Super Duper surgery record - I'm home 48 hours after completion of translab

[yardtick]

No No Debbi,

Christie Brinkley needs to be worried!!!  You look great, you've been through a battle and you have WON!!!!!

Take care,
Anne Marie

[Jim Scott]

Debbi:

Bikini days are over?  Don't give up so easily.  To an objective observer, that really isn't all that much of a scar.  I would guess that in another ten weeks it will be far less noticeable.  I would suggest purchasing some Vitamin D oil to treat it. My wife used it after a surgery and whatever scar she had was essentially invisible after a year.  I know there are other (albeit expensive) scar-reducing agents available OTC.  Worth the cost if they are efficacious.  You may not be ready for a two-piece this summer, but wait until next year!   

Jim

[Debbi]

Thanks, guys.  I was thinking of giving up my side job as a bathing suit model anyway, along with my second career as a high wire artist!  Jim, I actually just picked up something for scar treatment a few days ago - some sort of oil with lots of vitamins and herbs in it, smells great.  What I am really hoping is that it makes the big hard knot of scar tissue diminish somewhat. 

I still have to side with Julie though that it seems like a big incision for such a small amount of fat.  With that much room to move around, you'd think they'd get a bunch more fat out of there!  And, they definitely didn't do their finest stitchery around there, either!

Julie, how did the staple removal go??  Could you feel anything?

Debbi

[Cheryl R]

I have 2 scars since I was so lucky to have the CSF leak surgery.  One is one inch and the other one and half inches.  Just had to measure after hearing of the large size of some.              One was a big knot for some time and I figured that it would always be that way.    It did heal and now both look the same and are even inverted a little and a shiny pale color.    I never did use any type of ointment on them.              So there is hope.      The horrible site was the translab incision times 2.
To any new people, my CSF leak was due to my hospital using a new type of colloidal implant called Durepair. 3 people then had leaks.   A nurse told me she was quite surprised as they rarely would see a leak.           I well know how purchasing depts like to go for the least expensive product.    They did then change back to the one they had used previously.
      Next year at the sympsoium you can have the fun of feeling my bumpy head and see the interesting incision I have.     
                                                       Cheryl R

[JulieW4]

I think your belly looks great and I will definitely pick up some scar treatment oil myself.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my staples removed today!   I saw my otologist/nuerologist today and he spent a few minutes saying how great things were that it would take awhile before the fat he put in my ear would disappear.  He described making an "outey" belly button in my ear and it would eventually shrink to be an "inney", but would not give me how long.  I tried to press that by the time I have my BAHA processor in 3 months my ear would be less gunky, but he wouldn't commit to a time.  I see my neurosurgeon next Tuesday and that is when the staples are removed.  He said that he never told me how much fat he was taking from my belly but that it was more than a tablespoon and that he took out a lot hence the 3 inch cut. 

Julie

[leapyrtwins]

Debbi -

thanks for being impressed with my retrosigmoid scar 

As Jim said, your belly incision isn't bad at all.  If your experience is anything like mine, the scar will fade very fast. 

Don't have any pics of my belly and don't intend to take any  but your incision is even lower than mine.  I think you are correct about the interns doing the fat grafts - I know that's what happened in my case.  In fact, that was the intern's main job - kind of makes me wonder how he'll graduate from fat grafts to AN surgery    but I'll bet someone in med school has the answer to that question 

Julie -

sorry you are still "with staples" but at least you got some explanation of why your belly incision is so long and at least you can shampoo in the meantime (I think you said you could). 

If vitamin D works like Jim says it does, I'd skip the scar treatment oil and go with it.  Vitamin D is bound to be cheaper.  I spent about $60 on a very small bottle of scar stuff to use on my son's cheek and honestly it didn't work well at all.  I think it was called ScarGuard.

Jan

[Soundy]

my belly scar is lower than that ... would be X rated if I had a picture ... I measured it a minute ago and
it is a bit over 4 inches long... the golf ball sized pump of damage tissue is visible if I put pressure around it ...
was told I could have it removed at my own expense so I guess I am keeping it ...the scar it's self is a silver line


Mine was also done by an intern...scary that two men were prowling around in my head and had to stop
because he cut something he shouldn't have and I was bleeding out ...  he came to see me in pre-op and
told me it was going to be a simple nip and stitch procedure to get a little fat ... at least he was not poking
around in my head ...

[leapyrtwins]

Soundy -

sounds like your belly scar is extremely low    Mine is somewhere between Julie's and Debbi's. 

I can't believe that they told you that in order to fix the damaged tissue you'd have to pay for it yourself.  Yikes!  Hardly seems fair 

Jan

[Soundy]

Level with the top of my pubic bone low 


They say the lump is scar tissue that built up from tissue dying and calcifying from lack of blood when intern did
his thing and insurance said it was not medically necessary to remove it if it was not interfering with any funtion...
I am aware of it , but it is painless and no one but me knows it is there ... well and all of y'all 

[Debbi]

And we promise not to tell!

Heck, you guys on this forum could hold me hostage forever based on some of the pics I've shared with you.  Nothing like a brain tumor to take care of any self-consciousness.   

Debbi

[cmp]

Don't have any pics of my belly and don't intend to take any

Count me in that club too, Jan!!! Seriously, thanks everyone for posting pics--it is really helpful to know what's normal for us ANers... (And I agree, Debbi, your belly incision looks very neat and likely to fade to nothing, so Christie Brinkley better not rest on her laurels just yet...)

Julie--so glad to hear you came through this in record time, with no post-operative complications, it seems! And you look fantastic! Wow!

The drastically shortened hospital stays for this surgery do make me kind of nervous, though, I must say;  at the time of my original surgery ('89), 7 days was the typical stay, and my neurosurgeon finagled an extra 3 days for me since he knew I had a 5 hour flight home to NM after being discharged. Ironically, the big topic of the day was how maternity stays had been sliced away to a fraction of what they were in former years (I'd had my first child the year before, and was actually very happy to go home pronto with my little bundle of joy...) I feel like the same thing has happened with AN surgeries--though I feel the pros and cons of being in a hospital after major surgery are a little different than after childbirth!

Which is a long way around of saying, even though you broke an Olympic record getting home, and are doing wonderfully well, please take it very very easy! Treat yourself very gently and give yourself lots of time to heal and recuperate at the pace your body dictates to you.

Best,
Carrie

[JulieW4]

Carrie,  Thanks so much for your concern.  I was so ready to leave the hospital and of course I am sleeping much better now that I am home, but I am far from being back to normal. The reason I was released so early is because I had absolutely no dizziness or balance issues which seems most people do that have this type of surgery.  I am amazed how tired I am and how little energy I have.  My friend came yesterday and spent the day with me and she said I looked better after surgery then I did 10 days out.  I'm trying to let myself take it easy and not feel sorry for myself for not having any energy.

Julie