incisions and stitches---I don't think this is right????

"Nita · June 29, 2005

OK, I will call the doctor's office in the morning but I thought I would see if this is normal here first....

Two weeks since surgury. Steri-strips are all off, two of my incisions have a thick clear fishing line type thread which I assume are my internal stitches sticking out. These two incisions are still somewhat open of course because of this. I just noticed it about an hour ago as I have avoided looking too closely at them (I told you I am a wimp). I have a friend who is a nurse, I asked her and she said to give them a gentle pull and see if they come out. She thought maybe the ends of the disolving stitches worked their way out. Well, they don't come out. In fact it hurts to pull them at all no matter how gentle.

Anyone else have this?

"Nita · June 29, 2005

I guess I should add that my doctor stitches inside and steri-strips surface so I didn't have any external stitches. These two are from inside. I just don't know if they worked themselves up from deep inside after the knots disolved or if the tails were left too long and are sticking out.

Will they disolve if they are exposed like this?

dylansmom · June 29, 2005

I had the same thing happen to me with 2 of my incisions. MY doctor ended up pulling them out at my 1 month check up. It wasn't a big deal.

Jen · July 1, 2005

This happend to me also - I am 2 weeks out as of yesterday - my doc told me this could happen - I only have one sticking outof my port site. Doc said this is really common and to just clip the ends off. So I did. I tried to see if I could tug them out but it seems pretty in there and I don't want to mess with it too much.

Jen

218/215/196/130

DeLarla · July 1, 2005

I had stitches sticking out too. Mine slid out, but now I wish I would have clipped them.

For the record, these "dissolving" stitches don't always dissolve. When I had my last port removal, Dr. Billy found a handful of them floating around inside me.

flower · July 1, 2005

I also had the same thing on one incision I clipped it it was pretty long and the other one I clipped then pulled it more out later because it kept picking at my shirt so I think it is normal I was afraid to pull it but did it and it came out easily.

daisydoodle · July 1, 2005

Yes, you are normal...I wondered the same thing. My doc told me that sometimes we will "spit" some of our stitches out. He just clipped them close enough to where they wouldn't catch on my clothing. I can't even remember what happened to them after that. They just went away.

Good Luck!