters, how about you finally take that nasty suture out that has been soaked in pus that you should have taken out two months ago. Anyways, she tells me to get dressed and I can reschedule before my next chemo treatment (3 weeks away). I get dresses, even though I am PISSED and got NOTHING resolved and was walking out the door when Dr. Digenis (Dr. Thornton's partner) came in and introduced himself. He asked if he could see the wound, so I showed it to him and he said it looked like it needed to be addressed further (Duh, I knew that!!! Next time relay that to your nurse!) He asked me to lay down and he dug around to pull out the suture that was still there. He was concerned that with out opening the hole a little bigger it would not be able to continue to drain properly, so the took some scissors and opened the hole wider. He also packed it with iodoform gauze, to help it wick the drainage. He told me I could pull the wick that night, but to keep it clean and follow up with my oncologist tomorrow. He was so nice. Thank God for that. This wasn't the first time I've had a problem with that nurse, from now on, I'm only going to see the doctor! Anyways that night I pulled the wick and it was looking better, now we just have to keep it clean and wait for it to close.
Tomorrows chemo.