I had a patient today with a situation I have never seen in my 20 years as a plastic surgeon. A 31-year-old female was referred to my office by the local hospital because of an oily discharge from her breast. The female had solicited a breast augmentation in Mexico in 2009, believing it to be the cheaper option.
Fast forward three years.
She’s sitting at work and noticed a spot on her shirt near her breast. As the day goes on the spot gets bigger. She went to the bathroom once the spot on her shirt became quite wet. Her breast, as well, was covered in an oily liquid.
She immediately went to the hospital, but they could not diagnose as a problem. The hospital placed a call to our office, requesting a consult.
She showed up at our office a short time later, and I examined her to quite a puzzlement.
I did all the routine checks that I preform on my breast augmentation patients; politely informed her that she could have spent the same to have a procedure here in the states; but could not find the cause of the problem.
Although her breast was still covered in an unknown oily liquid, it was not coming from her breast as far as I could tell.
After talking for a few more minutes about her symptoms, I asked to see her bra. She had told me earlier that it was not a push-up, but upon inspection I noticed that while one cup had a puffy sack at the bottom to gently boost the breast, the side of the unsolved leaky breast, was deflated.
It only took a second to solve the oily mystery, as I looked up at her and said, “well your implant did leak … but it wasn’t the one you were expecting!”
She took her bra in embarrassed amazement, and I told her that I couldn’t accept payment for my astute investigation skills. I did ask to use her story as a moral to pass on …
… before you freak, check your bra for the leak!
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