Julian
Well-known member
Ya its fine. Great that you got the wheels moving on the medical machine so soon. Sometimes that's hard to do. Let's say it is infected; you caught it so early they will treat it with antibiotics and its fixed worse case.
Incision Site Has Discharge.. Help!
- Thread starter pgammo
- Start date
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And as Julian had previously stated, God loves you more than him, so all the tests with come back negative and now that the doctor has pulled that pesky stitch out, it won't leak any longer and soon that incision will be totally healed.
pgammo
Well-known member
Just saw my surgeon. The blood work was normal and the CT scan showed "signs of healing." He still wants to keep an eye on it so he scheduled a follow up for next week. He says that it isn't an infection and at worse, just something superficial. He also said that the leakage may be due to my hairy chest or an adverse reaction to the internal stitches. I pray it heals up quick. Thanks all for your support and encouragement!
That is great news pgammo! Glad that it looks like all is well and this is just part of your recovery. It's always reassuring knowing that your surgeon is going to keep an eye on things for you.
FWIW: I had a large red welt half way down my incision for the longest time and was very concerned about it. I was sure it was infected. When I saw the surgeon about it, he said that I had a reaction to the internal stitch and in time it did subside.
FWIW: I had a large red welt half way down my incision for the longest time and was very concerned about it. I was sure it was infected. When I saw the surgeon about it, he said that I had a reaction to the internal stitch and in time it did subside.
Jkm7
Well-known member
I had a small infection at the bottom of my incision my first OHS.
It was caused by my bra rubbing on the incision just one evening. We went out and I thought I'd be okay wearing it.
A course of oral antibiotics and it healed fast and fine.
End of story. No problem.
Hope you heal equally as quickly and easily.
Please let us know.
It was caused by my bra rubbing on the incision just one evening. We went out and I thought I'd be okay wearing it.
A course of oral antibiotics and it healed fast and fine.
End of story. No problem.
Hope you heal equally as quickly and easily.
Please let us know.
DanielB
Well-known member
Good to hear pgammo. I mentioned this to my wife and she reminded me I also had some clear discharge in my incision after I came home (she changed all my dressings) I had forgotten all about it. We just did the neospoin thing and kept clean dressings on it and it stopped in a couple of days and never came back. Hope your tests confim your news today.
pgammo
Well-known member
Thanks DanielB,
I just saw Dr. Dembitsky yesterday and he said all looks well and that he wants to see me next week as a follow up. Was your incision purple in any areas? I developed a purple spot in my incision - looks like a bruise or scab under the skin. How long did it take your scar to completely heal? My incision has been leaking for about 5 days, but it seems to be going away slowly. The surgeon said that it may be because of my hairy chest or because of a reaction from the internal stitches. The home nurse said it may be because of the hot weather we are experiencing in San Diego (it did start on Saturday, after all). Either way, I'll be keeping an eye on it.
Did anyone else develop a small purplish spot on the incision? I can post a picture if need be.
I just saw Dr. Dembitsky yesterday and he said all looks well and that he wants to see me next week as a follow up. Was your incision purple in any areas? I developed a purple spot in my incision - looks like a bruise or scab under the skin. How long did it take your scar to completely heal? My incision has been leaking for about 5 days, but it seems to be going away slowly. The surgeon said that it may be because of my hairy chest or because of a reaction from the internal stitches. The home nurse said it may be because of the hot weather we are experiencing in San Diego (it did start on Saturday, after all). Either way, I'll be keeping an eye on it.
Did anyone else develop a small purplish spot on the incision? I can post a picture if need be.
DanielB
Well-known member
pgammo, my scar was never purple, but has always been 'thicker' at the bottom. It still is pretty evident, but seems to be going away slowly from the top down. I have very fair skin and it tends to heal slowly, so that's no surprise to me.
TheGymGuy
Well-known member
I had and occasionally have light purple and even dark purple spots on my scar. This is from a little bit of blood pulling underneath. Think about a broken capillary and when it burst there is a bit of blood that comes out. The reason it is visible is because the skin is a bit thinner around where the scar is. If there is a hair follicle near by and if there is some pressure applied around the area, the extra liquid/blood will come out and the area will heal within a day or two. Nothing to worry about.
pgammo
Well-known member
Ahh, that makes sense. Thanks Gymguy! Dang dude, you have really done your homework!
I also rejected a couple of stitches, and thought that they were the cause of some discharge I had. I pulled them myself (ouch. don't do that.) I still had discharge though, so I visited my GP. He poked and squeezed a bit and got some pussy discharge to come out. Then he said, 'uh, oh. We need to get all of that out of there.' The squeezing that followed was the most painful part of my entire OHS experience. Thankfully, it lasted just a minute or so. A 10 day course of Anti-Biotics, with a swab sent to the lab to confirm it was the right drug and some saline rinses and voila. Next visit there was no remaining sign of infection. (I'm 90% certain that I contracted it when the nurse swabbed my incision prior to my release. She was very disorganized and dropped the swab kit, and I think even rubbed completed swabs against clean ones.)
Sounds like you don't have a serious infection of any sort though, so congratualtions!
Sounds like you don't have a serious infection of any sort though, so congratualtions!
pgammo
Well-known member
I'm really getting discouraged. The yellowish discharge seems to be gone, but now the little purple spots have released blood; I'm sure they were broken capillaries as GymGuy stated. The area that was leaking the fluid is now leaking blood. It scabbed over yesterday and my gauze dressing removed the scar over night, so now it looks like a small *crater* in my scar.
Did anyone else experience this? I don't know what to do. The blood tests and CT scan came back normal.
Did anyone else experience this? I don't know what to do. The blood tests and CT scan came back normal.
Hopefully things are fine and the fact the discharge has stopped is a good sign. I would hope since you've hadi checked by a few medical people and dont have a fever you dont have an infection. Have you called anyone today since things are changing? Since it is a weekend who were you told to contact for any questions, like the on call surgical fellow etc? Id probably call them.
What "blood tests" did they do? If it was blood cultures they would only be positive IF an infection got into the blood stream, an infection that stayed in the surgical site, (skin, sternum, tissue) would NOT always show up in blood cultues, (Justin's never did) how ever a complete Blood count should have shown signs of an infection by increased white cells ifthere was one. Did they culture or swab the leaking parts? I would be more concerned about those results if I was worrying about and infection, even then it is possible to have a "sterile abscess" that can be caused by the dissolving sutures not disolving and that would not grow any bacteria, since it is basically your body fighting the stitches and not caused by bacteria in the wound.. I think if you search here for abscess a couple threads might come up. Justin had a problem with that after his first OHS when he was 10 days old.
I hope things are clearing up let us know how everything is going
I don't remember having the purple spots, but I did have the scabs that got pulled off, showing small craters where the
tissue hadn't grown in yet. This went on for a few weeks with me but I did have a home nurse taking care of it.
pgammo
Well-known member
They performed a blood draw from my arm and a CT scan of my chest, no cultures. The home nurse took a look at it yesterday and used a sterile swab to remove a scab which then caused the area to start bleeding, but it was a dark red blood, so I think it was fine; it is still bleeding a tiny bit today. The part I'm most concerned about is at the bottom of the incision. It began to scab over yesterday, and the gauze removed the scab over night. It now looks like a little crater in the area. I googled MRSA abcesses, and it looks nothing like those. I'm running out of ideas on what to do. I see my Cardio, Surgeon, and Primary doctor this week, as well as my home nurse.
Julian
Well-known member
My scar doesn't bleed 11 months post op but I do get this small crater now and again in the same spot. I want to blame it on the wires...
pgammo
Well-known member
I have added a new picture of my incision as of today. Keep in mind, the picture was taken in a darker setting, so everything looks darker in the second picture than it does in the first. How does my scar look three weeks post op?
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3215332874453.2110211.1600284957&type=1&l=4d51f23550
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3215332874453.2110211.1600284957&type=1&l=4d51f23550
Its hard to tell fron Pictures, or even in person, when Justin had the post op infection, (not the time he had the "sterile abscess" I mentioned above) his scar/incision looked great, he had 1 small pimple that ended up leaking the next morning, but still looked good. One good thing to remember is the chances of it being an infection are pretty low, out of the thousands of members that ever posted here, i can only remember a handful that had an infection post op
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TheGymGuy
Well-known member
Perfectly normal. The crater, from your previous post, is like a scab that you pulled off and then left a hole where it was. This will heal over and be absolutely flat.
If there is one thing you can do is: "simply, do not mess with it". Gently wash with soap and water and let it all heal on its own. Your body will absorb everything that is there. If you squeeze around the purple area like popping a pimple, you will squish the blood, puss, etc., out, but if you leave it alone for long enough it will take care of itself as well. The choice is yours.
