20+ post op

[lezgetitdone]

hello,

im almost a month post op and got a question.

i had swelling on my left side for a while and now a majority of it is gone (with 3 drainage's I had to do) however right now it's turned more hard and it's not fluidy anymore.  Is this what is scar tissue? 

At this point, is my body absorbing it and my left side will flatten out?  Because my right side is perfectly healed it seems, with no swelling.  The incisions around my right side have healed fully too, and you can still see some of it healing on my left side.  Did the swelling on my left side make it "lag" behind in healing?

And if it's not mainly fluid on my left side anymore, would a future drainage be pointless at this point?

Also- will my chest keep healing and arranging itself in the next couple of months and look better, or is one month post op how it will always look?

thanks

[George Pope, M.D.]

You describe 3 drainages that you had to do.  It sounds like you had a buildup of either blood or serum (thinner, usually pink or yellow colored liquid part of blood).  More likely you had blood drained out.  It's probable that after the final drainage, you collected some blood in your tissue that "seeped" into the tissue like a sponge soaks up water.  That would make your tissue feel hard, and it takes awhile for your body to get rid of all of that fluid that saturates your tissue. 

I usually instruct my patients to massage an area such as that.  Check with your surgeon, though, and follow his or her instruction.  In the absence of scar tissue buildup (hard to predict that), your left side with time should look very similar to the right side.

Once again, call your surgeon and be sure to keep all postop appointments and follow all instructions to the letter.

Dr. Pope, MD

[lezgetitdone]

Thanks for your reply Dr. Pope,

How long on average would you say it takes your patients to heal this "scar tissue"? 

And if it's not scar tissue, what is it?


Thanks

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

Totally agree with Dr. Pope's assessment.

In these type of cases, it will take approximately 6 months or more -- but usually the "bad" side catches up to the "good" side.  Keep in touch with your surgeon during this entire healing period.

Dr Jacobs

[lezgetitdone]

I saw him today and he told me to massage both sides, he said this will help break the scar tissue down more.  His nurse, also recommended that I buy Vitamin E gel tablets, and puncture them, and rub the oil over my aeroela.  Have any of you doctors heard about this or recommend it?  She said it might help the scar's heal faster.

lez

[lezgetitdone]

Totally agree with Dr. Pope's assessment.

In these type of cases, it will take approximately 6 months or more -- but usually the "bad" side catches up to the "good" side.  Keep in touch with your surgeon during this entire healing period.

Dr Jacobs

Thanks for your reply.  Does it go away all at once within a short amount of time?  Or will you notice the differences as time goes on during the 6 months?

During the healing time over 6 months, does your body "move" and shift the tissue around to make it look more "normal" ? Or is what you see 2-3 weeks post op (if one had no swelling), what generally your chest will look like in the long run?

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

No way to predict how your body will look -- Mother Nature rules here.

As for Vit E -- yes, I recommend that my patients apply it to healed scars to help improve them.

Dr Jacobs

[lezgetitdone]

[quote author=Dr. Pope link=topic=21528.msg145880#msg145880 date=1284430213]
You describe 3 drainages that you had to do.  It sounds like you had a buildup of either blood or serum (thinner, usually pink or yellow colored liquid part of blood).  More likely you had blood drained out.  It's probable that after the final drainage, you collected some blood in your tissue that "seeped" into the tissue like a sponge soaks up water.  That would make your tissue feel hard, and it takes awhile for your body to get rid of all of that fluid that saturates your tissue. 

I usually instruct my patients to massage an area such as that.  Check with your surgeon, though, and follow his or her instruction.  In the absence of scar tissue buildup (hard to predict that), your left side with time should look very similar to the right side.

Once again, call your surgeon and be sure to keep all postop appointments and follow all instructions to the letter.

Dr. Pope, MD
[/quote]

Yes, im pretty sure my doctor said blood was being drained out but it was not a hematoma.  So if my tissue absorbed some blood that means it is NOT scar tissue? 
When I press into it is kind of hard, but like you describe it- it has some tissuey softness to it and you can feel the blood/fluid.  In other words it's not as hard as a rock.

The incision mark/scar I had on my right aeroela once use to be very hard, but now it has completely softened up underneath and it seems like it's not shaped up to the contour of that area yet.  I'm hoping it fills up or the skin shrinks because the scar is not there anymore.  This all happened within a couple of nights. 

The incision on my left aereola is still hard underneath it, however I suspect my left side is two weeks "delayed" in healing vs my right from the whole swelling ordeal I had with it.

What is the benefit of just having blood absorbed into your tissue vs. actual scar tissue?