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. 

1 comment:

  1. I'm sorry you had such a horrific experience. However, I don't think you should shift the blame solely on your piercings. Sure, it may be the more likely culprit, but your doctors didn't mention that was the cause (according to your article). Besides, I'm sure your horror story is in the minority when it comes to nipple piercings. I've had mine pierced for about 9 months and have come across no such problems. It's safe to say everyone's body will react differently, but just because you had a regretful/expensive experience, doesn't mean you should scare people away from any body modifications.

    ReplyDelete