Question about my belly button . . .

I'm four weeks post surgery (laparoscopic RNY) and I have a weird question.  Well, I have LOTS of questions but this is the one that's concerning me at the moment.  About two weeks post surgery I noticed something extremely foul smelling was leaking out of my belly button.  It looked maybe like drainage from a wound, brownish, and smelled awful.  I cleaned everything up and kept a loose gauze pad on it that night.  Cleared up.  Yesterday I am noticing the same thing again.

I've had a yeast infection (YUCK) in my navel and this is not that.  (Googling this problem found me alot of information about that.)  I am pretty sure this is related to my surgery.  I don't believe my surgeon made any incisions in my belly button (I'll verify this at the next office visit) but I had a surgery twenty years ago where they made an incision in my navel. 

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?  I had a really bad infection after open abdominal surgery in 2009, so I really want to make sure this is somewhat normal, or at least something that can wait until the next office visit.  Beside this I feel fine.  No symptoms of any kind of infection.

Thanks for the help!

Kris

Hi Kris,
My lap surgery had a hole just below the belly button. I think they either go below or through the belly button. At 4 weeks out I don't think you should be having drainage. You should definately check this out just in case you have an infection going. I would not wait unless you next appointment is soon.
Keep us posted and good luck!

Hi, Kris. My sister and I have both had this surgery: she had hers last summer, and mine was this summer. I have not had this problem, but she has. She was really freaked out by it, but refused to go to the doctor. I wanted her to go to the doc, because I thought it might help her to get her plastic surgery done!

Anyway, what she did was to buy a little bottle of Hibiclens (the blue bottle of surgical pre-wa****hink you can get it at any pharmacy.) and wash her belly button out with that in the shower. Then she'd dry it with Q-Tips and put a cotton pad (like for cleaning your face with astringent) in the belly button. Sometimes she'd use rubbing alcohol to clean it out, and sometimes she'd put in a little Neosporin, because it did bleed a little. Then she'd pull up her Spanx-type undies to cover and hold it in place. (You could use a Band-Aid too, I suppose.) She was really sorta disgusted by the smell. It took a few weeks, but it finally stopped. This was just a couple of months ago.

She and I both had belly button incisions, in addition to others, but this infection she had was 8 months post-op. I would have been more concerned if it had been as close to her surgery as yours is. It would probably be a good idea to check it out with a doc, but it could just be something like what my sister had,. And that cleared up. I'd recommend you have a doctor document it too, just in case you need a panni ( tummy tuck) at some point! It might help with proving a medical need!

I would definetly at least call your doctor about it.  Infections now adays are nothing to mess with.  Better safe than sorry.

 I am a former OR nurse with 33 years experience.

SOme surgeons go through the belly button for one of their laparscopes.  it sounds like you have a bit of a skin infection there.  Call your doctor.  But, until you get in to speak or see them, cleanse the navel area twice a day with soap and water.  Dry well.  Lie flat and pour a bit of hydrogen peroxide into the navel and let it bubble.  Take a Q-tip and dry it out.  You can use a bit of triple antibiotic ointment that you can buy over the counter and squirt some into it.  Cover with a band aid.  The odor is a bacteria growing...probably some sort of staph infection.  Your doctor might prescribe an antibiotic for a week to 10 days for you.  It is very annoying!  Also, before you call or see the doctor, take your temperature and report to them.  Until then, drink plenty of fluids.

I hope this helps.

I have a incision in my belly button from the trocars they use to open your stomach up.  I would call the surgeon and try to use some kind of cleaner and q tip to clean it out

Was your procedure laparoscopic???  Incisions are typically hidden in the bellybutton.  Sounds like yours may be infected. 

Post surgery infections are nothing to sneeze at.  I am a nurse and this is all part of my patient discharge instructions:

Signs and symptons of surgical infections are temperature above 101, yellow or green or foul-smelling discharge from the incision sites, redness or swelling at the incision site, or persistant nausea or vomiting.  Call your surgeon ASAP or go to the ER where you had your surgery.

Thanks everyone!  Glad to know that this is probably a minor issue but I will check it out with the doc tomorrow.  My procedure was laparoscopic, but the doc said she made seven "stabs" (her term, not mine) so I thought she left the bellybutton alone since I counted seven other incisions. 
Last year when I had my huge open abdominal surgery to debulk my ovarian cancer I did get a post-op pseudomonas (sp?) infection and it was HORRIBLE.  ***Overshare alert*** incision opened back up and I ended up having a second surgery to debride the wound and wound vac for three months.  I will definitely call the surgeon's office tomorrow.

@Rosanette - Definitely will make sure this gets documented.  If the time comes for the panni I want all of the help I can get with insurance.  Good idea.