Hi, I had my gallbladder removed several days ago and am now recovering at home.
I noticed my skin looking yellowish in the area surrounding the surgical wound at my belly button.
Is this something to be concerned about or part of the normal healing process?
Hiya, it will be just bruising from the surgery, nothing to worry about! I had the same when I had my appendix removed.
Hi, just bruising. There's always some round the site of surgery wound. It will soon lighten and disappear as the wound heals.
Yes, bruising, only due to the cut/trauma at the incision location or wherever blood spilled into your skin, which is very normal.
No surgery is without a blood spill since it is a wound, smaller blood vessles inevitably cut and if its a tiny one.
Some spills are bigger, some are smaller.
Our laps always were yellow around the cuts or even 20cm away from it, but locally there, not general whole body.
The blood spill in your skin is broken down during healing,
the beautiful valuable iron taken first and reused, the left over iron free hemoglobin (protein) looks greenish and is broken down further for removal, into blood stream, to liver (then bile), those protein bits look green, then yellow (bilirubin).
Jaundice is a term to be used when your whole skin everywhere is yellow including your eyeballs since the higher bilirubin level would be in your blood stream, so everywher; it is the same stuff, that causes the yellow colour (bilirubin), but the localisation and reason and amount is very different.