"Dissolving Stitches".....Do Not Like *kinda gross story - pics now*

So remember that gnarly knee surgery I had about seven weeks ago? This one?



They used "dissolving" internal stitches to close me up. I use quotes, merely because, well, that's NOT what they did.

Last week, I developed a mild bout of cellulitis - I'm prone to it, so I went to my surgeon and got some nice Keflex, my friend. I advised my scar had been doing well, but for one spot that just wouldn't heal more than one layer of skin...it would put a layer down, then put a second layer down and the top layer would peel off. No bandages, creams, lotions, neosporin, whatever would make it go away.

Well, a week later, the cellulitis was gone, but that area was still not healing and a bit swollen. I touched it. It erupted. I drained out most of the yuck, cleaned it, and packed with Neosporin, and followed that procedure. It looked better, still didn't heal up. Two day later, I looked, and there is a section of suture showing. I clean some tweezers, thinking it's a bad chunk and I can just pull it out...nope. It's attached. Both ends. I call the oncall doc, he says to keep it clean, call Monday. I call today, it's starting to get weird up and down my scar (not infection, but just....weird). I have an appointment tomorrow.

Most likely, they are going to have to go in and cut all of the suture out. I've abscessed about 2" or so along then length of my scar, so it will all have to be opened, cleaned, suture removed (because it's ALL still in there), and new external stitches put in. Luckily, at this moment, no sign of infection (no redness, pus, pain, fever, etc)

What the heck!? Why can't I have a normal body that dissolves it's stitches? Noooooo....I have to go for round two.

wow. that is amazingly gross and weird. I'm sorry they didn't dissolve like they should, maybe the hospital messed up, maybe it wasn't your knee that was the problem!

I agree with the hospital mess up. My 2 year old had to have stitches in his chin and they told me they would dissolve. One night he woke up screaming and had pulled a stitch out and it left a little hole. Finally after 2 weeks he got a staff infection so I took him to the on call doc and he said they weren't dissolving stitches! I was so irritated. This was his 3rd staff infection and I would have taken him in sooner if I had known that they weren't really dissolvable! It has been months and he still has a little hole in his chin!

They don't dissolve for me either. I am allergic to them. Found out the hard way too. The outside healed beautifully and they took them out. In a few days it turned red and swelled and then the outside split open. Had to start over then. Make sure it is noted on your medical records.
sharon

My mother healed too fast from staples for a hip revision (of a replacement) I had to pull them out with jewelers pliers that we sterilized.

It's happened before, I just should have remembered. Any surgery that's involved internal dissolving stitches, I've rejected the stitches. The joy of a messed up immune system (it works well sometimes, but sometimes attacks weird things). However, the surgeries I've rejected sutures from were usually small incisions, so it wasn't a big deal to pull out the stitches. Not for an incision THIS big.

However, now we know, so *if* we reconstruct the other knee, I'll need external sutures or staples instead.

Luckily, no signs of infection today still. It's still weird, and I'm starting to slough off skin over the scar in random areas, telling me it's rejecting all along the scar.

Why?! Why do I insist on reading threads that are clearly marked "gross"?????!!!



Edited to add:

I really hope you heal up properly, now.

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OMG! Me too!!!