Recovery/scar

[Mgreenwood]

I'm two months out from my second open heart surgery, the scar is healing but it's still quite red in color compared to what the original scar looked like and was wondering how long it takes before it starts blending in with your skin?

My first surgery was over 17 years ago, so my recollection is a bit fuzzy on healing time. I know not to expose my chest to sunlight, forgetting how long that is as well, perhaps that's the healing time for the incision?

Also I still have some phantom pain at the very top of the incision every once in awhile, nothing I've taken medication for, but was wondering if that's similar to what others have experienced?
Thank you

 

[almost_hectic]

I had some pain all the way up until almost 8 months after surgery. At about six weeks after surgery I began using a product called ScarAway the really sped up the healing of my scar. First thing I noticed was how the redness started to fade to white and the scar seemed to blend in with the surrounding skin. My scar is hardly visible now at 10 months

 

[Freddie]

This "Phantom Pain" you're experiencing could be the nerve endings trying to heal.

 

[Zoltania]

A few years ago I got a deep scrape on my shin and it took about two years for the redness to fade back to near-invisibility. I'm expecting about the same for my surgery scar.

 

[epstns]

Everyone heals differently. My valve surgery was just over 5 years ago, and other than the shinier texture of my scar, it is not noticeable. It has been that way for quite a while, though I don't remember how long it took to blend. One key question to ask yourself. Do you have any other scars? How long did it take for them to fade, if they did? My thought is that for the same patient, most scars will behave the same way. If others faded and blended within a few months to a year, I'd expect this one to be the same. If your scars tend to remain vivid, or become bulky (keloid), then that is what is in store again this time.

After my surgery, I took the attitude of "Love me, love my scars." I just stopped worrying about them -- all of them. Even in the gym locker room where there's little to hide them. If anyone asked me, I told them that the main sternal scar is from a knife fight that I almost lost. The drain scars were small arms wounds from my long ago military time, and my pacemaker was just a little piece of shrapnel left behind. After that, people stopped asking about all the rest of them (work and play injuries on hands, arms, legs, as well as a couple or random surgical adventures).

 

[almost_hectic]

I'm two months out from my second open heart surgery, the scar is healing but it's still quite red in color compared to what the original scar looked like and was wondering how long it takes before it starts blending in with your skin?

My first surgery was over 17 years ago, so my recollection is a bit fuzzy on healing time. I know not to expose my chest to sunlight, forgetting how long that is as well, perhaps that's the healing time for the incision?

Also I still have some phantom pain at the very top of the incision every once in awhile, nothing I've taken medication for, but was wondering if that's similar to what others have experienced?
Thank you

Regarding your question.. what Ive been told is avoid unprotected sun exposure to your scar area for one year. Use sunscreen or cover up or it can sunburn and darken the scar permanently.

 

[johninsd]

Who cares what the scar looks like? I doubt that many of us will be entering beauty contests anyway. I have the sternotomy scar and a scar from intestinal surgery just below it - if anyone comments I just say "you should see the other guy". I'm just glad I live in an era in which things like aortic root aneurysms and pre-cancerous polyposis of the colon can be treated - the traditional outcome of these things was premature death - I'll take the scars any day.

 

[AKAFrench]

I have been unusually concerned with the appearances of my new scar. I just had my forth surgery about two months ago, and they removed my old scars...which might be leading to this new found vanity. I have never worried about my scars and for some reason I am being a little weird about this one. Before, I did whatever I wanted with no concern about color or size of the scars. No matter how it looks when fully healed, I'm just happy that these are the issues I am worried about now...not the upcoming surgery!

 

[Mgreenwood]

The reason I'm asking about healing time is I ended up with a skin infection from hospital, wondering how long before it fully heals and I don't need to worry about reinfection of the sternum scar.
Thanks