
What to expect from your incision/dressings and how you can expect it to recover:
What might surprise you about your surgery is how small the incision site may be. While there are variations among patients based on an individual's anatomy, the incision can be as small as four inches. After the surgery the incision site will be tightly closed using dissolvable sutures. If you have staples or black sutures, they will remain in until your first follow up appointment. It is OK for them to stay in for 3-4 weeks. Until then, you can refer to your discharge instructions on how to care for the incision site ensuring that the sutures are not disrupted, hindering the healing.
Over the next few days and weeks, it will be important that you are following these guidelines and taking care of your incision site to prevent infections, reduce scarring, and to help your body in the healing process.
These instructions typically consist of some of the following steps: but, remember to keep in mind that each persons’ needs are different, and Dr. Karas and the team might have educated you differently.
Finally, remember that all people heal differently but there are a few, very normal, things to keep in mind when monitoring your incision site at home. It is normal to have some swelling, redness and bruising post-surgery and you will likely feel some pain and fatigue for the next few days to come. However, after about two to three weeks these common symptoms should begin to reside, and you should start to feel more capable of doing more of your everyday activities. As you monitor your incision at home, do not hesitate to reach out to the office if you have any concerns about the healing process.