Three months post-op cleft lift blood?

[angelalucia3215]

Hi everyone,

I had a cleft lift with Dr. Brand in Chicago back in July. Everything went relatively well and I was able to go back to almost normal by September. I was sitting for extended periods of time for my classes, squatting once in a while at work, and walking to and from my classes.

Recently I’ve noticed some discomfort once in a while, sometimes if I sit for too long or sometimes for no reason at all.

Today I used a baby wipe and pressed into the top of my new cleft and a small spot of blood came off on the wipe.

I’m worried that my scar is opening up. Does anyone else have experience with this? Thanks

 

[stokliner]

I had a cleft-lift done by Dr. Brand as well. I never encountered blood after the procedure, but I was damn careful for a long time after getting mine. Did he make you wear that compression band around the waist? I wore that for an unnecessarily long time afterwards, which helped as a reminder if nothing else.

I definitely experienced discomfort though. That area is never really the same after the procedure. I went through a body building phase and it was always sore due to incline benching & such. And that was 2-3 years post surgery.

I would go see him though; it's recent enough that it is likely the scar opening, but worth making sure it's not another cyst or a leftover pit or something.

BTW: How was your experience with Dr. Brand at DuPage? I had my surgery done by him back when he was at Rush, but my cyst has returned so I'll likely need another procedure. Such a total pain in the ass.

 

[angelalucia3215]

He did make me wear the compression band yeah!

I guess I could have been a little more careful so close after my procedure, but he had told me I was fine to ride rollercoasters by October (my procedure was done in July) so I figured I would be fine to resume normal life! Guess not lol.

I saw him today and he said it was a small split in the scar, nothing more. He also said he didn’t think it went very deep nor infected, so he just chemically cauterized it and now I have to do twice daily soaks and gauze pads for three weeks.

Dr. Brand has been great from what I’ve experienced! That sucks that you have another cyst; I’ve been reading it’s less than a 1% recurrence rate after the cleft lift!! DuPage in general is just a very good medical group; I want to try and find a general practitioner through them since I don’t really like my one now.

 

[stokliner]

Glad to hear it's just a minor scar issue. Just take it easy for a good while!

It's a running joke in my family that I encounter random medical issues, so a recurrence would happen to me. It really does suck but after having done it once, at least I know what to expect and how to deal with things.

BTW, not sure if you're limited from bending over much while your scar heals, but I used one of those 'grabber' tools after my surgery that people use to pick up trash. It's got the handle and the claws to grasp. I used that to pick stuff up, lol.

 

[ZAKSMOM]

I'm sorry to hear about your issue!! Zack is having some discomfort when sitting a lot (he got a job and sometimes has to sit). He has had a little blood, and has been complaining about pain near the bottom of his incision. Sounds like we may be making another trip up north to see Dr. Brand. Hopefully it is just a scar issue like yours.