R.I.P. Mr. Belly Button

So, my belly button has died. :( It lived a good life. I had a LBL a month ago and my belly button was sort of black for a week or so, and my surgeon said we'd keep an eye on it. Then at my two week post-op visit, he decided it was no longer with us so he removed the eschar (while I turned various shades of green and tried not to yack on his shoes) and has me packing it with gauze every day until it heals.

But I was wondering if this happened to anybody else? He said it's rare but it can happen if your surgeon went through the umbilicus to do WLS. I'm a little sad but I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles. But I'm sick of packing it every darn day. I'm not even sure if I need to still be packing it, but my surgeon is on vacation and I don't see him until my 6 week visit. He's a little laissez faire about the whole situation anyway. Not that I expect him to be all "holy crap your belly button's dead!" but still. I don't want to end up looking like an alien.

Anybody have any dead belly button stories with a happy ending?

My doc told me it was a risk, although rare. If it heals up well, get a tattoo of a bb in its place if the look is bothering you. Although I suspect you'll get use to not having it pretty quickly. I saw one doc point out that the only use for the bb is pre-birth, and then it's job is done. 

Sorry that you're having to deal with this - and I would most definitely have yacked right on my doc!

I ain't got no bb neither. I wanted to avoid problems and told the PS not to make me one at my TT with a t-cut and that is where I had eschar slough gangrene.
When healed it puckered and when I had BL/BR he repaired the puckering.
Mikimi in Israel

This does happen and usually the new "belly button" forms from scar tissue that results. If it occurs, I usually leave the eschar in place. It is easier to take care of and once the healing/scarring has occurred, the eschar just falls off easily.

Dr. Edward Jonas Domanskis is Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery 1441 Avocado Avenue, Suite 307 Newport Beach, California 92660 949.640-6324/1.888.234-5080(Ca) Website: http://www.surgery-plastic.com Assistant Clinical Professor of SurgeryWOS-Plastic,University of California (Irvine) Orange County’s Physician of Excellence/America’s Top Physicians/Top Doctors Plastic Surgery- 2005/2006/2007/2008/2009/2012/2013 President,American Society of Bariatric Plastic Surgeons www.ASBPS.org

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