Did you have Stitches or Glue to close your incisions?

By Birch on 27 Feb 2013

My PS uses stitches internally, and glue and tape externally. I'm curious about what most PS use... Did you have stitches or glue to close your external incisions, and what was your experience with the method used? If you had glue and tape, did you still have spitting stitches work their way out?

Comments (9)

Birch 1 Mar 2013

Hi Kimmers :) lol, Yes, I will show him. He has actually asked me a few times for the information I have built up while doing my research on BR's so he can read about it, and I told him I'll show him photos showing what to expect post op and as healing takes place. I think (I hope!) he'll handle that well. He is very nurturing towards me, and I am confident he'll man up and be a big help while I heal. So far he has been very supportive of all the steps I've taken getting approved and scheduling my BR surgery. I can totally see how post op breasts could be scary to a guy though!! Completely understandable!

NoMoreDDD4Me 28 Feb 2013

I have internal dissolvable stitches, and the really glued on tape ( for amost 3 weeks). I have some slightly irritated areas that don't look like they closed yet...one I can see the puffed up white rice looking stitch at the T junction--I asked the PS nurse, and she confirmed it was a stitch, and if it gets longer, I should come in to get it trimmed. The one at my areola is like clear fishing wire...it had been poking through the glue/tape dressing little by little, and I was trimming it to keep from snagging and pulling it--when she removed the tape, it was like 1.5inches long, and she trimmed it to the knot. The knot and now tiny pokey ends are snuggly pulled into the still fresh looking wound edge...so I think they may continue to cause a healing problem there...or it will all close from the inside out, and that stitch knot will fall off like a baby's umbilical cord or heal over and spit out??

Birch 1 Mar 2013

Thanks for sharing what your PS did. I had not realized that the tape would be worn for so long post op, but now that I think about it, I do recall my PS saying that the tape would remain in place for some time, depending on the patient.

Kimmers25 (Community Manager) 28 Feb 2013

My doctor used internal stitches and glue over the large incisions. Then on the nipples he used external stitches that looked like thick black thread. Looked a bit like "Franken Boobies". I thought the hubby would die when he got a look at those.

Birch 28 Feb 2013

lol at "Franken Boobies!". I need to sit my husband down and show him some photos so he knows what to expect when I am first recovering. He does work in a medical field, so I am hoping he will handle it well.

NoMoreDDD4Me 28 Feb 2013

I wouldn't show him first...lol, may not want you to have the surgery. Mine were total franken-boobies.

Birch 28 Feb 2013

lol... I hadn't thought of that... that he might not want me to have it if he sees what they will look like at first. When he was younger, he actually had the opportunity to view part of a BR surgery taking place as part of his medical training (in another field). Lol his comments about that experience were "They were such nice breasts, it seemed wrong to have the Dr change them!" lol!

Kimmers25 (Community Manager) 28 Feb 2013

Yeah you should show him. They tend to freak out a bit when they are looking at their own toys..LOL