Question:
lose your button?

I had on Feb. 17th a lower body lift/hernia repair and they made me a fake belly button. It closed up, Doc says to wait till May 5th appt. and he'll fix it in his office???Ouch! I'm still swollen and above the belly button where supposedly the hernia was(he claims), there is a slight protrusion? Sometim,es my tummy feels on fire or hurts to sit up. Does this sound familiar? Kinda scared.    — elaine27 (posted on April 20, 2004)

April 20, 2004
Darlene, does it burn in the area of the protrusion? The first thing I thought of when you said that was an abscess. After my second PS I ended up harboring an infection. One day I thought I had done too much work. My stomach was burning and painful in a spot, shortly after that I developed a lump in the area. I about cried because I thought I was developing a hernia. Instead the lump became larger and I nearly died from the spread of the bacteria. I remember how much it hurt and burned. Is there any pinkness to that area? Even my doctors had looked at this innocent looking light pink spot and didn't think anything of it, but that was the sign that I was harboring the infection. I wanted to let you know just in case.
   — Shelly S.

April 20, 2004
Darlene, your symptoms do not sound familiar to me. I had a lower body lift on 2/23. I have had some recovery problems, like I still have a drain at 8-1/2 weeks PO and have a hole in the top of my butt crack but no pain, protrusion etc. Because they have had to keep putting drains back in I have been on antibiotics for at least 7 of the 8.5 weeks to make sure I did not pick up any infections. It certainly would not hurt to do a short course of meds to see if that helps. Like the previous poster's experience, you don't want to wait till it's a lot worse. You might have a small hernia but not as likely since they do not cut through the abdominal wall in a LBL. I think an infection is more likely. If the PS won't prescribe something go to your PCP. <p>I also have a belly button and mine ended up way larger than I or the surgeon had hoped. It was quite small looking at first but now it's large. The problem is that the stalk was so long that when he cut it back to the proper length for my slimmer body the base of the stalk was quite large in diameter. I'm going to ask him if there is any way to stitch it down smaller when I have my next PS on June 7th. I suspect the answer will be that he cannot. I'd almost rather not have one than the large one I do. Oh well, it's still smaller than the crater I used to have because it was so stretched out. <p>Please see some medical professional about your pain etc. before May 5th. That's way too long in my opinion. Call the surgeon and tell him what is going on and suggest that maybe a course of antibiotics might be worth trying. Good Luck
   — zoedogcbr

April 20, 2004
I never had any pain after my tt. I also had a new belly button made and each AND every time I went to my PS he always cleaned it out and made sure it was open. He had my do the same thing and I never had a problem with it. The protrusion may be a seroma which is a buildup of blood and fluid under the skin. The PS can drain these with a needle. I had 3 of them and luckily your skin is still pretty numb from the surgery so you probably won't feel much. However, if you do, he can give you a small injection to numb the area first before he drains it (I had him do this on my 3rd seroma). The burning doesn't sound good. I never had this problem. Is the area red? Maybe you have an infection??
   — Patty H.