re: oozing wound

Has anyone had any oozing from the belly button wound. Mine is not all healed and is oozing a bit of watery blood. I see the doctor on Thursday. Has anyone had this problem. Could that be because as I drink my belly gets full and the oozing is possibly from that. Is this common. I hate asking all these dunb questions, but who better to know than all of you great people. Lisa J

Lisa, did your doctor use JP drains on you? My surgeon didn't, but the last hernia surgery that I had, that surgeon used a JP drain which collects tha****ery blood that normally appears after surgery (supposedly this cuts down on the amount of scar tissue that forms inside the body). Some surgeons don't bother with the drains because they feel that your body will naturally re-absorb it and that's good enough. Sounds like the ooze that you are having is just that. With my first hernia surgery I didn't have the drain and I had the oozing too and I panicked and went to the surgeon and she told me this was normal, especially with "larger" people. (Don't you love it how they blame everything on our weight!) Vi

I had a lot of oozing the first week, from the site where the JP drain had been (lap RNY). The other wounds were covered with steri-strips, but my drain site had two stitches, which were removed (along with the drain) just before I went home. It got so bad that I'd wake up with my nightclothes soaking wet, as well as my bed and blankets. I went to the emergency room, where they told me it wasn't infected, and redressed the wound. It did stop on it's own several days later. Just be sure to mention your concern to your doctor, who will want to confirm there's no infection forming (it doesn't sound as if there is, since it's watery blood). I was told this was a mixture of fat and blood, so in a way, I was rather happy to lose the fat that way, lol! Good luck, and do keep us posted.