Younger ladies how did you deal with your scar?

[Heather1957]

A friend of mine’s daughter very recently had a large tumour removed from between her lungs and heart and to remove it they have made a cut not dissimilar to those left after a bypass.

She is a young lady who only recently gave birth not an old(er) lady like myself.

Her dad asked me how I coped with the psychological effects of the scar.

I told him how I coped but in all honesty it must be very different being in your 20s than in your 60s.

Any advice from our younger members?

I did tell him that it is a sign of survival and that being a woman we are helped by having a cleavage but speaking for the I, I didn’t have a problem showing it or living with it. However it must be very different for a younger lady.

Any help will be gratefully received.

[Bazmack48]

Hi Heather, I am not a young lady but I had a tumour removed in roughly the same place. I had keyhole surgery and had two scars to deal with. I was recommended Bio oil, you can use it once the wound has healed. You can barely see the scars now.

[Heather1957 in reply to Bazmack48]

Thanks for this, I have mentioned bio oil to him as I used it. Hopefully she'll recover and be fine with the scar.

[Helen_BHF]

Hi Heather1957 , I wonder if she'd like to check out some of our content for young heart patients. Members of our youth support programmes speak about their surgery scars here: youtube.com/watch?list=PLUA...

You can also read stories from other young women with surgery scars here:

bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...

bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...

Really hope this helps.

[Heather1957 in reply to Helen_BHF]

Thanks for this I'll pass on the web pages, hopefully she'll find some help on them.

It may be she has no problem but her dad wanted the info just in case.

[Suzy1954]

Hi Heather. I had open heart surgery at 32 and to be honest the scar was the least of my problems in the end. It really didn’t take long to fade. I suppose having slightly bigger boobs it was easier to hide in my cleavage. The way I decided to look at it was, it’s other people who have to look at it not me so I held my head up and carried on as normal. Hope that helps 👍

[Heather1957 in reply to Suzy1954]

Thanks Suzy, hopefully she'll feel the same but he is being a typical dad and wants to prepare for all eventualities. Apparently her husband thinks the World of her and is totally supportive.