Tonight out of the blue the skin around my incisions starts itching. Maddeningly! It's *around* my incisions, but not the incisions themselves, and every single one of them has it. I tried hydrocortisone, I tried calamine, I tried a compress... nothing is helping & it's driving me mad! Not touching it makes it itch, but touching it makes it itch even more. It feels like 100 mosquito bites all in one. Ask-a-nurse says bacterial infection, but I don't think so. I think it's related to the stickies they put over my staples, but dang - those have been off for over a week, and this is the first time I've had any real issue. Plus they made sure I was latex-free (my only known sensitivity) during surgery and post-op. I will def. be calling PCP if this is still here tomorrow morning.

Here's a pic looking down. The areas are about 1/4" puffed up.

Here's my largest/port incision, the leasy affected one. You can see some spots on top, but most are below. Still small. Minus the 5 staple holes on the bottom, everything else is this "rash". They look almost like little cuts, but feel nothing like that.

The area that has it the worst, one of my side incisions. For scale, the incision is just over an inch long.

Ok, talked to PCP today, she said I didn't need to come in but we talked for a while on the phone. It's basically "allergic contact dermatitis" -- what I thought, only in more words. What we can't figure out is why, after the plastic stuff has been off for over a week and all steristrips off for at least 3 or 4 days, I'm just now having this "delayed" reaction. She thinks maybe something (waistband, etc.) irritated it just enough to be a catalyst.

She phoned me in a prescription for ablahblah blahpoopblahblah... seriously can't remember the name, I'll have to look at it when I pick it up. Some type of topical antihistamine that's supposed to be pretty strong. Everything has already started going down, itching is less, and I'm getting a "scaley" skin on top, which she says is another indication it's just an allergic reaction.

I didn't think it was an infection. Damn ask-a-nurses...

She phoned me in a prescription for ablahblah blahpoopblahblah...

AHAHAHA! That made me crack up.

I had a reaction like this (less severe) on my entire abdomen. Wheetsin, you're a redhead, right? Do you have the skin? The pale, delicate skin of our clan?

I think my reaction was the iodine wash they used. I lost a thin layer of skin that flaked off when I scratched like it had been chapped. I had a few hives too, but none of the cut-like openings (cringe). I have the adhesives problem too, I had to quit smoking the old-fashioned way 'cause I was allergic to the patches. Take care.

Much luck and rapid healing! Brenda