After Steristrips are removed from ab incision........

Hello

Abdominal hysterectomy on 5/12 (uterus only), staples removed on 19th. Will remove steristrips on tommorrow. I am scared about what to expect and what my incision will look like. I was told to keep them on for five days. Can anyone tell me what they did after that, and what to expect?

I had the same procedure as you on April 22. Dr removed staples that friday and put streri strips on. She didn't remove them until my 2 week post op visit. I was afraid it was going to hurt when she did remove the strips, but my dr was very gentle and it didn't hurt one bit. My scar looks great, the dr did an excellent job, very, thin, thin line ( almost looks like a smiley face).
I was lucky not to have any problems with the incision.

My strips came off on their own, which they expected. I had a small amount of drainage and one very small area that was not closed completely. Don't worry even if you see a very small area that doesn't look sealed tight because our incisions heal from the inside out and the outer edge of mine closed amazingly soon after that. Make sense? They gave me saline and guaze to keep incision clean and then advised me to dry with blow dryer completely after I showered. It's not the best looking, but I have had 2 prior c-sections and some belly fat. I gave up on the flat, pretty abs long ago! Ha! Good luck.

I had my staples out day 4 and steristrips put on. They fell off within a few days whenever I showered. Amazingly my incision is well healed with just a dab of oozing at the outer edges. I have quite a large belly so I really thought my incision wouldn't heal well.
I'm a nurse myself so I just kept a close eye on the incision to see if the incision edges were what tight and clean. They are so I'm not having anything odd happen as a result of the steri strips coming off so quickly.

My incision is fabulous. I expect it will be barely visible in a few months. My doctor did an amazing job. I will never wear a bikini as i have a huge incision from a gallbladder surgery and I'm a good 70 lbs overweight but I thought it was very nice of her to care enough to do such an amazing job.
Usually when you're overweight doctors don't go to extra efforts to do such a nice job but mine did.
I'm blessed as I have seen some very nasty C section scars in my life from some pretty rude doctors (I'm a maternity nurse).
Keep an eye on the size (thickness of each edge of your incision) and colour as well.
A red, hot, harder area could mean cellulitis a form of infection . Drainage in normal but should be minimal and will probably be yellowish in colour. A consistent green and smelly discharge is something to have checked out and of course keep an eye on your temp each day as I'm sure they've told you upon your discharge.
Listen to your body and if you have any concerns about your incision, give your doctor a call or call a nurse practioner hotline.
Not sure if you have those where you live.

Hope your healing goes well.

I had my staples removed after ten days at the Dr office. He took off the steri strips at the same time. I went home with nothing on my incision. I was lucky, it was just a long red line nothing bad or special about it.

Hi there .. I had a similiar experience as soulmates....came home on Day 5 with staples only. The staples were removed on Day 9, went home with nothing on the incision. It healed really well and is a long red line going up and down with little dots where the staples where on both sides of the incision. Pretty neat looking actually!

At first I was freaked out about looking at it, but as I became more comfortable - I actually was in awe of it and how my body could/can heal itself. Quite remarkable for me as this was my first surgery ever.


Hugs

i had 30 staples.....yes i counted. I had them out day 6 after going home after 2 days.
The incision is one inch above my belly button and down vertical. Its reddish and pinkish. Some areas are raised some like the end areas or feel like bumpy when i touch it. The nurse cleaned mine with hydrogen peroxide when the staples came out, and it didnt hurt at all. She did great. I just kept it clean and dry. Its healing nicely. Some areas are redder than others, but its healing. not pretty as i look like frankenstein with a line and then dots from the staples.

My staples were removed 9 days after surgery and they applied the steri strips which were to stay on for 7 days. I removed them and the incision was fine. I was told when I was discharged from the hospital to use a hair dryer on cool setting to dry the area. Once the steri strips came off I used Vitamin E oil on the incisions and then switched to Mederma at 6 weeks. The incisions are healing beautifully. 2 of them are almost non-existant.

My steri-strips stayed put for 7 weeks! No joke! The Dr. was amazed that they were still there. She took them off.

I only had one issue, probably due to them staying on so long. The small incision on my left side suffered a stitch abscess. I sleep on that side and it was covered by the steri-strip. It was a minor problem that 7 days of antibiotics cleared up.

I didn't have staples but I was told to remove the steri-strips 5 days after my surgery. I was really nervous about doing it. I soaped up in the shower and took my time to gingerly remove them. Ironically, my abdomen is still numb so it really didn't hurt. (I didn't realize it then.) Before my surgery I lost 40 pounds and I could have used a tummy tuck so I had a hard time seeing my incision. When I did see it, there were some spots that were red but not oozing. I just saw my Dr at week 4 and she said everything looks okay.