belly button incision care

I am 5 days out and I am wondering if you all did anything special to care for the incision in your belly button?  The rest of my incision sites are doing great - not much pain & healing nicely, but the one in my belly button is always wet (though it has no odor) and it is more tender than the rest.  I'm wondering if I should try to keep it dry with gauze, should I be washing it more, or should I just leave it alone?  I will be happy to have the metal staples removed on day 10!!  Thanks!  Angie

Howdy, I had a lot of trouble from this area to. I was certain I had a hernia. However it went away after about 4-5 weeks. That incision atleast with my surgeon is where he pulled my stomach out. So I guess that one got a bit more abuse than the others. Mine secreted some stuff called seroma, which I guess is just fluid. I had a ball under that incision for 6 weeks and it started leaking and the doc just as in his words "expressed" aka squeezed the bejesus out of it and this clearish fluid came out. I wouldnt worry about it. Id keep it clean. I doubt anymore than your daily shower should be required. Good luck on your journey ma'am.

I am 2.5 weeks out and the scab on my belly button incision just finally healed enough that I can swim again!!!

The belly button one was the last one of mine to heal and was, by far, the most irritating one!

My doctor used glue over my incisions.  He told me not to pick at the glue, especially the belly button one.  The glue eventually flaked off, leaving small scabs.  Then, the scabs are gone and the incisions just look like little cut marks.  They are still very pink.

Good luck with your rrecovery!

#1)  I HATE that freakin' belly button incision.  (I just had to get that out.) 

#2)  I found that the best thing to do is try to keep it dry.  I didn't use gauze because incisions (allegedly) heal better when they have some air "to breathe"..  I would put a rag or soft handtowel there to absorb the moisture and whenever I could, I would lay down or lean back as far as I could to allow more air to get on the incision.  Once I started doing that, I found that it started healing at a quicker rate (which was surprising).  When you dry it, don't rub it, but softly pat it so you don't irritate it.   

Now -- at a little over two weeks out -- it only bothers me if I let the waist of my pants rub up against it for a long while...like I did on the treadmill yesterday (not a good idea).