Can people post photos of their scars?

[Guest guest]

I was wondering if maybe listmembers might be willing to share photos

of their scars with us. Those of us who haven't had abdominal myos

often wonder about what the physical changes will look like.

You can post a link to a web page, or set up an album on one of the

free services like Yahoo! Photos.

What do you think?

Ann

[Guest guest]

I'll describe mine instead.

THE SCAR:

(Abdominal myomectomy)

It's a horizontal scar and the position is below the top of brief

knickers and bikini bottoms, so it wouldn't show anyhow. it NEVER

looked frankenstein. Right from the start it looked like a text book

diagram....just a thin pink-red line (imagine you drew a line with a

thin pink felt tip pen.) It's approximately the length of a lid-

less bic biro. I had staples and their removal didn't hurt. It

looked like the gadget they use made the staple buckle in the

middle, rather than yanking them out! At first I had dot marks where

the staples went in, but these of course healed and vanished first.

The position of the scar resembles the natural horizontal creases

the body has. You could easily therefore, not notice it. A year

hasn't gone by yet and it's pale and easy to miss.

SCARRING PROBLEMS:

Just occasionally some women scar thickly and more noticeably

because that's the way THEIR body scars differently. (Keltoids?)

Keep the scar clean to avoid infections.

THE BELLY SHAPE

At first you can expect an odd bulge above the scar, but this should

go down and vanish as you heal, so don't worry about it. Also the

location of the scar is different inside you. It may be above the

external scar.

Expect the belly to be bloated after surgery and during recovery.

This will gradually go down, but don't panic if it takes a while.

THE HEALING:

You can expect external numbness over areas of the belly that will

hopefully lessen as the months go by. You only notice it when you

touch the belly area. It may be that some people are left with some

numbness that never goes away, but how common that is and how small

or large an are, I don't know...I wouldn't worry in the first 8

months, as these things take time to heal. it would apply to any

similar surgery like a C Section too. I'm now around 8 months post

myo and it's been the area just above my scar that stayed numb the

longest. It's mostly gone now.

You may have unbearable or very mild itching, due to hair re-growth,

and the external and internal healing. You may have various odd

sensations that don't hurt as the healing of nerves and skin occurs.

Clothes:

It feels more comfortable not having belts and waistbands digging

into the stomach. Navel-high knickers are much more comfortable

through the recovery months and worth getting. It may be different

for women who had keyhole surgery by the navel.

Loose clothing without belts is the most comfortable. Long boots

with long skirts means not having to wear tights and in this cold

weather there are over the knee and knee high socks back in the

shops currently :-)

Bruising:

I had very little bruising - Off the top of my head, I think it was

a yellowness around the external scar that faded away and a purple

bruise like a thumb-print. T

Dye:

They put dye on your skin in hospital for surgery that washes off

very easily after surgery. So if your belly is an odd pink or yellow

colour, don't panic...it may be in geometric formations!!

Az

[Guest guest]

I'll describe mine instead.

THE SCAR:

(Abdominal myomectomy)

It's a horizontal scar and the position is below the top of brief

knickers and bikini bottoms, so it wouldn't show anyhow. it NEVER

looked frankenstein. Right from the start it looked like a text book

diagram....just a thin pink-red line (imagine you drew a line with a

thin pink felt tip pen.) It's approximately the length of a lid-

less bic biro. I had staples and their removal didn't hurt. It

looked like the gadget they use made the staple buckle in the

middle, rather than yanking them out! At first I had dot marks where

the staples went in, but these of course healed and vanished first.

The position of the scar resembles the natural horizontal creases

the body has. You could easily therefore, not notice it. A year

hasn't gone by yet and it's pale and easy to miss.

SCARRING PROBLEMS:

Just occasionally some women scar thickly and more noticeably

because that's the way THEIR body scars differently. (Keltoids?)

Keep the scar clean to avoid infections.

THE BELLY SHAPE

At first you can expect an odd bulge above the scar, but this should

go down and vanish as you heal, so don't worry about it. Also the

location of the scar is different inside you. It may be above the

external scar.

Expect the belly to be bloated after surgery and during recovery.

This will gradually go down, but don't panic if it takes a while.

THE HEALING:

You can expect external numbness over areas of the belly that will

hopefully lessen as the months go by. You only notice it when you

touch the belly area. It may be that some people are left with some

numbness that never goes away, but how common that is and how small

or large an are, I don't know...I wouldn't worry in the first 8

months, as these things take time to heal. it would apply to any

similar surgery like a C Section too. I'm now around 8 months post

myo and it's been the area just above my scar that stayed numb the

longest. It's mostly gone now.

You may have unbearable or very mild itching, due to hair re-growth,

and the external and internal healing. You may have various odd

sensations that don't hurt as the healing of nerves and skin occurs.

Clothes:

It feels more comfortable not having belts and waistbands digging

into the stomach. Navel-high knickers are much more comfortable

through the recovery months and worth getting. It may be different

for women who had keyhole surgery by the navel.

Loose clothing without belts is the most comfortable. Long boots

with long skirts means not having to wear tights and in this cold

weather there are over the knee and knee high socks back in the

shops currently :-)

Bruising:

I had very little bruising - Off the top of my head, I think it was

a yellowness around the external scar that faded away and a purple

bruise like a thumb-print. T

Dye:

They put dye on your skin in hospital for surgery that washes off

very easily after surgery. So if your belly is an odd pink or yellow

colour, don't panic...it may be in geometric formations!!

Az

[Guest guest]

I am about 30 pounds overweight and have a bit of an overhanging belly. I

don't even wear bikinis, so I'm not going to post belly pics on the Web any

time soon

It sounds like my scar looks very similar to Aztek's. I actually have two

scars, because I had an ovarian cyst removed about 18 years ago. The

incision from the cyst surgery is about 8 inches, and the one for the myo

is about 6 inches. The scar for the cyst is so large because the doctor

wanted to look at both ovaries; he was concerned about how my exposure to

DES in utero might have affected my reproductive system. (Luckily, it

didn't affect it much.) The older scar is hard to even see now. The doctor

who did the myo tried to cut along the same incision line, so for the most

part, the scars overlap. I don't notice or think about them much, but maybe

that's because have had the previous scar, I've already found a way to be

at peace with it.

My scars have never affected me in any tangible ways. Unless I think to

look for them, I don't notice them the way I would a scar that was on a

more easily accessible area of my body. Most other people don't notice

them, either, since, as I said, I don't wear bikinis. My scars have not

lessened my husband's attraction to me. Heck, he has scars, too, from

hernia surgery.

I think we can be proud of our scars. We have been through major surgery,

which takes a lot of courage and fortitude. I am always impressed by people

whose spirit is stronger because they have been through adversity, and I

know that I am stronger because of the physical and emotional challenges

that I have overcome in regard to my surgeries.

In the poem " The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, " TS Eliot wrote " No! I am

not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be. " With apologies to Mr. Eliot, I say

" No! I am not Cindy Crawford, nor was meant to be. " Unlike Prufrock,

though, I do not feel angst-ridden and hesitant. I am happy with my choice

to have surgery and am not bothered that I will always have a reminder of it.

Cheryl

At 12:40 AM 4/10/2004 +0000, you wrote:

>I was wondering if maybe listmembers might be willing to share photos

>of their scars with us. Those of us who haven't had abdominal myos

>often wonder about what the physical changes will look like.

>

>You can post a link to a web page, or set up an album on one of the

>free services like Yahoo! Photos.

>

>What do you think?

[Guest guest]

Wow! Thanks for all that info, AZ. I'm now 2 weeks post myo and

that's more info than even my Dr gave me!

[Guest guest]

i agree Cheryle,

My scar looks like a crease in my skin, it is not visible to the eye. My

boyfriend was never alarmed by my incision at all..