Well, the lab results are in and I have a staphylococcus aureus infection in my seroma located in my left armpit.

The other news that was kind of big for us, was that my seroma burst when I stepped outside with the dog to welcome my Austrian back from his errand. Suddenly there was liquid flowing down my side, lots of it. We don’t usually have paper towels in the house but we happened to have a brand new roll handy. With my Austrian’s help I was able to get from the porch to the shower and we could start figuring out what had happened and get started cleaning up. What a mess!

That was 10:45 Wednesday morning and by 11:30 the flow had subsided. We check the wound often and change dressings as needed. I keep thinking it will dry up and quit, but it hasn’t for the first 15 hours anyway. I have had this seroma since surgery in January, so that is quite a while.

As a result, I have an appointment with Dr Surgeon for Thursday. There were some options floated over the phone like packing the interior of the wound with gauze, installing a drain, and other things that also sounded invasive, so I guess we shall see what she says when she sees me.

I think it is looking miles better now that the seroma is gone… or gone-ish. It’s bruised and inflamed looking, but not nearly as big hard and angry as it was over the weekend. We have come a long messy way this week! #sograteful

Dr Surgeon will also check me to see if the 2 kinds of antibiotics I am taking work on this particular strain of staphylococcus. They need to know it’s working, or else we try a different antibiotic. We need this squared away so I can get back in the chemo chair! LOL, yeah, my life right now revolves around chemo.

There is a very interesting (ok, skim worthy) article on Staph Infections from the Mayo Clinic. Once you scroll down past the initial stuff to Causes and Risk Factors… I found that part interesting. These germs are hardy little buggas. Jesus is hardier!

I was trying to decide what movement caused this crazy thing to burst and the only thing I can think is that I must have hit the door handle with my left hand as I let Coco outside. (The dog was going nuts because DADDY’S HOME!) The force of that jolt may have moved up my arm to the seroma in my arm pit and that may have been enough to do the trick. It was under a lot of very uncomfortable pressure!

I’ve been through 3 professional seroma aspirations now, and having it burst was wonderful! There was zero pain! And needle free! No hunting around with stabbie things looking for the pocket! No hospital gown! And in the comfort of my own home. Yeah, this was the ideal seroma aspiration! Messy, but satisfying. It feels so good to have that bubble of pressure finally out of my armpit!!

Some days God just does a thing. In the fulllness of seroma time.

I am full of gratitude and a little bit of puss.

On a side note, I just found the strike-through button. Evil laugh. I think I’m going to enjoy this!

Sending so much love your way! (The non-germy kind.)

With so much gratitude,

Carmen