Vertical vs horizontal

Hi,
I just had a question with the recovery time. I spoke with the nurse from my dr's office today and she told m I was going to have a vertical incision. I told her I have an old c/section scar that I thought he would go through so we are going to talk about it. What is the difference if any, in recovery between a vertical incision vs a horizontal one? Thanks!

Hi Wendy

I had a TAH/BSO with a vertical incision. It is my understanding that a vertical incision takes a little longer to heal and is a bit more painful. I say this after all the reading of posts on this site. I had a horizontal incision when I had my appendectomy and that incision healed a lot faster than the hyst one did. I would rather have a horizontal one because the pain was so much less and less muscles were involved - Remeber I'm comparing two different surgies. I think we probably will have different answers because we are all types of folks. This is just my opinion.

Sending you a big

Patty

I had a vertical. My doctor said that it's a draw as far as which incision is more difficult to recover with -- he said the vertical incision was actually less strain on the muscles, and the recovery was easier. From what I've read, many with horizontal incisions had difficulty standing up straight at first, while with vertical incisions, there is no difficulty (I didn't have any).

Of course, the scar is definitely there and my days of two-piece bathing suits or crop tops in the gym are definitely over -- my incision runs an inch north of my belly button down to my pubic area. But -- it had been quite a while since I showed my belly.

I'd say the most difficult thing is that I'll be wearing very loose fitting clothes for a long time -- everything is still very tender and I can't imagine wearing jeans or anything fitted. The incision still stings, and obviously there's more of it.

I had no option, though. My fibroid was too big and they needed to take a good look inside to decide what to do about my ovaries.

I had a vertical incision. I didn't find that it slowed my recovery at all, it healed very nicely and is now nearly faded. I didn't have a choice as to whether my incision would be vertical or horizontal.

My doctor told me that a horizontal incision would heal faster. I had three C-sections and was cut each time vertically. At the last minute I decided to go horizontal, and I think that I have been less sore. I feel like they cut through less muscles. Also I believe the horizontal scar is going to be thin, my vertical scar is thick and healed that way everytime. Doctors would say we'll cut that old scar out and get you a thin one which never happened. This doctor said that vertical scars tend to heal thickly. I'm happy that I decided to get cut horizontally. Lori