Question:
I HAVE A LARGE SCAR ON MY STOMACH

IT STARTS ABOUT 4 INCHES ABOVE MY BELLY BUTTON AND GOES ALL THE WAY DOWN MY STOMACH. I'M HAVING LAP RNY SURGERY IN A FEW WEEKS. MY DR. SAYS THE SCAR SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM IF SO HE WILL DO AN OPEN RNY. HAS ANYONE HAD LAP RNY SURGERY WITH A LARGE SCAR. IF SO, HOW DID THINGS GO WITH YOUR SURGERY. ANY SPECIAL TEST BEFORE SURGERY.    — [Anonymous] (posted on January 6, 2002)

January 6, 2002
I had one of those old fashioned diagonal scars that starts out about mid chest and goes down, to the right, and stops at the waist. About 9". There were some adhesions inside, but the exterior scar was not a problem. The cool thing was, it's ALL GONE NOW (with the TT!), except about 1/2" which now resides at about belly button area!
   — vitalady

January 7, 2002
I also have a large scar down the center of my stomach due to an exploratory surgery two years ago. I knew going into the surgery for the weight loss that I had a hernia in it and my surgeon told me that he was going to try and repair it lap, but might have to go to open. He did the bypass lap as well as removed the gallbladder and repaired an esophogeal hernia lap, but when he got to the ventral hernia, he found that it was too big and had to repair it by re-opening the old incision. So I came home with both an open incision and 5 little lap incisions. I did fine and found it was no worse in recovering than when I had the original exploratory. In fact, this time it was better cause my surgeon did not use staples and it healed much prettier than before! Good luck and I am sure they won't have any problems with yours...
   — Kellie Jo B.