Incisions

mlph4021 said:

I was having a lot of pain in my long scar

And accepted I'd have it a while. 3 days ago, I realized NOTHING hurts anymore! Well, my back gets a little stiff, but I think I am going to have to accept I am just not young anymore.

Now most days I hardly think of cancer or surgery or anything that totally consumed me for a month and a half. Strange, because I was a total wreck, just a few weeks ago. I am not sure if my denial game is that strong, or if it is just normal to stop thinking about it, but almost seems like it happened to someone else. I am not worried about it though, if I can just put it behind me I am glad. I know I dealt with it enough already. There were many tears, so much anxiety, I think I am just through it and made it to the other side. 

I know what you mean about denial. My surgery is just over two weeks away and I am very calm about the whole deal. But is it just my own high quality denial or real calm?

If you hear a clattering sound it is probably just me falling apart.

Steve.

APny said:

Mine was an open partial. It

Mine was an open partial. It's just under 4 inches and is now a thin white line after nearly 3 years. They just used surgitape, not staples or stiches outside.

It was strange to have surgitape.  I have had two other operations in my life and both were open abdominal, both of which required staples to close.  I didn't know what to make of the surgitape at first, as I thought I was still bleeding from all my incisions.  It was about two weeks or so before it started to peel off and I suddenly noticed, hey, those things are all healed!  But it was a far sight easier to move around compared to staples.

mlph4021 said:

Oh

I am not worried about how they look. I was not a bikini model pre-surgery, no plans to become one now. I think the ones that look like dragonflies are kind of cute actually, I know, I am weird. I was just curious because I saw so many people say they had 4 keyholes. I am wondering how on earth they got away with just those? Maybe tumors were just much smaller? Amazing what they can do nowadays! 

I was just disappointed that they used staples rather than needle and thread. Along with my hip replacement incision I could be going for the full Frankenstien. I guess I could get tatoos, but that feels like cheating.

5 counting my drain hole.  All but one are less than 1/4 inch.  The one next to my navel is 2-3 inches.  At my three month follow-up appointment the doctor was appreciative and took pride in the fact that the incisions were pretty symmetrical. 

Stub

I had five, all closed with staples. Two were very small (less than 1/2"), two slightly larger (around 1/2"), and the down-from-the-belly-button one the largest at 4" right after surgery, but already healed to about 2". When the staples were removed, it looked pretty red and scary, kind of curved. The surgeon was very pleased with himself, said, "It's like that so you can wear a bikini." I thought he was nuts, because (1) I think I last wore a bikini the year of the first Super Bowl and (2) that scar was NOT looking bikini-friendly.  But it's looking pretty good now.  Who knows (I'd be more open to a two-piece bathing suit than a tattoo  )

I only have one that's still reddish, not quite healed yet (one of the middle-sized ones, the one farthest down). The small ones are already practically invisible.  The other middle-sized one, slightly up and to the side from my belly button, initially looked like another belly button, which was both kind of gross and pretty funny (I think that's the one the camera scope went through). But now it just looks like a little scar, not at all navel-ish. 

My incision was 11. 5 inches long and then secured by staples, lots of them. I have a really nice scar on my left side that looks like I got into it with a ninja and he got the better of me.  There was two surgeons working on me and they both had their hands inside of me, or so I was told.

Mark