Tamara,

My husband has also had a lot of fluid drainage. At first it was an infection caused by a fistula (10 days after release from the hospital). They did treat him with IV antibiotics that time.

However, I think his case may be different. The docs were sure that the infection did some damage and the drainage, while constant since June 15th, is now accompanied by severe bouts of swelling in his jaw & neck.

The next bout of swelling came after his 15th radiation treatment, then again after rad treatment 28, and the current one started eight days after completing his radiation treatments.

The docs aren't 100% sure what this is - fistula, abscess, post radiation side effects. He has been on and off antibiotics since June 15. This last time the doc didn't really want to put him on them, but the swelling continued with very little drainage for over a week, and when he went back, the doc did give him more antibiotics.

His doc also felt that as long as it was draining, it would be OK. There is one sign I always pay attention to when it comes to this drainage -- the smell. In the normal daily drainage, I have not noticed a bad smell, but when it got infected, the odor was very distinct.

His surgeon even had me packing a small hole in his chin to make sure it stayed open so that the drainage continued to have a pathway out.

With my husband, there was not much pain involved in these until the very last one (post radiation). He said that one felt like he had just had 3 teeth pulled. I don't know why three, but a few days later he said it was better and he only felt like one tooth had been pulled.

So, I guess I can't answer your question on why, but yes, there are others who are having similar problems.

The only tests done so far have been cultures on the drainage to make sure there isn't something else lurking there and a CT scan, which was done because we went to the E.R. one time.

I hope your issue is resolved a lot faster than ours. I know how scary it is when this happens and even worse, when the docs are not sure what is happening.

Karen