Saturday, August 20, 2011

An Odd Thing about Disolvable Stitches

Spellbinder daylily with white and purple coneflowers.  At right, rose hips from Rosa Pomifera
Two weeks ago, I once again had a surprise as I was getting ready for bed.  When I took off my bra, I noticed a red raised area and a blister about 1/4" in diameter on my mastectomy site.  I tentatively touched the blister which promptly popped. No blood, just histamine like you'd find on a burn blister.  Since I was having pain in my pelvis in a new spot, I quickly made an appointment with my oncologist.

The verdict? It was a disolvable stitch that my body had recognized as foreign and had walled off.  Whether it was from my mastectomy which was done in January, 1998; or my lumpectomy done May 1994, we don't know. My doc says it worked to the surface and he could see the little black threads. 

No problem...once it popped it drained and went away. I still have the little scab and the threads at the top of the skin...It seems that my body recognizes foreign materials and does what it is supposed to do.  Too bad its track record with recognizing cancer cells and destroying them isn't so good. 

Can you believe it? After all these years...will wonders never cease.

4 comments:

  1. Though not quite the same, Morgan's body did something similar this year. She had to have a mole with bad pathology removed from the front of her thigh. Four weeks later, her body was literally pushing her dissolvable stitches to the surface -- there were big, dark lumps at her surgery site beneath the skin. Yech! Some popped through the surface and her scar is now wider than it should be because some of the site pulled apart too soon; her body rejected the stitches too early in the healing process. But she's fine now .... but yes, very weird!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! It is very similar...the only difference being that mine took so long...and yeah...it was a big lump, although it was only red around the edges...Too bad it happened before the area was healed enough...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello,
    I have a question about your blog. Please email me!
    Thanks,
    David

    ReplyDelete
  4. Something similar happened to me! It's four years after my surgery, and last month a large dissolvable stick surfaced from around my navel. It looked like a large pimple. I ended up pulling out the long black thread with tweezers. This week, the same thing from my left breast from where my areola was removed and reattached. I only noticed them because they itched.

    ReplyDelete