Day After Paracentisis

         I had a question for anyone who has had the procedure paracentisis done to them. I went to the Mass Geeneral Hospital in Boston yesterday morning. everthing went well.  They took me at 10.00 A.M. and was done at 10:45 A.M. The PA who inserted the needle said to keep the dressing on for 24 hours which I did. This morning I felt a pinching feeling coming from the area of the bandage. I removed the adhesive bandage and next to the needle mark an inch to the left there was mark that looked like a backwards capital D that looked like someone took a hot poker and branded me. It is a 2 inch length by 2.5 wide mark and was wet oozing fluid, probably ascities. It felt like a burn mark because it stung when I got into the shower to wash the area. The needle mark looked fine. After the shower I put some Bacitracin on it to take the sting out and dressed it with a large bandaid to keep the area clean. It feels better tonight. The PA was very young, she looked like a student with a doctor overseeing the procedure. They took 5 liters of ascities out and I lost about 13 pounds of water weight from the stomach but still have the edema in the legs which still limits my walking and moving around. It is still a big relief to get some of that out of my system. 1 or 2 more times and I would be really happy. Have to talk with my doctor next week if he will agree to another paracentisi. If anyone can identify with the experience I had I would appreciate it! I do not know if it was a reaction to the numbing anesthetic  or what? I had 2 para's done at the Leahy Clinic and  that did not happen. I am just afraid of internal infection, though I think this is more external but there was some fluid leaking from that burn area shaped like a backwards d, not from the needle mark. Thanks. Hope everyone is doing well.

Mike, I agree that you should have called with something that unusual.  The only thing I can think of that might cause that would be if the catheter that was used to drain you was held in place with tape that irritated your skin.  I am highly allergic to all surgical tape and get burns from it, which is why I immediately thought of that.  It does seem to be an external or skin problem.  When I recently had a deep oozing, burn-type wound on the inside of my upper thigh after surgery, I thought it was from tape, but it turned out to be from the compression stockings.  The Mayo dermatologist I saw told me to get some zinc oxide and use that on it until it healed.  It took months, but finally did heal.  Zinc oxide does heal external wounds and is available in a tube over the counter (very inexpensive), so you might want to pick some up tomorrow and try it.  I don't think it can do you any harm.  Then call the doctor who supervised the procedure on Mon.

Glad you are feeling some relief in your stomach.

Hugs,

Connie

Sounds good, Mike.  Try the zinc oxide to encourage healing.

Hugs,

Connie

Bostonmike..... everyone seems to heading in the same direction that I would suggest. Reaction to the adhesive on bandage, I cant have certain tapes or bandaides either, what you described I have had many times. I also have this issue with certain sutures. Doug started to have issue with some of the tapes so we would change the tape after a few hours then again before we could remove it. He always leaked for about 12 to 24 hrs after the tap was done.

Sue