Catherine,
I love your story! I left town about after my radiation as well. It was about a week after radiation had ended, and I was going to spend some time with my parents as a "reward" for all the fun and games with medical stuff during the previous months. In fact it was the day I was to leave town that I began experiencing the pain of what would become the abscess.
Yes, I am very aware that the majority of women make it through surgery and radiation treatment without this kind of added complication. In fact, at first, I thought that the abscess I experienced was something that almost never happened. And that's when I began to explore the web even more to discover that it wasn't as uncommon as people want to believe.
In addition, as you mentioned, the "cancerhead" part of my experience caused me great anger and frustration in so many ways, particularly with the added complications. My life basically fell apart--but that was because of my specific set of circumstances.
I guess the bottom line is figuring out if there's any way my experience can help others in similar situations by either being forewarned, or having increased information to perhaps avoid the complications altogether.
Now, one year after "graduating" from wound care, while I find myself in physical therapy to attempt to loosen the severly scarred tissue, I'm happy to say I'm in a different place emotionally. Sure, there are still those occasional days when I wish it had all just been a bad dream, but the reality isn't as stark anymore and life does move on.
Hope you're doing wonderfully!
Liz