I'm so glad the message boards seem to be back up and running. I came home from doctor's appt yesterday and wanted to get some support from you guys... and wouldn't you know, I couldn't get in.

Has anyone had the experience of having to have more surgery on an incision which wasn't healing properly? I am 4 weeks post-op today and felt that the incision on my hip from the bone graft was perhaps not healing well... I was still getting some oozing every day. Went to the surgeon yesterday and he agreed that we have a problem. He took a culture (which I haven't heard from yet), put me on oral antibiotics, and told me to try to leave my brace off as much as I could. The problem is fat (as he put it so bluntly) which doesn't heal well. And having the brace pressing on it has evidently not promoted healing. If things are not much improved by next Tuesday, he said we would need to do additional surgery (day surgery) to clean out the unhealed stuff under the skin and then to be sure the skin is lapped over really well and re-sutured. He said that in his years of practice, fat has always been a worse problem for healing than even diabetes. But the problem is that you can't lose weight before surgery when you can't even walk.

Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience. I'm a little discouraged to think about more surgery so soon.

Mary in Texas

I haven't had this done, but I have had many patients who have. It can be common, but bad if not caught early on. I am glad you got there in good time. Another term is to debride the area-is there any dead tissue that needs to be removed? I wouldn't worry about it, the biggest thing you may have is a larger incision, possibly deeper. But, this time around, we would hope it would heal correctly. SOrry you have to go through this.

My graft site weaped for longer than expected and I look back now (14 years) and am sure that this is why it still gets inflamed and why I suffer scar tissue tears. As Mel said fortunatley you have caught it ealy. All the best - keep us informed

Losy ;) :eek:

During my last surgery (for endometriosis, not back pain) I had an incision that would not seem to heal. This was VERY odd for me as after various past surgeries everything seemed to heal faster than average. The incision was on my abdomen, and my pants were rubbing against it, which might have contributed to the problem.
I had oozing, and then about 3 weeks later a weird bump formed over it (almost like huge pimple). I was so worried I went to the doctor, and he swore it was fine, but I didn't believe him.
However, it finally did heal (about 8 weeks after the surgery, I would say). I had one flare-up with it a few months later (the incision site became irritated, and almost seemed like it had a minor infection), but that healed also and I haven't had any trouble with it since.

This might not help you at all, but I guess my point is that I would keep on it, and keep watch on it for awhile afterward. If you doctor recommends surgery for it, I would probably listen to him/her and do it. You don't want to let it develop into a bad situation.

Just an update and another question. I am still having problem with oozing incisions. My next appt. is Tuesday and I'm expecting the surgeon to say that we need to do day surgery to work on the bone graft incision which is the worse of the two. Would still like to hear from anyone with similar experiences.

Second question along this same line... On the parts of the incisions which have healed, I am having a tremendous amount of itching and burning. Is there anything that you have used to help this? I remember after another minor surgery that the surgeon said to use Vitamin E cream... I don't even have a scar from that surgery 10 years ago. Is there anything I can ask my doctor to prescribe to help the incisions heal and not itch/burn so much?

Thanks for any suggestions. Mary in Texas

Mary, I am sorry you are having such problems. I personally have not had such issues but I was reading in the sports section about a professional basketball player named Grant Hill who has not been able to play basketball for 2 years due to ankle surgery. He had a problem with his incision not healing and he is a professional athelete. It sounds like it could happen to anyone, you are just one of the (un)lucky ones.

As far as your itching and burning, have you tried a cortizone cream? I know those work well for bug bites and skin rashes that are itchy but they may be different than what you are experiencing. Good luck.

Alan

try taking some Benadryl for the itching. I am sure there is a cream you can put on it, but I am not sure. I had a pimple looking something on my incision too, it was full of puss. My dr had to "pop" it and then it was fine and healed good. You know, every now and then I do still get a pimple on my incisions (one on my abdomen from my appendectomy and the other on my back). Try using hydrocortisone-but make sure the incision is closed and healed (if not, just try the benadryl and use ice over the area). (or a cool wash cloth)