Anyone else left clueless after their laparoscopy? I came home with 3 little dressings and a discharge note that said remove after 3 days after shower.
I had to call the ward to ask whether the dressings comes off before the shower or keep on and replace after (which is what they advised)
Anyway that was yesterday. And I'm clueless again from here on out. When can I remove this set of dressings? Then what? And when can I have a bath?
Literally been told nothing 😏
I brought a load of dressing from boots and kept mine covered for about 2 weeks, didn’t want it getting infected and nasty stuff getting in my belly button, but if you aren’t neurotic like me you just have to keep it clean and dry 😂 shower with the dressings on and it’ll ease them off gently and you won’t wax yourself,
3 days for a shower, 4 weeks for a bath was what I was told, I didn’t have a bath for 6 weeks because I burst my stitches so restarted my healing time x
I left my dressing on for about 48 hours, would have kept it on longer but my mum said it needed the air round it and I agreed reluctantly but it helped speed things up, especially when showering as getting wet helped clean the inside of the belly button and work on the stitches. I didn't trust a bath until about 4 weeks after but felt comfortable showering a few days later, as soon as I was able to be upright for long amounts of time again.
I was pretty bad at aftercare but didn't get my stitches infected by probably a miracle, though had 3/4 stitches taken out 2 weeks later as the area got red and angry, let the bottom bellybutton one fall out on it's own as it was hidden til after the others were removed, and I didn't fancy having her yank the one through the bottom of it!
My discharge note never mentioned dressings at all, was just told to go back to my GP is pain persisted and then the person came in to start making my bed again while I was still in my gown feeling like death! You think they'd tell you more right?
I think you've got to just go with your gut a bit really. I'm 5 days post-lap and took the dressings off yesterday. I am avoiding having showers and just cleaning the 'key areas' at the moment although I have had one shower with dressings still on and then changed them afterwards. Today I've just been wearing loose clothes and keeping an eye on the stitches to make sure nothing catches. They didn't give me any guidance either really so I've just gone with what seemed right to me and since the incision sites have all properly scanned up and everything I felt ok to take dressings off and just keep an eye on it. I am not going to have a bath for at least a couple of weeks just to be safe as I've heard of people getting infections that way. But I'm not a bath person really anyway x
In my case, was advised no bath until I had had a period. Like the other ladies on here though, I waited until I felt my incisions were well on the way to being healed.
Re showering, I kept my stitches dry for days but later found out this had stopped my stitches dissolving so I could have started to get them wet after four days or so.
I got a shower about 4 days after my lap but left the dressings on and only changed them when they looked like they needed changing. I’m a student nurse and was told the other day that any wound with a dressing over it the dressing should be left on as long as it can be left on for because the tissue heals when it’s at that temperature - if your taking it off all the time to change it the temperate of the wound will change causing it to probably become infected x
Hi there, I left my dressings on for around 5 days because I hadn't read that they could come off after 3. I think I had a bath very shortly after that too; was just very careful getting in and out and didn't submerge the area for too long.
I bought spares from boot, and replaced the wet ones after shower.
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