Hey there. Waiting to schedule my surgery, which should be sometime in May or maybe June. I had my gallbladder out in Dec and have 3 sites and had a total of 12 staples. I got the random burning stinging pain for a few weeks, and the one basially in my belly button would get annoyed sometimes with certain pants. I too have a complete thyroidectomy in 2021, and that didn't bother me at all. (I'm from AL too, lol) Both surgeries, the only real issue I had is that I'm allergic to the adhesive in bandages, so I clawed myself and they were so whelped up. That part stunk. You can still see on my stomach where the adhesive was on my gallbladder sites.