The Nurse Curse is a real thing!!! I am a registered nurse. This Curse is known as the following: when a nurse has a medical procedure or enters a hospital as a patient, if something can go wrong, it WILL!!! All facts!

The day after my surgery, I did what all good patients do, rested, medicated, and iced. I took cat naps. I took my pain meds every 4 hours. I stayed on the couch with ice packs. On day two, I was feeling good. Didn’t need pain meds or ice packs as often. I was still a little sleepy from anesthesia and the surgery. But overall, I was feeling good. On day three or four, I noticed a fluid sound when descending the stairs. It was a seroma. Seromas are fluid that forms in the ‘dead space’ of a wound. Seromas are standard with this type of surgery. On day five in the morning while in bed, I reached for my alarm. I heard/felt (I was still asleep ok) a popping noise. My incision started to drain fluid. I called the next day and got in with the surgeon. The surgeon took a look and said it was normal and that if anything changed, to let them know. It continued to drain and by day 10, a Sunday, I was pretty sure it was infected. On day 11, called got in to see the surgeon, and it was infected. Hello, nurse curse!!! The surgeon put me on amoxicillin and cultured the wound. The surgeon also pushed on the breast to remove as much of the infection as possible. That hurt a bit! On day 13, the culture results came back that the only thing the organism was resistant to was penicillin. Hello, nurse curse! I got a new antibiotic that same day. On day 18, I went for a follow-up visit. The surgeon removed a dissolving stitch that was not dissolving because it wasn’t touching tissue, and now my incision is gaping open. I lovingly called it my boob pocket. The surgeon put some dry packing in it and covered it with gauze. Next, we reviewed the pathology from the lymph node biopsy. The report stated that, in the two samples that were sent, there was no lymph node tissue noted. The surgeon and I reviewed all things that were done and we couldn’t figure out how on earth that could even happen. Hello, nurse curse!!! The surgeon suggested that I go to a breast specialist. I would need to have lymph node tissue to ensure that the cancer did not spread. That critical information was required to make a treatment plan for me. I would be delayed in treatment until I could get this information. So another surgery for me. Hello, nurse curse!