HELP HELP HELP- infection- in total despair :(

My story is quite long, but please hear me out! I need support and advice

I went for surgery on 26th of May this year. I had wanted a boob job since my early teens, I never had much of a bust and felt very insecure about it.

This year (i’m now 20) I finally had enough money to pay for my BA. Decided to go with MYA- was really impressed with the company and felt it was a good decision.

Had a bust of about 30A/B and dress size 6/8 (5ft 2 so pretty small), my surgeon gave me the choice of 300cc or 340cc under the muscles implants. Was very excited about my surgery in May.

OP went great! No bad effects to the GA, hosptial staff were very pleasant and had faith in what my surgeon was doing. Things were doing okay until about 2 weeks in, then the nightmare began.

I was still wearing steri-strips at this point but I noticed a yellowy watery drop coming from underneath. Having felt under pressure to return to work after 10 days, i had maybe overstrained myself. I showed a nurse, not a MYA nurse, as I live about 90 miles away from the nearest MYA clinic (at the time). The nurse looked at the wound and covered it up with dressings etc. At this point there was no swelling or redness, just what I thought was a little innocent leaking.

Things went from bad to worse, a week or two onwards and I developed a high fever, was shivering like mad and the entire breast has swollen up red. VERY painful. MYA were very helpful as they told me to get antibiotics from my local GP and arranged an appointment with the MYA nurse and the next available appointment with a surgeon.

After 2 more weeks, the wound had leaked so much it had caused damage (a tract or something??) that even though the infection was gone it was still leaking. Meaning i’d have wet patches constantly appearing under my top and having to constantly check up on it. There was no other option than to return to surgery.

My surgeon explained the possibility of having to go without the left implant for 3 months. This broke my heart! I’d just at the beginining of May started seeing a new guy- absolutely lovely- but how could I ask him to put up with me only having 1 breast so early on- purely out of the reasons of what he might see as vanity.

We decided to go with the option of removal of the implant, clearing the pocket out and reinsertion of the implant in the one operation.

2 weeks later…the infection had returned, leaking everywhere. I was devisatated.

Went back to see surgeon, got prescribed more antibiotics. Wound started to heal until I noticed a black hole which started growing and growing by the day…

On returning back to the clinic, MYA had managed to get me in with another surgeon who explained that the implant was coming out of this hole. I was horrified.

I did not blame MYA in any way up till this point as I feel I was just unlucky getting this infection. MYA arranged for me to get an emergency surgery and paid full expenses of the trip. This time though, the implant was removed, leaving an A cup left and DD right. I was given an implant to wear as a prosthesis inside my bra, very grateful for this. The next three months were a strain on my relationship, but we made it, I promised to my boyfriend after this it would be fixed and after it was in, there’s little chance of anything going wrong.

On november I returned back to manchester to get my left implant put back in. Again the operation went well, and my surgeon did an excellent job as ever of stitching the wound up.

On my check up appointment the next week , everything looked good. The nurse decided to not put any dressings on it after she’d taken the stitches off. A week later, one side of the incision had ripped a little and had a tiny bit of blood, I immediately picked up the phone to the nurses helpline and followed their advice and covered it with steri-strips. A week later, a blister had developed. I kept it covered with a dry dressing. 5 weeks in the blister had burst leaving a hole. By 6 weeks I revisited my surgeon who was wary of the situation and told me to keep a close eye on it and keep it covered.

On Christmas eve, after my shower, I took off a dressing and infectious ooze came pouring out once again.

4 operations, and none of them seem to have worked. I am in total misery. I’ve spent Christmas day looking after my wound and trying to stay postive after 4 failed attempts, 3 months without an implant and not being able to go to the gym in so long due to post-operative rest has resulted in me putting on 2 stone.

I’m terrified about what is going to happen next and I don’t know if anyone else has been in a similar situation?! I am determined that I want these implants and I don’t want to be left with no breasts and horrible scars. What’s going to happen now?

IS there anyone out there who can help????

Morning sweetie!

Omg I really don’t know what to say!!

I can’t offer any advise as I’ve only just had my BA. But I can give u hugs and support!

I can’t even start to imagine what u r going through; it us great tho that u r trying to remain positive! I think I’d had given up hope!!!

Keep me in the know babs, would b good to know when u get it all sorted xxx

I just really don’t know what to say babe; what a horrible experience

Oh sweetheart I’m so sorry! I haven’t heard of an infection reoccuring so often, has the surgeon seen this before? I don’t know if it’s appropriate but hot poultice (cotton wool in very diluted warm salt water) will help to draw out infection until you get back to the nurse but It sounds like its already pretty advanced. My thoughts are with you and I truly hope that it goes away and you don’t have any more problems with it xxx

Hey, thanks for reading! (just noticed how long my post was!)

I can’t believe how unlucky i’ve been, I’ve never heard of anyone having to get an implant removed or an infection here!

My mum’s a nurse so she’s been able to put dressings on it. Going to have to spend the day up at A&E waiting to see a doc to get prescribed antibiotics.

Thanks for your comments I just don’t know how much more of this I can put up with Soo upset! It’s been a total nightmare xxx

Hiya hun im sooooo sorry to hear about this!!! I just dont know what to say!!! I know this is going to sound sooo daft but im having the same thinbg however luckily with something as stupid as my belly piercing but doing modelling it means a lot to me aswell, I had it pierced 7 years ago and only this year it started oosing and my skin started getting a hole in therefore making me loose my belly bar, i waited until the infection had cleared and my skin heaked and had it pierced again OWCH and guess what its blinking doing it again!!! I went to the doctor and he said sometimes when the skin gets a infection in it it creates a cyst like lump which if infection keeps reacuring you can have a little operation to remove the infected tissue so that the chance of it happening again is very slim, Maybe this is something you could ask about!!!

I really hope you get the results your after and wish you all the luck xxx

Thanks jenn Sorry to hear about your belly button though! My surgeon said that after 3 months of no implant and the antibiotics there should be no infection left. It’s weird that yours went bad after 7 years though!

Realised something today! Every time there’s been a problem nurses have been using an antiseptic dressing called inadine. I put one on today but it was too big. Like half an hour after I’d put it on, the whole area the dressing was on started getting really itchy. When I looked at it, there was a massive red itchy square where the inadine was. I think I might have been allergic to it the whole time! Probably meaning it couldn’t heal!? I’m not sure if thats the problem, but I hope it is, could be easily fixed! Will run these things past my surgeon next time I speak to him!

Thanks for the support, you’ve no idea how much it helps just to talk about this on here. Keeping it secret from most of my family so has been a bit awkward today sneaking off to the hosptial etc xxx

I have just read your post and I am so sorry to hear the crap you’ve had to go through. You could be on to something there though so definitely lay off the antiseptic dressing and see if it helps. Cannot believe an infection has come back so many times! Keep adamant and positive about finally getting what you want as you will do. Keep us updated hun xx

Got some new antibiotics after seeing doc today. I think this will be the 9th course of antibiotics since may! I’m really anxious to go and see my surgeon, I’m scared he’s going to give up on me

Its just hard because everytime I have a corrective op I can’t go to the gym, go swimming or do the things I enjoy! I’m usually an active kinda girl and finding i’m having to constantly “take it easy” Not to mention mysteriously demanding all this time off work and uni.

I paid all this money to try and improve my life, not to make it a massive stress! But I’m still determined I want my boobs! I’m still dreaming of the day where I can look in the mirror at my figure and smile.

Anyway girls, I’m not trying to scare any of you from getting a BA, if anyone is thinking about going for it, I still would! Although i’ve had such a rubbish time, I don’t regret the decision. Infection is pretty uncommon but I guess it does happen. xxx

Oh Babe i’m so sorry to hear about what gone on! your obviously a very strong and very determined person just hang in there and take it a step at a time..i would strongly recommend looking at the possibility of having the implant removed for a longer period of time, maybe 6 months and then having it reinserted. your body and your skin need time to totally get rid of the infection & to heal, if there is even a trace of it left there is a chance it can happen again.speak to your surgeon, if in the long run it works out better for you, and you get a bigger, infection free bust from it, it would be worth it. Your boyfriend will hopefully understand and if he does’nt then he’s not worth it. I take my hat off to you, its sounds like you’ve had a horrible year, hopefully 2011 will bring with it good news and new boobs!! keep us posted dolly xxx

wow so sorry to hear what has happened to you.

has your surgeon or anyone given u a reason why this keeps happening? I heard that sometime, altho its rare, your body just isn’t meant to have implants and rejects them.

Don’t feel like ur surgeon will give up on u! They can’t! you have paid alot of money for something that has gone wrong thru no fault of ur own so its their job to fix it!

xxx

So sorry to hear what you are going through! But thank you for posting and making us aware of it, so many success stories on here with no problems at all you kind of forget that infection does happen.

I hope you get it sorted, hopefully it is just an allergic reaction to the antiseptic dressing. Fingers crossed for you and keep us posted. x

awww hun i am so sorry to here this. I havent heard of it happening so often. Big hugs for you though. Fingers crossed for you! xxx

OMG chick so sorry to here this I have my figgers crossed for you that you get this sorted ASAP!!!!!!!!!!! xxx

Hey I know this post is a few months old, but I would like to know how you are getting on with one infection after another. I too had the same problem. I was in loads of pain in my right breast after my ba. The nurse said it was normal and that my breasts heal at different rates. I accepted this snd basically put up and shut up. The pain became unbearable but I waited to go to the clinic for my stitches out. So the nurse still said it was normal then when I had my first shower I nearly fainted as all this liquid started leaking from my boob. Went back to clinic, nurse said it looked ok and gave me some more dressings. I dreaded waking up in the mornings as the pain was terrible when I sat up, not just morning boob. I rang the clinic and she said it sounded like I had s seranoma. Which Is a build up of fluid. I saw a surgeon and he immediately said I needed to go to hospital. On arrival I saw the surgeon who had done my op and he said he needed to take the implant out and clean out the fluid, and put a new implant back in. I agreed as I was crapping it. Ok so had the surgery and they discovered I had a blood clot! My surgeon cauterised the blood vessels and put a drain in. Ian so scared now of anything else happening. He told me if I have an infection then the implant must be removed for 2 months! I really wish I hadn’t had them done. Sorry for babbling but after reading your story I had to tell you mine. I need to know that you’re ok now and tell you you have coped extremely well xx

Oh god things like this really scare me and pit me off a little but I know it’s only a small per enrage of people it happens to and I hope both of you, sam and claire are ok now and there’s no further problems for the both of you X

That is such a sad story to read, I really feel for you, I really hope everything is ok now and you have your dream boobs! To you too Sam, really hope you heal well now and have no future problems! All the best xx

Oh my god ladies how awful for both of you! I am slightly scared now but like Belle says you hear so many good stories on here you sometimes forget the risks. I sincerely hope it works out for both of you and you get the result you wanted before any of this rubbish stuff happened x x

I’m so sorry your having a rubbish time thank you for posting your story thou makes you more aware of what can happen after. Did u find out if it was the inaden in the end? Hope ur feeling better soon

Clairebear I’m so sorry to hear about this it sounds awful, hope your feeling better now, could you give us an update?

bless u hun this is just awful… it sounds to me like u need an allergt test, also can tey not check ur white blood cell count to see if u have a low immune system??? this cud be a reason why u are prone to infections…. i hope they sort it for u and u finally get the boobs u want and no longer suffering babe xxxx

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