Tuesday, September 14, 2010

More on my nipple piercing experience and horror

The aspiration was very painful and didn't work.  They pulled yellow lumpy puss out of the abscess and sent it off to have it tested to see what bacteria was growing.  A few days later I notice lumps in my left breast just above my nipple.  Now I know that this feels like the same thing and am getting really frightened. What did  I do???  I know that the piercings are to blame and am hating myself for getting them. I have since removed my piercings.  By the 20th of June I am seeing the Breast surgeon.  He decides that I need to have a drainage procedure on my right breast. Which I might ad that he does this in his office with a scalpel and lidacane.  The lidacane doesn't last very long and I can feel the whole thing.  There is so much blood and the pain is horrible.  He packs the hole he has made and instructs me to pull it out and repack it.  He looks at the left side and says lets wait and see if that one goes away on its own.  I go back 2 days later to have a check on the right side and he has to open the hole he has made even wider.  OUCH!!!  Then he decides he is going to aspirate the left side.  The breast surgeon also tells me that none of the labs have come back with anything growing.  He can't understand why.  He also tells me that he wants me to take yet another antibiotic.  By this time I have been on antibiotics for just about a month and have had enough.  I informed him that if it's not an infection then I don't want an antibiotic.  He says fair enough and we will wait till I absolutely have to take an antibiotic. So I keep going to the breast surgeon 2 times a week to be checked on and things just don't change.  He decides at the beginning of August he is going to drain the left side. So the same procedure of lidacane and a scalpel. Lots of packing and lots of pain.  Then the breast surgeon says I will see you in a month. If it's not better by then he wants me to have surgery where he can open the breasts up and clean them out thoroughly and get a good look on what is going on.  Meanwhile i'm in pain and they aren't getting better at all. I'm walking around all summer long with a hole in each breast that I have to pack everyday.  They weren't even healing up like they should be.  Well I finally get back to the breast doctor the first part of September and he says that is it. We are going to surgery and that he has done all he can do in his office.  I'm relieved!! Finally I figure this nightmare would be over.  Well on Friday September 10 I had my surgery.  The day of my surgery I noticed that on the right side I had a lump back towards my armpit.  I definatley brought this to my surgerons attention. He said that the abscess was tunneling and that he wasn't so sure that this surgery would work but it was a step in the right direction.  2 1/2 hours of surgery that day.  He had to cut the nipple and flip it back and clean up all the material he could. He took tissue samples and fluid samples.  He also had to leave the right side open a bit to have packing because of the tunneling.  I have lots of stiches on the inside of my breast and my nipple was put back in place with butterfly stips.  The left side isn't bad at all. Doesn't hurt and looks ok.  But the right side looks awful and hurts really bad.  I have packing that I have to pull out 1 centimeter a day and when I do out pours pink fluid. It hurts so bad.  So I am to the point of asking what is next??? Have to wait to go to the surgeon on the 23 of this month for another check up.  Hoping that this surgery took care of it but I am not sure.  What is the next step?  I have searched the internet and haven't found much of anything on this subject.  Wish I was warned about what can happen when you get your nipples pierced.  I'm hoping that someone who is wanting to have their nipples done comes across this blog and sees that it isn't all sunshine and lollipops.  Yes it may look good and it seems to be the rage but it does have it's down side.  My medical bills are well into the thousands almost into the 10's of thousands. All for $60 piercings.  So not worth it.    And who knows how long I will have to deal with this.  Will be posting as I have more information as to how my treatment is going. 

My Experience With Nipple Piercings

Welcome to my blog! Hopefully this blog will help someone out there who is going through a similar experience. Or maybe this will help someone make an informed decision on getting their nipples pierced.
On March 24 of this year I decided that I was going to quit smoking cold turkey and that I would treat myself with getting my nipples pierced. This was something that I have always wanted to get done.  The piercings themselves  went pretty well.  I went to a very well known piercer and the place was very clean. There was little pain and very little bleeding.  I cleaned the piercings just as I was instructed with liquid dial soap a few times a day.   I had thought that they were healing pretty good and was very proud of them.  On May 27 of this year I had a routine physical.  Upon doing a breast exam my doctor was concerned because she felt a pea sized lump on my right breast. I am 35 years old and have never had any abnormal bumps or lumps in my breast.  My doctor was very concerned and sent me right over to the hospital to get a mammogram.  For the mammogram I was instructed to remove my nipple rings.  Upon completion of the mammogram I was told I would have to have an ultrasound.  The radiologist had  come in during the ultrasound and told me that the bump was solid and that if it should change shape or size I was to call my doctor right away.  He wanted to take the wait and see approach.  Well I left that appointment not feeling any better about the whole situation.  At this point I was scared.   By June 9 the bump had turned into the size of a golf ball.  I called my doctors office and told the receptionist that I needed to see my doctor. The receptionist passed my call over to a nurse and I explained that I was told by the radiologist to call if the bump got bigger.  The nurse said to me "If you think you need to be seen then I will have  you come in later today!" So off I went to see my doctor. Who upon looking at me said "Oh you have mastitis"  Gave me an prescription for 10 days of Cipro and said if it's not any better come back in to see her.  I took the medication as prescribed but by the 9th day on the cipro I was in so much pain and my breast was so large that it felt like it was going to burst.  Ended up going to the local ER because it was after hours and the pain was unbareable.  The ER doctor said it was an abscess and that if I didn't get it treated soon that it could turn bad real fast.  They gave me 10 days of clindamycin to take and told me that I needed to call my doctor in the morning and tell the doctor that I need a referral to see a breast surgeon.  So the next morning I called the doctors office and they passed me over to the nurse once again.  I told her what was going on and she says "Why would they tell you that you need to see a breast surgeon?"  Well I have had it will that nurse by now and the doctors office. So I didn't make an appointment with them. I instead went back to the ER and said I need something done here.  They ended up aspirating the abscess and extending my antibiotic even longer.  They also made me an appointment with the breast care center.