My scars are very long and quite noticeable. My surgeries were about SEVEN months ago and THREE months ago.
I know my neighbor's scars are little silver lines now, but HER surgeries were twenty years ago.
Will my scars get less red-looking anytime soon?
I put E45 Cream on them each night.
No infection, scabs gone, bumpiness lessening.
Thanks!
Keep up the oil but increase it to twice a day and really massage it in good with your thumbs. Remember, we are all different and heal differently. It may be the surgeon used a different style. My intial surgery went around the knee just 2 the inside of center but some surgeons go straight over the top. This proceedure seems to leave a wider scar as there I d always pressure on the scar when the knee bends to any degree
My surgeon did the off-center curve, so my two knees form parentheses scars! ( )
I will increase the E45 Cream and keep massaging!
Thanks so much!
Happy New Year to you!
As always, your experience with all things KNEE is much appreciated!
The scars heal quite quickly, but the scar above the knee is wider, as OFG says, and could be keloid (I think that that depends on the person). That bit quite often looks purpurlish in colour, particularly when it's cold.
A friend on mine's husband has a very good scar, but his legs are a lot slimmer than mine. To be honest, the scars don't bother me, I just want to be able to walk properly, and without pain...but even that is proving difficult again :-(
Bio oil helps for the external appearance, but use any kind of cream for a deep massage.
Yes, the elimination of the terrible and constant pain truly is priceless. Just forgetting my knees is an amazing thing to me. Before surgery I constantly was reminded of them due to my severe pain.
Massage and using creams seems to be very important, so that is what I will do. Hopefully Capri pants will hide my scary-looking scars for summer days.
The healing is most important.
Must be grateful for that!
Thanks for responding!
They will probably always show but they do become less noticeable as time goes on.
Sarah
I am 9 and a half months post tkr my scar is still quite wide over the knee and as patsy rose said looks purplish when it's cold I us e e45 cream on it twice a day a massage it due to have other knee done Feb/March can't wait
Good to know!
My sons have said, "Don't worry about them, Mom. They make you look VERY BRAVE and VERY BAD A**!"
I laughed a lot at THAT one!
I was EXACTLY in that same mindset! My right, non-surgical knee was really holding my NEW LEFT KNEE back! Couldn't WAIT to get rid of that right knee pain!
When you experience virtually NO PAIN with a fixed knee, you want the same for your other knee, and PRONTO!
Wishing you much success with your second surgery!
hi cheryl sounds like your doing great and the fact your wondering about the scarss says it all one of mine is 3yrs and still a bit purple in parts .recent ones are alot more ugly seen that its been open 3 times in less than 3yrs but to be honest if my knees felt better i wouldnt care if the scars went from groin to toe ,im not worried one bit my days for showing my pins are well and truely over these scars are my war scars well thats what it fees like haha!!!!!!!
Incisions reopened three times...Goodness! How did you ever have the courage to do it? I hope all is finally well now for you.
Yes, very much like war scars. Strange, but I never expected the LENGTH they would be! I had 29 staples on my right and 28 on my left. My home care nurse actually GASPED when she saw the length of my incision.
I am glad I didn't know all the surgery details until afterwards. Ignorance sometimes IS bliss!
Take care. Be well without any annoying pain or at least less pain than before!
They will continue to fade but won't go away entirely. Keep rubbing the oil on them with your thumbs, right on the scars. The three month one may still be a little tender but use as much pressure as you can take. I had my TKR done the end of April. The bottom 3 inches of the scar is just a very thin white line. The top 3 inches is a little more noticable but that's the part that had the most 'wrinkles'. I had about 32 staples but no scabing and no infections. About 5 years ago I had my right ankle operated on to repair torn tendons, with about 36 staples, I can barely see that scar. When it's hot out, even last year, when my scar was quite noticeable, I wore shorts. I turned 69 in Oct. and if anyone asks about the scars, I just tell them they are my battle scars from life....Fear not they will fade more.
The scar part of the recovery is an interesting one. I was freaked out at my first FU visit to have the bandage removed because I have seen other scars, such as my Mothers ( I am her clone....same right knee) and expected to see an ugly whopper of an incision. I was truly amazed to see just a hairline pink straight line which is across the top and 6 + Inches. I noticed that you said you had staples. Mine was done with dissolvable stitches underneath then the skin was glued together. I am wondering if this is a new procedure? I imagine that even though it is really long it will be unnoticible in several years. I too have been massaging with cream. My PT told me to do this which helps to flatten the scar. Geez the stuff we have to do. 😜
I forgot to mention I am at 5 1/2 weeks
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences! I DO see a difference in color (or lack of it!) when I compare my June to my October scar, so time plus length of time rubbing in the E45 Cream MUST be doing something to help fade the dark purple to lighter purple to pink.
Great attitude there! Battle scars they certainly ARE!
At 5 1/2 weeks that is GREAT! The stitches that dissolve probably make for a cleaner close, and the glue probably helps eliminate the puckering that seems to happen with staples.
Our oldest son had surgery for an inguinal hernia at three months of age, and his three inch scar in his groin had dissolving stitches and was then glued! (At the time I had never heard of such a thing as GLUING an incision, but he recovered well, being more concerned about needing his BOTTLE than anything else!) A month later, probably also due to his very young age, we were hard- pressed to even FIND his scar!
I wonder why some surgeons use one closing method and others another... I know my surgeries each took three to three and a half hours each. Maybe after all the time involved with the surgery, my doc just wanted to staple me up and be DONE! Can't blame him; it sounds like a pretty violent operation with all the sawing and pounding. Surgeons must feel like they rebuilt a part of a house!
My TKRs were both glued...but the first one ended up with a wide flattened scar above the knee. When my second TKR was reopened in Sept it was stapled. Strangely enough, the slightly puckered part sits better than the rest of it currently...and is less noticeable.
That's interesting about the stapled part sitting better than the rest! Maybe it's just the surgeon's call on what he/she thinks will work best in the given situation!
At Physical Therapy we met a body builder who ripped his pectoral muscle on the right side. He had surgery, and all went well UNTIL he developed a very angry-looking area where the surgery had been done. Turned out that the dissolving stitches that were used contained SHELLFISH, and his ALLERGY to SHELLFISH caused him all kinds of issues at the surgery site! He needed to go back in, have the area excised, be treated with medication and had a really rough time of it!
This extremely strong and burly guy lost a year of his training and was reduced to TEARS just talking about his ordeal.
He is finished with PT after nearly 10 months of rehab and PT. Allergic reactions can be VERY REAL and VERY ROUGH!
Funny how one thing works perfectly for one person and reaks havoc with another!
you too take care xx