How soon after surgery did you remove the tape covering your puncture wounds? Four of my five have come off okay, but the largest one covering the Port is still on. Surgery was a week ago, and I don't know if I'm safe pulling the tape off or not.:eekB:

do you mean the tape holding the initial gauze in place? If so...that should prob have come off a few days ago and for sure take it off!

If you are referring to the steri-strips....they should stay on 7-10 days (this is what my doc said). They will then mostly fall of by themselves...if 10 days have gone by and the steristrips are still on, you should "help" them off. By then the incision should be "closed" and at least scabbed over.

I'm on my 10th day post surgery and mine pretty much fell off yesterday.

You are pretty much supposed to leave those on (steri-strips) until they fall off. If they are a little ragged on the edges, trim it up so it doesn't catch on something.

I wasn't given any instructions regarding those other than that they'd come off in about a week, so after about a week, I used a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol on it and it came right off, but you might talk to your doctor first just to be sure.

My surgeon used staples, and put this plastic tape stuff over them. It was really sticky. Even with showering at least once every day, all but the very corners was firmly stuck 7 days later when I had my staples removed. They put on steristrips afterward, which started coming off 4 days later so after about 6 days I just pulled them off... they'd gotten so loose they weren't doing any good anyway.

You can probably take it off. Eventually they get dirty and such and are a risk for infection.

I think it's pretty much Ok to take it off after a week, but just to make sure I'd give a quick call to the Doctor's office and try to find out if it's 100% OK or not.

It will be useful to ask your doctor as well which sort of aftercare you should have with your scars (after you shower, whether you should use any sort of cream or lotion on the scar tissue, etc).

Hope it will turn out Ok!

niki

At my 1-week post-op visit, the nurse practitioner removed my steri-strips.

I suggest that you call the doctor's office and ask them their opinion.