incision care post-op

WOW you guys were lucky you got to bath an take showers soon after your surgery. My doc told me to not get my incision wet in anyway and to use nothing on it to clean it or get anything on it for a month. I had staples though and I didn't get mine out for 3 weeks. I had to have my incision re-stapled twice , it kept coming open. And I got an infection in it.But I was still told before all that to keep it dry and I couldn't take a shower till the staples were out and the incision completely closed. Which ended up being 5 weeks after my surgery before my incision was completely closed. I followed the doc's orders , took my first shower after surgery on my birthday was one of the best birthday presents I'd had in a long time. LOL I know I don't want to take any more sponge baths for a long time!!! Even though I didn't use anything on my incision the first 2 months it is smooth and flat and healed up nicely. FOR SURE follow the instructions of the doctor that did your surgery.

OH yea and I wonder what type of steri strips were used on y'all cause mine didn't even stay on for a week. I was told they would come off slowly in a few weeks an to let them just fall off. But I think they came off in about 3 days LOL. And I wasn't even taking showers again yet.

I had my staples out 2 weeks ago and had steristrips put on.. and they never fell off on there own. Since I had my 3 week appt today with my dr. i went ahead and removed them in the shower this morning.

My incision was all healing nicely.. basically a pink line.. then right in the center was a large scab where it looked to be a little pulled apart.. of course I proceed to freak out and fear that my incision was opening up.. at 3 weeks. I put a bandaid on it (that was all i had) .. and waited for my appt later in the day. The Dr. said.. oh.. you have a little scab... no big deal.. it will probably heal a little thicker there then the rest of the incision...

I guess its just hard to know what is normal and what is not... I'm sure I looked a little silly to be worried about that... but ... I've never had a big incision like that accross my abdomen... and the thought of it opening up ... just freaks me out ...