My surgery was on May 15th. On Saturday June 1st I was feeling great; I felt like I had really turned a corner on my recovery and it was full speed ahead. I had a real vigor during my morning walk. Things were great....until....My Seroma. Later that night I was having some soup on my recliner while watching some tv. I got up at some point and my belly felt really wet. I looked down and my shirt was soaked through and so were my shorts. Did I spill some of my soup? I lifted my shirt and there was a small waterfall of fluid coming from my belly button incision. A scary sight to be sure, but I didn't feel any real discomfort from it. My wife and I looked at it and decided to give Dr. Jessee's office a call. I felt bad since it was late and a Saturday to boot, but they have a paging service at her office for emergencies. Dr. Jessee called me back herself within a few minutes. I was impressed. I explained the situation and she knew right away what it was; it made me feel better not only to find out that it was common and not that big a deal, but that I had a great surgeon who cared and was there when you needed to get a hold of her even in the middle of the night on a weekend.
This is where I first heard the word seroma. Plainly said a seroma is a pocket of liquid that forms in the body often associated with a surgical procedure, which will leak. The important part was the liquid. It was translucent of a yellowish tint, which is as good as it gets. The real danger is infection, which would be a thicker pus like discharge. Dr. Jessee told me to keep an eye on it and if there were any changes to let her know. If not I would call her office first thing Monday morning to get in to see her on Monday.
Despite a bandage, nine hours later I woke up to wet sheets with reddish yellow stains. After some cleanup we discovered that the fluid was changing to a more reddish tint and certainly wasn't abating. We decided to call Dr. Jessee's office to have her paged again and again she called back within minutes. She still felt I was probably fine, but just to be safe she sent me to the emergency room at the Largo Medical Center. I was told to see Dr. Hewitt who she works with so that he can better assess the situation. If he felt it was more than a seroma, she would come see me there.
We jumped in the car and headed down as it is about an hour away. During the drive, I drenched a couple of kleenexes and began feeling more discomfort from the area. It was a bit frustrating at the ER as even though we wanted to specifically see Dr. Hewitt, they have their procedures. We had to check in and be seen by a couple of nurses to check my vitals and determine my issue; both of which had never heard of Dr. Hewitt..very frustrating. After some impatient waiting on my part, Dr. Hewitt strolled in the door. I was very happy to see him. He took a good look and was able to drain a decent amount with some belly manipulation. He said it looked fine, but prescribed an antibiotic to be safe. They were nice enough to give us some bandages and tape, so that we can regularly change it. He also warned that it would take some time for this to drain and for me to schedule a follow up with Dr. Jessee for the end of this coming week.
We went home with our supplies stopping on the way at Publix to fill the prescription. Unfortunately by that night I started to notice another change in the seroma. It started to pus. By the next day it was certainly infected. I was gross, ooey, gooey, a mess. Luckily I was already on antibiotics and was free of the infection a few days later. I continued to drain consistently all week long. We went through a lot of gauze and tape that's for sure. I had some discomfort, but too be honest I think my skin took more of a hit from the tape and frequent changing of the bandage than from the seroma. I also spent some time trying to imitate Dr. Hewitt by squeezing my belly to speed the drain along. I think this contributed to a general soreness in the area.
At the follow up appointment with Dr. Jessee, she cleaned out the wound further and was very reassuring in that it was quite normal and looked like it was healing really well. Of course it was still leaking, but she said that it may take some time and we scheduled a follow up for a couple weeks later. She also suggested I create some pressure with a weight belt or back brace to help the seroma complete draining and the layer of skin could fuze back with the muscle. The body doesn't like the space and wants to continually fill it with liquid, so we needed to not allow the space. My wife actually came up with using a pregnancy band to create the needed pressure, which Dr. Jessee endorsed. Great idea as it turned out to be much more comfortable than the other options. Thanks babe! Also, thanks Jen for the actual pregnancy band. It wore well and was glad it was in the gender neutral black; it would have been slightly awkward to walk around in pink. Lol! I'm in touch with my feminine side, but I draw the line at going into labor!
Gradually my leaking diminished and finally stopped altogether just a few days ago. Today I had my follow up with Dr. Jessee and am happy to say I can close the seroma chapter after nearly three weeks. She even gave me the green light for any activity including swimming as of this weekend. Time for me to turn another corner in the journey and get moving!
Thanks to all for all of their help along the way. It's been very encouraging to have the support of so many along the way.
me
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