Recovery Update & Scar Question

Hi All,  I had my lap band surgery Tuesday and am feeling great.   More tenderness than pain, can do just about everything, sleep on side, bend etc.  No appetite at all,  guess that is a good thing, but am eating my 1/2 cup of food (protein) 3x a day.  Having trouble getting 64 oz. of water though...getting about half that much.  I do have a question for you surgery experts...did you use medaderm for your incisions, or something else?  Also how soon did you start using it after surgery? Thanks,  Becky

Hi Becky, My best advice to you is to be constantly sipping something.  You will get dehydrated if you are not careful and that could land you back in the hospital.  As for using anything on your scars, I don't suggest using anything until the incisions are completely healed and scabs, etc are gone.  But, as with any other questions you have, you should always check with your surgeon before starting any kind of "treatments".  I just used Vitamin E oil on my scars and I am 4 years out and can't find any of my scars.  Take care of yourself. darlene

I too just used Vitamin E with aloe. As for my tummy tuck, I used Cocoa Butter with Vitamin E (found at Walmarts) same on my thigh reduction.  Slowly fading, as for my gastric, can't find the scars anywhere.   But like Darlene said wait until the incision has healed and no scabs. Then you can start it. I waited a month to start mine.

I did not use anything on my scars and I am 15 months out.  The only scar that is still visible is the large one and even that has blended really well- not nearly as bad as when I first had the surgery.  I was embarrassed to even have my husband see it at first but now it is nothing!

Here on the board, we all have a secret scar recipe cream...  it does work.  You can blend equal parts of: Extra virgin olive oil Ponds original cold cream (not generic) Lanolin cream which several of us have purchased at Wild Oats or IHerb.com so if you add 1/2 cup ponds, also add 1/2 of evoo and 1/2 cup of lanolin.  You want to get the jar lanolin, not the oil.  its hard to mix but worth it.  also does wonders, no, miracles!!  for dry skin.  I love how it makes my neck feel. And you can add a little fragranced lotion or oil if you want it to smell good

Thanks for replying...the book I got just said to start using mederma and not exactly when.  I will wait and ask the surgeon .   Have a Happy Easter.   Becky

Hey Becky, the scar cream recipe Mel posted really does work and is a lot cheaper than Mederma. The fragrance of the Ponds counteracts the smell of the Olive Oil and the Olive Oil keeps the perfume of the Ponds from being too strong. I was told I could start using it on my plastic surgery scars once the scab had come off an area. I've been using it on the midriff incision for almost a month now and even Dr. Spaw was surprised at how good it looks. It doesn't look like a 6 week incision. I just started using it on the LBL incisions in the last couple of weeks and it looks better already. I started using it on my RNY scars about 6 months post op (maybe a little later because it was after Mel posted it) and those scars were almost impossible to find before my plastics. Even the 14 year old scars from my gallbladder surgery were almost gone before plastics. Of course, most of those scars were removed with the excess skin so even what little remained is gone now.

I wanted to let everyone know that Walgreens does have Ponds cold cream on sale, 4.29 buy one get one free....