open wound

[Tklein9495]

I has a mastectomy on 5/15 with immediate reconstruction via tram flap.  I have been seeing my PS regulary and he says things look good.  I went to see my Oncologist today and upon examination he asked how long my wound had been open (it has a wide band of blackness all around it).  At the risk of sounding dumb, I thought my wound was healing normally and this was just a scab forming.  My Oncologist advised I should call my PS as soon as I leave and let him know the would had opened.  I called my PS, but got his assistant instead.  She stated this kind of opening was very normal, that wounds open all the time, and it was probably just forming a scab (as i had thought).  I am now worried and am wondering if anyone else has had this kind of surgery and how long recovery took and what it looked like while recovering.  Any information would be appreciated.

[Greta_L]

Hi, I had the tram flap done 2 years ago.  First understand that I knew going into it that I was at higher risk for healing complications due to being overweight.  I thought everything looked good too and then part of the line at the waist above where I had a seroma (pocket of fluid) open up and drain.  Also the line across the breast looked like you described. Then, it almost seemed as if the stitches had let go or disolved and the would open up. I tried closing it with "butterflies", but that just irritated the surrounding skin.  The surgeons just kept telling me to keep it clean and covered and that eventually it would "fill in".  The breast opened wider and we had to "pack" that for awhile.  I used diluted "Tea Tree Oil" to cleanse the wounds daily and the doctors were amazed that I never got an infection in the nearly 5 months it took for everything to heal.  During that time I also had chemo so that slowed the healing too. I'm hoping yours won't open that far or long.  For me there was little or no pain there, just a major inconvenience dealing with bandages. I wanted the surgeon to restitch the breast but he said that wouldn't work and that my breast needed time to rebuild the blood supply under the incision.  A year later he  reduced that wide scar at the same time they reduced my other breast to match in size. It healed fine the 2nd time.
Don't mean to scare you, just let you know that it isn't totally abnormal and that in time it will all resolve itself.  Best of luck, Greta