I'm 72 & I had cancer in my left breast (6cm) and some type of non-cancerous lump in the right one, so I chose to have a double mastectomy with reconstruction. I had blue dye injected in my breast before my surgery so that the surgeon was able to find the sentinel lymph nodes. It was injected in several small vials in various places above the nipple. It was not intolerably painful. (But, I can imagine how painful it must have been to have it injected in your nipple!). When I came out of surgery, my left breast had a huge black spot at the intersection of the horizontal and vertical cuts. Apparently, I had a reaction to the dark blue dye, because it caused the skin to die and peel or flake off, leaving raw open skin underneath. Also, fluid was weeping out between the stitches even though there was a drain inserted in my breast. The area where the blue dye peeled off became infected and I spent nearly a month trying to clear it up with Cephalexin and then later a round of Bactrim. The Plastic surgeon cut out the infected area, but it was all the way down to the expander she had inserted and wouldn't heal. So, I had to have another surgery to have the expander removed. When I saw how she sewed it back together, my heart fell. It looked like something from a Frankenstein movie. I don't think they will ever be able to do breast reconstruction on it anymore. The Infectious Disease doctor called me and said that she saw on the lab report that there was a Pseudomonas infection and the Bactrim the Plastic Surgeon was giving me would not work on that. So she switched me to Cipro. I sure hope that finally takes care of it. I will need to take anti-Estrogen meds for the next 10 years, and the oncologist said that I will have to have radiation, but not chemo. The plastic surgeon said she doesn't want to do expanders or inserts after radiation therapy because the skin becomes damaged from it. But, I can't keep waiting for months to have radiation. I also need another surgery due to a fistula on my colon and could end up with a colostomy; but, they won't do that until I recover from the breast surgery. Once the breast heals up, I need to start radiation therapy every day for 6 weeks. Sometimes, I wonder if I'll ever recover all this. Its been very disheartening! When I check the surgery report, it said that they injected Lymphoseek, which is a radioactive solution designed to identify the lymph nodes that drain from a primary tumor. But this is a clear solution and not dark blue. There was no blue dye on my right breast, so they must have just added it to the left breast when they did the injection, since that was the one that had cancer. I don't know how it got all over the outside of my skin.
Glori, f you are going have dye injected for the purpose of finding the lymph nodes, I suggest you get tested ahead of time to see if you have a reaction to it. It's rare, not fun if you do. You could ask them to just use Lymphoseek to find them without the blue dye. I read that the dye is only very slightly more accurate in finding the lymph nodes. If you do decide to have the blue dye, be aware that your urine will be green for several days afterward. I wouldn't worry about the pain. I hope you have a much better outcome than I did.

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