I am sorry you are experiencing this rare (fortunately) complication, and can tell you that as the open wounds heal and granulation tissue seals over exposed raw nerve endings, the discomfort will reduce significantly. If you moisten the gauze dressings before you pull them off, it hurts less, but all the garbage (dead tissue) that would have come off with the adherent dry dressing will be left behind, prolonging the process.It appears as if your surgeon is using silver nitrate on your tissues. You might want to ask if you could use a soft bristle toothbrush (honest) in the shower to help debride the dead tissues. Once the dead stuff is gone and cannot harbor bacteria, healing will progress much more rapidly. Remember bleeding tissue is alive tissue, so a little bleeding when you scrub your tissues is not a bad thing. Scrubbing tissues would not be a good thing if you have implants in place, but you are listed under breast lift, so I am using a "No implants" supposition.It would also be helpful to other patients reading this answer to know if you were a smoker before or after surgery. Though this complication can occur in nonsmokers, it is very rare, and yet is a 15-20% possibility in even a single cigarette smoker, e-cig user, or even Nicorette gum, spray, lozenge, or even second-hand smoke exposure patient.Another question I have is if your surgeon used Vicryl sutures, as the wound breakdown seems to follow that pattern (look at the spots around your areolas). Click on the web reference link below for more information about this. In general, monofilament sutures (Monocryl, PDS, Panacryl, and others) are superior to braided sutures (Vicryl, Dexon, etc.), the latter of which can harbor skin bacteria in their braided interstices, initiating the breakdown process that led to your present situation. Again, this is for the other patients who might be reading this information.Keep doing the wet to dry debridements, and follow your surgeon's advice. I would hope s/he starts reducing the frequency of your dressing regimen as things clean up, and as long as no implants are present to worry about exposure, surgical debridement can accelerate healing as well. This will be remarkably better than it looks right now, so I'm glad to hear you are being a patient patient! Hang in there--this will end up allright for you, albeit with a little more scarring (that can be revised later, if you wish). Best wishes! Dr. Tholen
