VERY itchy belly?

Hey everyone!  I'm just over a week post-op and the tape has come off my sites.  I thought once it was off the itchy feeling would go away...but it hasn"t and it's driving me nuts!  Did anyone else have this problem? Help!

dry skin? you could be having some kind of a reaction to the stuff they use to clean your belly before they make the cuts. Try washing with gentle soap and using a nonscented cleanser.

is there a rash, or any sort of redness?

Are you still injecting Heparin into your belly?
 
I was one of the VERY rare cases who is allergic to Heparin, and I was ready to tear my skin off my belly.

I checked with the internist, who took me off the Heparin early, and gave me Benadryl.
Took two days and the ra****ching disappeared.


Don't know if you're like me ...? I'm no doctor ...

I have found that since surgery I have to use antibacterial body wash to keep infections, itchyness, etc at bay.  I use Dial, it is awesome!  I still itch on occasion, but nothing compared to before starting this body wash.  Good luck!!!

I had this as well. My incisions were not red or swollen but my skin was very itchy. I thought it was due to the fact that I did not take my medication for hives for the first month due to the size of the pill. I also attributed it to the healing process as I often get very itchy around cuts etc. when they are healing.
I took benadryl if it was really bad and was very careful not to scratch my actual incisions. I found That after three weeks I was not itchy much at all.
I hope it subsides for you as well as it is very frustrating trying not to scratch or to scratch around incisions and steri-strips!!
Kristen

I was always told that "itchy" meant it was healing!

I guess there are different level of itchiness (is that even a word??) but when I was itchy, it went away within a week or so.

Good Luck

 I experienced this. My incisions were fine but the skin on my lower abdomen was excruciatingly itchy for a couple of weeks. I scratched myself to the point of bleeding. (I DO NOT recommend this!) I found using lotion on the skin help. I think I used Aveeno. It was gentle and I made sure to get an unscented product. I do think it was likely caused by a reaction to the cleanser they used during surgery.

It took quite a while for the itchiness to go away for me... 4-5 weeks, perhaps?

Hope you feel better soon.

Thea

Experienced that as well. It does go away. Try not to scratch. Hang in there!

you may have had an allergic reaction to the adhesive in teh tape...when admitted I told them I had a sensitivity to the tape and thus they used a different type.

 Hi There!  Looks like we had our surgery on the same date. :)

Although the tape hasn't come off for me yet, my belly is also itchy.  I assumed it was just everything healing up.