Incisions healing?

I just had surgery on Monday. I have been changing dressings on my fab-5 (thats what I call my new tummy scars) and was wondering how long I should continue doing this? 4 of the 5 incisions are no longer bleeding at all.

I asked the doctor if I could plave Neosporin on the incisions and the RN said 'no'. I thought that was odd.

I'm almost three weeks out from surgery & three out of the five incisions have quite a bit of healing left to do!  I'd give your incisions at least a full week of cleaning and changing the dressings on them before considering removing them altogether, you want to make sure you do everything you can to help prevent infections!

My surgeon used indermil to cover my incisions and it didn't start to wear off until 10 days after surgery!

(I wasn't allowed Neosporin either.)  

I to had 4 out the 5 incisions do fine.
The larger one however oozed for almost a week and I had to keep changing my dressings.
I called the nurse and she said it was normal. I am 3 weeks out now and they are all healing nicely but still have scabs, I was told it will take time to heal and that is exactly whet they are doing, taking time.

Carrie

the scars need to stay dry....as dry as possible. that is how they heal from the inside out...also  if they start to itch they are healing...be carefull and watch for signs of rash from the steri-strips. they tend to cause issues while healing.
welcome to the bench
lori

I just had my surgery on August 7.   I went to my surgeon for my first post op appointment on Tuesday.  He took the sterile surgical dressings off that were put on in the OR and told me to just wash with soap and keep them clean and dry.  I dont know why your doc has you dressing yours, but my surgeon told me to just keep them clean and dry.  I wouldnt put neosporin or anything like that on them because it wont help them heal at all.  Surgical wounds are clean wounds and once they close them they stay that way unless you mess with them.  Sorry I am an ER nurse and I see a lot of people coming in with infected wounds because they messed with them.  Good luck!! Hope you are feeling well otherwise!!

my doctor clearly told me prior to surgery that I should not put ANYTHING on my incisions.

you run the risk of the ointment actually causing an infection  --

I was allowed to shower (with my back to the showerhead) and lightly rinse soapy water over them -- but that was it for the first 2 weeks

you will probably start to feel some itching soon (good sign of healing) and may be able to take Benedryl is it becomes uncomfortable -- but I did not need to do that

Neosporin definately bad, will make incision too soft. I have had H... trying to get my port
incision healed , I had surgery June 8, went for my 4 week checkup and Dr was going to fill my band but it had flipped because it was infected . I was on a round of antibiotic . On july 17th I had to go to surgery again to repair port. I went to see Doc and my port sight has not healed I have another
infection. I have to go now to have a endoscopy
if band has slipped or something else is wrong, I may have it taken out all together. I have followed directions ,taken meds like they were ordered so at any sighn of trouble get to dr. office. sounds like u are healing very well. Good luck, Sorry I unloaded on u. But thanks for listening.

I have bad news regarding my incisions (I knew something was up). The largest incision with my port is not healing. Funny because half of the incision healed, the other half did not, so half of the incision is healing with a hairline scar, the other half of the incision is open about 1/8" to 1/4".

The doctors office had me go back today and they places sterile strips on it and told me to take it easy (like I hadnt been doing that already). They prescribed a antibiotic and now we are crossing our fingers. Oh jeez, what did I get myself into with this surgery?!