At 14 weeks post-surgery I am uncomfortable with my scar, and when I look down at it I have flashbacks to some of the scariest aspects of my surgery. My skin is very pale and the scar is extremely red and rather crooked at the bottom. My chest was stapled and there are vertical rows of very bumpy big red dots on either side of the incision, which has widened in recent weeks, and there are parallel lines on my breasts from the retractor. I wonder if a cemented incision would have healed better? I don't want to attract stares at my pool so I wear a T-shirt under my bathing suit.
I bruise easily and recover slowly, so I think healing and fading will be very tedious. Bruising from the surgery lasted over a month, extending from my chest to my abdomen in garish shades of orange and magenta embellished with bright red petechiae. After the cardiac cath test I had a massive attack of itchy hives, so it seems that my skin is super-sensitive.
When I asked a friend whose husband was a plastic surgeon about care of the scar, she said that keeping it well moisturized is very important because scar tissue does not make oil like normal tissue does. When stretched, the tissue develops tiny fractures and this slowly results in more scar tissue. This can be minimized by keeping it lubricated. I have a small collection of products that I use in rotation—cocoa butter, shea butter, vitamin oils, and Vanicream. I have read that massaging along the length of a scar several times a day may help soften it and reduce its volume, and that using sunblock when the chest will be exposed to the sun can lessen the likelihood of having the scar darken or redden permanently.
Today an article appeared in my local paper in which various remedies to prevent or lessen scarring after surgery are discussed and it seems that petroleum jelly can be more effective than many of them. Studies have shown that silicone gel sheeting and silicone gel are promising but expensive. Scars can take 6 months to 2 years to heal. Antibiotic ointments are not recommended because they don’t help healing or reduce infection and do increase the risk of antibiotics resistance.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/la-he-scars-20110417,0,4933302.story
A sidebar that appears in the newspaper was not printed online and this includes the suggestion that one to two weeks before surgery you should stop taking anything not medically necessary that thins the blood and increases bleeding. Only do this with the approval of your surgeon. Increased bleeding leads to more bruising and swelling, which can make the scar larger. This list includes aspirin, ibuprofen, vitamin E, fish oil, garlic, ginger, ginko and alcohol. Pat
I bruise easily and recover slowly, so I think healing and fading will be very tedious. Bruising from the surgery lasted over a month, extending from my chest to my abdomen in garish shades of orange and magenta embellished with bright red petechiae. After the cardiac cath test I had a massive attack of itchy hives, so it seems that my skin is super-sensitive.
When I asked a friend whose husband was a plastic surgeon about care of the scar, she said that keeping it well moisturized is very important because scar tissue does not make oil like normal tissue does. When stretched, the tissue develops tiny fractures and this slowly results in more scar tissue. This can be minimized by keeping it lubricated. I have a small collection of products that I use in rotation—cocoa butter, shea butter, vitamin oils, and Vanicream. I have read that massaging along the length of a scar several times a day may help soften it and reduce its volume, and that using sunblock when the chest will be exposed to the sun can lessen the likelihood of having the scar darken or redden permanently.
Today an article appeared in my local paper in which various remedies to prevent or lessen scarring after surgery are discussed and it seems that petroleum jelly can be more effective than many of them. Studies have shown that silicone gel sheeting and silicone gel are promising but expensive. Scars can take 6 months to 2 years to heal. Antibiotic ointments are not recommended because they don’t help healing or reduce infection and do increase the risk of antibiotics resistance.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/la-he-scars-20110417,0,4933302.story
A sidebar that appears in the newspaper was not printed online and this includes the suggestion that one to two weeks before surgery you should stop taking anything not medically necessary that thins the blood and increases bleeding. Only do this with the approval of your surgeon. Increased bleeding leads to more bruising and swelling, which can make the scar larger. This list includes aspirin, ibuprofen, vitamin E, fish oil, garlic, ginger, ginko and alcohol. Pat
