Ding, Ding, Ding... We have a winner!

Well, it looks like we have found the culprit for the fevers.

Saturday night I was woken up by some swelling under my arm, near where the lymph nodes were removed. Considering removal of lymph nodes puts me at risk for lymphedema, I figured that was the cause... especially when raising my arm over my head reduced some of the swelling. On Tuesday, I saw the nurse practitioner for the oncologist, who suggested that maybe there was an infection and that was the cause of the seroma. She referred me back to my surgeon's office and I met her nurse practitioner, who was able to aspirate some of the fluid, which was clear, but was unable to get all of the fluid under the arm. So she sent me off to have an ultrasound and have the remaining fluid aspirated while they could see where they were jabbing the needle.

Only, the remaining fluid is really deep... and it's not just fluid but pus. The doctor was unable to aspirate all of the pus as it was too thick for the needle he had and he didn't have a smaller gauge needle (smaller gauge means bigger bore). So, what was aspirated will be sent for cultures to figure the best antibiotic. The next most likely thing is, I will need another surgery in order to clean up the infected area (remove the pus and debris).

I'll get the results back in a day or two regarding the cultures. It's now a question of who calls first... the lab or the surgeon. And then the question will be, with the current infection, will chemo now be placed on hold until that is cleared up? I'm thinking it will be, but will need to have a discussion with my oncologist.

But at least we now know what the problem is. Just need to figure out the details of taking care of it and then I can get healthy enough to finish my treatment and get back to work.

Love & Hugs