I have little experience with this so i'm speaking from working with other
surgeries which required drains.  Both my mother and mother in law had
breast cancer and had drains for a while after surgery.  I understood this
was to avoid the skin closing up too soon and the lymph fluid which came to
the area due to the surgery would collect, causing pressure and pain,
possibly abcess.  As soon as the drains were collecting below a certain
amount, they were removed, the skin healed and they had no excessive
swelling.

Then my father in law had heart bypass surgery - I went to care for him
after his discharge, and found they had removed the drains in what seemed
to me a very fast time, on discharge rather than sending him home with one
and letting me monitor it as I had with the other two...    I did not press
the issue as I arrived after it had been removed - big mistake - 3 months
later he had surgery for what he was told was probably lung cancer - only
to find that it was a large amount of blood/serous drainage that had
colllected then formed a capsule.

I realize that both these surgeries are different from an abcess,  I have
read in other Lactnets that these often drain a lot longer than many MDs
feel comfortable with - but that the real experts (MDs and LCs who are used
to working with breasts that are lactating) say "it's a laundry problem and
will heal"...

Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, IBCLC
Vacaville, CA
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