Undissolved Stitches

[weesteppn]

I'm a few years out from a hernia surgery (following DS; not lap) and the stitches are poking all over up through my skin all along my incision line. It looks nasty. I thought they'd have dissolved by now. Anyone else have this problem? I heard you could get your surgeon to go back in and take them out. Anyone have this done? Seems the more ab exercising I do the worse it gets. It's crazy freaky looking.

[angelcake]

I had the same thing when I was few months out after having stitches in my forehead from having a halo removed for a broken neck.

My then boyfriend pulled them out with tweezers which really made me want to puke. I was on holiday, so in your case I'd definitely recommend a trip to your doctor to get it looked at.

[alaja957]

Any of the suture material that sticks above the skin the body will not break down. I tried to pull mine out but thet were attached to something important so I used tweezers to pull the suture our as far as I could and my partner sniped the suture with sanitized scissors as close to the body as she could and the cut end was pulled back into the incision site where it never gave me trouble again.

[weesteppn]

Thanks for the replies but I forgot to say that they are under the skin. You can just see them poking up in the skin and feel them too. They look awful poking up in the skin but since they aren't actually breaking through the skin I can't get a hold of them. I think my surgeon can probably remove them but I wonder if the cutting the incision again to get at them would make it that much uglier than if I just left them there.

[Deleted]

Those sutures aren't meant to dissolve; otherwise, your hernia would recur. They're just palpable now that you've lost so much weight. You can talk to your surgeon about options, but sounds cosmetic.