2 weeks post-op and wounds still not fully closed?

[oherin 0]

I will be 2 weeks post-op this tuesday, and my steri strips started falling off two days ago. One of them looked fine, just a little red, but the other one wasnt fully closed, and it looked like it had a little collection of yellow drainage in it. It wasnt seeping, it was just sitting there. And then today another one of my steristrips came off and there was the same problem. The top part of the wound was closed but the bottom part was still open. it wasnt as if you could see into my abdomen but it was just a little crater. Is it due to my weight? [the girth of my stomach is towards the bottom, so everything drags down]

We put an ointment on it and put medical tape over it.

did this happen to anyone else?

[BetsyB 9]

Check with your doc; mine does NOT want ointments or creams of any type applied.

How soon after banding were your staples removed? I was pleased my surgeon left mine in; I return tomorrow (Day 7) for removal. When I had my last c-section, staples were removed on Day 3, and I did experience re-opening of a segment of the incision--not just the small cratering you've described, but a complete reopening.

It was NOT a cause for concern, and it persisted for a good month, at least. I was told to keep it clean and dry, open to the air (no bandages), and avoid using any creams.

Please call your doc to see how s/he'd like you to handle it. In the meantime, I'd leave off ANY dressing unless clothes staining is a real issue.

ETA: the yellow drainage you describe is normal. Wound drainage progresses from red to yellow to clear over time. Green? A big concern. Yellow? OK. Let the Water gently run over your incision sites when you shower. Pat dry.

Signs that indicate something worrisome going on are increased redness and swelling, increased pain, FEVER, and pus (thick greenish drainage).

Edited January 17, 2010 by BetsyB

[oherin 0]

I didn't have any staples. all they used were steristrips to close the wounds.

i'll have my mom call the center soon or tomorrow. it doesnt hurt or anything its just bothersome

[building_a_new_temple 0]

Just an FYI, my sites weren't stapled either - I was glued shut.

I had one open up and it is taking longer to heal - went back to the center to have it checked out after the weekend (I was banded on the 30th and it opened the 31st of December...new years eve....fell right before a weekend, too, so I was about 4 days without anyone to call/ask). Since I had to wait to see them, I cleaned it carefully with some peroxide (not the best, since it kills good skin and bad stuff, but it was all I had) and put some neosporin on it, then covered with a bandaid.

They checked it out on the following Monday and said it looked ok, but since it was red, they gave me another round of antibiotics. I will admit, I only took the antibiotics for two days and stopped because they were making my stomach hurt so bad. For the record, I have never stopped taking antibiotics before - I know it's really bad to do, but the pain was unbearable. But I kept cleaning it, putting antibiotic ointment on it when I covered it (if I was going somewhere wearing pants that came up to the incision), and tried to leave it uncovered when I was home and in pj pants in order for it to have a chance to scab over. So far, it's healing pretty well. Still red, but that is gradually going away, and it is almost closed now.

[bushthamush 0]

i had my lapband on sept 4,2009 and were the port is i had two strips well one of them started to loosen up and i didn't know it was no longer holding the skin together so i pulled both of them off cuz i realized there was a opening and i still hadn't had my first postop visist. it was a good opening too, it wasnt the hole incision but it was like a .25 of a inch wide maybe even a half of an inch and u could see that it was starting to heal that way. so since i couldnt see the doctor yet i went to Walmart and got me some butterfly band aids. they worked like a charm had i did this a few days earlier maybe my incesion would had have stayed one straight line but it looks just fine and the surgen said i did good by doing that.

[Melinco 1]

I didn't have staples either, but had internal stitches. On one of my incisions, the end of a stitch was actually sticking out. I asked my surgeon about it and he said that it would eventually dissolve, or I could snip it off. About a week later, I was able to snip it off. Once I did, the little hole that was left there started to close back up. I did use peroxide on it, but no neosporin, put a bandaid on it for 24 hours, then have left it uncovered since.

As always, if in doubt, go see your doc. Better safe than sorry.

[oherin 0]

thanks everyone for replying

i had my dad who is a firefighter/paramedic look at them and he put some butterflies on one of them but he said the others look fine.

[HDmama 0]

I had one incision that was really funky like that...it was sort of "open" for weeks! I think it was about 5-6 weeks before it finally started scabbing over and closing (after I stopped covering it with bandages, btw)