My last post-op! My doctor cut off the stitch that was hanging out of the end of my incision; she had already spotted it at my initial post-op, and it clearly wasn’t going to go away on its own. She said everything looked good, pointed out the hard ridge near the incision and said that was normal and would eventually go away, and said the general area could end up being darker or lighter than my normal skin tone.
She also answered a couple remaining questions I had:
- Were my muscles cut in the surgery? No, they run vertically so they were simply pulled apart, rather than cut. Only the nerves were cut.
- How long before I can do sit-ups? About 3 months. We recommend people wait 3 months before resuming full regular exercise. Until then, you can use your judgment. You’ll have 90% wound healing by the 3-month mark, and full wound regeneration at the 1-year mark. Be aware that from now until the 3-month mark, the abdomen is actually more vulnerable because the sutures that previously were holding together the tissues have now been broken down by the body. So you no longer have that backup in case the tissues are pulled apart.
Gah. Sounds awful. But maybe that is why coughing and sneezing have recently gone back to being very painful, after being quite tolerable for a few weeks. Maybe the sutures used to stop the coughs and sneezes from pulling the tissues apart too much, but now those sutures are gone and can no longer help. Maybe I’m not regressing, but rather, progressing. See, I’ll make up all kinds of stories just so I can believe I’m moving forward.
Filed under: fibroid, fibroids | Tagged: abdomen, laparotomy, myomectomy, post-op, surgery
