Question:
I'm 10 days post op.......

and my incision is draining quite a bit - is this normal?    — CJ B. (posted on May 13, 2001)

May 13, 2001
CJ, While I'm not a medical person, my Dr. uses no drain tubes and uses surgical glue (so to speak) for the incision and he told us in the consult. Drainage is better out than in and to use a maxi pad with wings (upside down) to absorb the drainage. I definately would call the Dr. tomorrow and get his opinion. Good Luck!
   — Karen R.

May 13, 2001
I too had some drainage right around the belly button, right around 7 to 10 days post op. It was so bad it was getting on my clothing pretty bad. I kept a good eye on it, and after a couple of days I ended up going to the ER, since my surgeon is so far away. Everything ended up fine. They gave me antibiotics just in case of infection, but after a couple of days it stopped for the most part. I used a maxi pad to cover it and everything was fine. Just to be safe I would recommend giving your surgeon a call to make sure. I hope this helps! Oh, and take your temperature too, just to make sure there is no sign of infection.
   — Kim B.

May 14, 2001
Hi CJ, I am almost 4 wks post op and at 2 weeks I developed a wound infection, a fowl smelling pus was just running down from my incision to puddles on the floor. It now has to heal from the inside out, which means I have a 2 inch wide hole in the center of my incision that has to be packed daily by myself or the visiting nurse. I also had to go on antibiotics and the tissue surrounding my incision was infected. I'm not sure if a maxipad is the right thing to put on your drainage because it is not considered to be sterile, which is important. Did the doctor say it was ok to use a maxipad?
   — cheryl F.

May 14, 2001
Hi, I had drainage from my incision for a total of 4 mos. I did not use a maxi pad but used sterile gauze pads 4x4 and tape. The tape caused a lot of irritation to the surrounding skin, so use sparingly. My incision formed a tunnel under the skin and when it would heal on top, soon afterward a seroma (blisterlike) would form and bust open again. I had to use a long q tip dipped in peroxide to poke into the small hole each day twice a day and it finally did close and not open again. I am ok now. The doc told me the peroxide not only is for cleansing but when the peroxide was introduced into the "hole" it also put oxygen into the tunnel and aided in healing. Sometimes when I would "open" the hole it would ooze yellow serous fluid for a few seconds. I never got an infection and the fluid was always clear and odor-free. Though sometimes it would appear to be "thick and white" on the gauze. I always maintained sterlity and although the boxes of gauze got expensive ( I think we bought fifty boxes of it!), I always felt I was doing what I could to keep from getting an infection. It was very annoying but not painful at any time. I didn't think it would ever heal but it did. I even suspected that I was diabetic because of slow healing but after blood tests taken, I am not. Be patient and do what your doc says. Take your vitamins and increase protein for healing. My doctor said not to put neosporin or anything into the open wound as this can cause bacteria to actually form in the wound. Good luck
   — Marilyn C.