Coming soon...

[cuoricino]

So, can someone please tell me why I've been scouring the web for the past 5 months obsessively searching for OHS scar pics when all I simply had to do was nose around in this thread?!?

I was too stuck around the Pre-surgery and Post-surgery posts to venture all the way down here!!

Well, here I am at T minus 6 days until surgery and I think I've got enough eye candy to last me all 6 days!

"This could have saved me that one lonely night at home when I went at my own chest with an erasable marker in front of the mirror 'just to see'," thinks couricino quietly to herself.

 

[Smiley2000]

A few weeks maybe months post-op we do our best to hide our scars from the world... then later on you show of the "zip" and wear it with pride

been there, done that, got the scar to proof it

I had a Surgeon that reminds me of Dr. Gregory House! but he sure can cut and sew

 

[Ross]

Well you didn't exactly ask now you did ya?

 

[cuoricino]

Well you didn't exactly ask now you did ya?

good point.

 

[Adrienne]

As for the scar issue, one thing that I really like that they did is that although it is a full sternotomy, the first two inches of skin do not have a scar because they stretched the skin up there and then sawed the sternum. If I wear something that goes below the two-inch mark, I have found all kinds of necklaces and pendants which hide the rest of it.

I can imagine that it would even be a bigger issue for someone of your age - at my age, a scar on my chest is the least of my vanity problems!!

In any case, I would ask your surgeon if they ever do the incision the way they did mine.

 

[Ross]

Heck I was gutted like a fish fillet. You know what? I don't care how it looks. I call it my badge of honor in the fight for my life. I even have a blow hole in my throat from a trach tube from being on the ventilator for weeks. Looks like someone shot me in the throat with a large caliber handgun. Thrills little kids when I tell them I'm actually a whale!

 

[hensylee]

I have a long one - but I also have a bit of cleavage that was not there b.s. (before surgery).

they fade in time - well, most of them do. some of us have a little trouble with them.

 

[tobagotwo]

Heck, I liked mine so much , I just had it renewed...

Best wishes,

 

[Ross]

Heck, I liked mine so much , I just had it renewed...

Best wishes,

Yes, even that happens from time to time.

 

[Kathy McCain]

I tell you truthfully, my scar is the least of what botheres me. I had minimally invasive. The scar from the AVR is about 3 to 3 1/2". The scar from the pericardial window is about 1 1/2". Maybe if I had been much younger it would have disturbed me. I think though, that after you live through something like AVR it sort of rearranges your priorities. You seem to have a different outlook on what is important, and what is not.

You'll be okay with it. You'll see

 

[Star54]

I love my scar(s)! It reminds me that if it were not for the operation .....well needless to say I wear it proudly!

 

[terodac]

Well I have to say after almost three years you have to look real hard to see mine! I am proud of it, it is my battle scar!!! The battle of my life, for my life!! I won!!

 

[MaryC]

I have a minimally invasive scar from my MV repair that I can't show off but my brother shows his scar off proudly, as he should. Before my family became so experienced in heart valve surgery (4 of us now!) I had a female co-worker who showed her scar off, too. She did not pick her clothes based on her scar and no one thought anything of it. As a matter of fact I respected her more thinking she had been through heart surgery.

Chris

 

[KaceyJ.]

Thanks to everyone for sharing! This is so helpful to us.

 

[Jkm7]

As for the scar issue, one thing that I really like that they did is that although it is a full sternotomy, the first two inches of skin do not have a scar because they stretched the skin up there and then sawed the sternum. .........



In any case, I would ask your surgeon if they ever do the incision the way they did mine.

I had two OHS and (same) surgeon also cut the sternum higher than he cut my skin. My scar starts lower from collar bone than he actually cut internally.