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Go to your ob/gyn ASAP! I had the same thing happen and had an infectio and 4 surgerys after I am ok. Watch for temp. good luck

I posted a while back and just thought that I would update everyone... My wound is all closed now and I am enjoying my time with my son immensely. I have a nasty scar and my stomach is far from normal looking. My niece calls it my "b___t belly" because my scar runs down from my belly b___ton to my pubic bone and creates a crater effect that makes it look like a b___t crack LOL I can laugh a little about it now because I am just so happy the darn thing is closed and not oozing and that I don't have to plan my life around nurses and doctors!!!!!! Anyway, I am slowly starting to build up my stomach muscles and hopefully it will flatten out and look somewhat more normal and less like b___t cheeks... every day I see a little more progress. If it stops to progress, I guess I will have to think about some sort of plastic surgery but the idea of anymore abdominal surgeries terrifies me! My husband and I will really have to consider which way we want to go for our next baby. With James I had 27 hours of labor that ended in a c-section and I think that maybe all of the iv fluids they pumped into are what made my wound explode. I was so swollen and full of fluid it had no where else to go but out of my wound, almost like cellulitis. So I would hate to do another long labor that ends in a c-section but I am terrified of c-section too now!!! It is a genuine Catch 22. I am starting to use the silicone pads on my scar to make it less purple as well. I still wish that someone, somewhere had warned me about this fairly common complication of a c-section! Doctors have an obligation to tell their patients of this! But if you are going through this right now, just know it will get better! Eat your protein, listen to your nurses and try to enjoy your baby as much as possible! Good Luck!

Go back to the ER or call your doctor immediately. What you are experiencing sounds abnormal and potentially dangerous. If they tell you to go home, demand to see someone else.

i had a similar experience. my wound opened and i had to be packed twice a day regularly till the doctor could sucher it up again. my husband says it has healed fine...however, are your c-sections slightly indented or depressed? just wanted to know if was the only one.

My little guy is now 3 months old and my incision has healed. It did take almost 9 weeks to do so, but it is closed. The Dr did tell me that I will have a *dimple* where it opened then closed again. I guess that is what it looks like. My skin kind of dents in, only about 2 inches of it, where it originally opened. I can deal with that. It's not like anyone will really ever see it, besides my DH. A word of advice that my Dr's did give me. When we would clean the incision, I didn't have to pack it. I was to use peroxide and saline solution, then wipe it with a sterile gauze pad. Sometimes that didn't always make it dry. He told me to use a b__w dryer, on a cool setting, and b__w the wound dry. Worked like a charm! I wonder if the skin is dry, is it possible that it heals quicker? Anyway, thanks girls. I am amazed to really find out how common this is. I have heard of 2 other people, who I know, having this happen to them since I have birth in June. Dr's should give us a more of a heads up.

well i went to the plastic surgeon and he was planning on doing a modified tummy tuck but my insurance company wont pay for it so he has now decided to have skin graft surgery and im totally opposed to it i just dont know what to do!!!! anyone out there please help i feel like all the drs are handing me off to each other and they all are dumbfounded on what to do!!!

My daughter is now almost 8 months old and still no closure to to my wound. I have done everything to get this to close up and have decided that I am done trying. I will never have another abdominal surgery, nor will I trust anyone who says that 8 months later that it will take time to heal a wound. Would they let a gaping hole stay open on somebody's arm for months and months? Somehow I doubt it. I have absolutely no faith in any physician at the moment.

Try going to an infection control Dr. If it isn't healing then you may have another problem. They had to take me back into surgery and sew me up and then after 2 more weeks i closed all the way up. Don't give up! I have had 4 surgerys in the last 1 1/2 months and no how you feel.

hello...i am a wound care nurse so i wanted to pipe in....a few questions for you...how open are you, do you know the measurements? also, are you packing it with saline gauze or med. have you had any signs of infection in there? has anyone taken a culture? it is actually better to leave the wound open then for it to heal unevelnly that is when you get hernia's and weaker abdominal walls.....but 8 months seems extreme....who monitors you? do you go to a doctor regularly?

Thank you for the encouragement, Heather. I keep praying that this will one day be over. In response to the wound care nurse, I have taken many measurements. Right now, the hole is about 2 inches long and as wide. That seems small, however, it started out about half the size of the total incision area. I did pack it with some wound gel and gauze to keep it open to let it heal from the inside out. I then cleaned it with Dakins solution for several weeks. From there, I was st_tched. In the meantime, I had another area open up on the farthest side of my scar. I couldn't believe it. That finally closed up in about a months time. Finally, the st_tches dissolved and about 1/3 of the area had healed. My doctor has not planned anything else for me besides seeing a plastic surgeon and I simply do not trust that having another surgery in that area would ever heal. My doctor keeps telling me that it has healed to the top, but the skin is simply not closing. I am just not sure what to believe. I can not believe that there isn't a way to heal this up and get it to close permanently.

if i were you i would seek either a wound care facility or an infectious disease doctor....and talk to someone about a wound vac....it is a pain in the b___t but it would get you healed nice and even...if you have any questions feel free to ask:)

I sure do feel for you. My opening was about the same but also had a smaller opening on the left side. My 2nd surgery was to open up my insision and do deep packing. Then my 3rd surgery they cleaned it out more and removed some blood clots and stapled me back up. The 4th surgery was to stich what didn't close. They had to pack me between all of this. Have they done a full blodd work up on you? I had an infection that wouldn't go away. It was resistant to many drugs so it's important that they get you on the correct one. Please watch for a temp? Keep after your doctors to help you. I am just so sorry that you have had all this happen to you.

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Hi. I have had similar problems recently as all of you have. I don't know what to think anymore. I had my daughter by c-section on 7/16/05. Seven weeks later I ended up in the ER with a huge egg sized pouch bulging from by incision. An OB/GYN doctor in the ER opened it up with a Q-tip by poking it and tons of fluid and blood came gushing out. There was so much inside that it went all over me and the bed. It was disgusting, but I felt instant relief. I had it packed for one week and then by OB doc told me he wasn't going to pack it anymore because it would take must longer to heal that way. I kept going to him every other day to check it while it was draining. It seemed to heal nicely. This morning I woke up and noticed there is a different hole in my incision now bleeding. I don't know if another hematoma has formed or my incision has opened up. I can't understand why this is happening ten weeks postpartum. It's radiculous. It's been so long, you might think I was healed by now. I just don't know what to do anymore. I am going to the doctor today at 215 to see what he says now about his new hole. I appreciate any advice that anyone has for me.

Jen, Make sure your doctor is doing lab to check for infection. I hope he puts you on a big dose of cipro or something. Good luck!

Hi Heather. Thanks for responding. Sorry, I forgot to mention some things before. My daughter was fussing and I was trying to hurry. I was on an antibiotic for about 12 days, then my doctor said I didn't need anymore because there was no infection. They did take a culture of the wound in the ER that night and I am going to ask my doctor about the results. He did say that I had a hematoma that had formed, but no infection. He told me that it was very unusual for a hematoma to from seven weeks postpartum, but didn't mean it was anything serious either. We'll see what he thinks today. This new hole is right next to the one that just healed up. Maybe it's just my incision that has opened. I don't know. Seems strange to me that it would open affter ten weeks. The whole thing is driving me nuts. I just want to be healed and move on.