Question:
My incision is opened but is not deep at all.

its more like this particular area seperated. its about 4 inches long & begins after the first 2inches from the top. so, the top & bottom of my incision look great but the middle is nasty. i had to peel my steristrips from it (ouch!) because i had ooze & some blood stain all over my binder in this area. when i got the steristrips off i almost fell over. UGH!!! by the way, the ooze is yellowish but no odor. & it doesnt hurt but it ITCHES LIKE MAD!!! both sides of the incision in this area are red but i am allergic to all adhesives so i dont know if its from the steristrips or the seperation of the incision. anyway...i cleaned it well with antibacterial soap & covered it with a gauze under my binder. a couple of hours later hubby wanted to check it. it looked better than it did earlier but one side of the incision looks as tho the top layer of skin was eaten away & in its place is skin almost the same color of the ooze but a little whiter. so...off we went to the emergency room. by the way, i did put a call into my drs patient advocate but i still hadnt heard from her. so we sit in the er & i was #3 in an otherwise empty waiting room. well, parents with their sick kids start arriving & now 2 hours pass & i am still waiting. now believe me, i feel for these ppl. i am the mother of 3 & know the anxiety of having a sick child. so hubby & i go up to the triage nurse & she had the nerve to tell me...u r not an emergency. u will have to wait for all the emergencies to be taken care of first. WHATTTTTT?????????????? my 12 day old seperated oozing incision is NOT an emergency? before hubby could get nasty i took his arm & we left. he cursed all the way home. i took another shower & cleaned it again. now it is mostly dry, very little ooze on the gauze. but, it ITCHES!!!!!!! if it doesnt look better tomorrow i will go to a walk in clinic instead of the er but, i wanted to hear from my brothers & sisters who have had this problem. i checked the library but they all reference a very deep, large size opening that requires packing. thanks for all ur help.    — sheryl titone (posted on December 30, 2001)

December 29, 2001
Hi Sheryl. I too have an incision problem, and it sounds like it's in the same area as yours and I was also 12 days postop. Mine starting out about 4 inches long and over the course of a few days, became quite deep also. I returned to see my surgeon and was told to pack it 3x daily with gauze soaked in saline. I did that at first. Now at 7 weeks postop, the opening is only about 1/2" long and 1/4" deep. I have been using bandages that are similar to steristrips and pinching the incision shut and bandaging it. I still have a small amount of drainage, so I make sure to leave an opening in the bandages for the drainage to leak out. I clean it 2x daily with a 50-50 mixture of saline and peroxide. Keeping it clean and covered is very important. I had posted a question a few weeks ago about incision openings and got some really good advice. Take care and the incision heals fast! Paulette
   — Paulette W.