Question I forgot to ask surgeon

Anome

Okay, so on Tuesday morning I had a surgery to remove a boob lump. The theory is non-cancerous, but I'll know for absolutely sure next Tuesday when I go for my follow up appointment. This is not what I need to know. My question for anyone who has had minor surgery in the past (I wasn't even knocked out, just a local anesthetic) is how long do I have to leave this bandage on? I totally forgot to ask and now it's annoying me. It's not itching or anything but I would really like to remove it. Does anyone know if I can take it off yet?

werehippy

It's impossible to say what you should do without more information on what type of surgery was done on the lump (a simple needle biopsy, an incision biopsy, a full scale open removal, etc). Whoever discharged you really should have given you detailed instructions on what you should be doing and there are just too many possible options to guess.

On the plus side, whatever the instructions are they'll be standard for your particular type of procedure, so you should just be able to call you doctor's office first thing tomorrow morning and ask them for the run down on what you should be doing. Since you don't have instructions on what you should do, I'm assuming you don't have any replacement or alternative bandages, so you probably shouldn't uncover the wound and sleep on it like that until you've cleared it with your doctor's office. Open wounds, even trivial ones, can get vastly more complicated if they get infected and unless you are in real discomfort with the bandage on I would leave it that way until you have informed information otherwise.

Anome

Oh, right. Yeah, it was a full removal. The scar seems to be about 1 1/2 - 2" long. The thingy (probably fibrous adenoma) was about the size of a ping pong ball. Yes, he showed it to me. It was kinda gross. The reason he didn't tell me much was probably because I was a nervous wreck before the operation and afterward I couldn't stop shaking. I was so very scared because I really really hate needles. He did, however, give me a replacement bandage in case the first one bled through.

BetelguesePDX

At this point I would remove the bandage, give the area a gentle spong bath with warm water and mild soap, and the apply another bandage. Repeat daily.

Feral

Most surgical units will give you a sheet of paper with aftercare instructions at your discharge, specifically because relating directions verbally to somebody recovering from anesthesia is generally a bad idea.

Is it possible that sheet was stuffed in with your personal belongings; perhaps in a plastic bag?

The best thing to do in these situations is to call somebody - your physician's office, your surgeon's office, or the hospital department where you had the surgery done - and say "hey, I was just discharged from surgery, I need some advice on wound aftercare, can I talk to a nurse?"

Arecibo

As pretty much everyone here has said, I wouldn't act on any instructions that didn't come directly from a doctor. I'm surprised that they only gave you one bandage, though. They'll usually give you as many as you need, to be changed daily, and I would think you'd need more than one extra day of them. I recall an ex-girlfriend of mine having at the very least several days worth for the same surgery. But again, calling the hospital, or your GP if necessary, is best.

Zombie Nirvana

Call your doctor.

purplebubbles

BetelguesePDX wrote: »

At this point I would remove the bandage, give the area a gentle spong bath with warm water and mild soap, and the apply another bandage. Repeat daily.

Nurse here. I would suggest that you do give the doctors office a call, the nurses or receptionist should know what the surgeon likes done with the dressing. Each surgeon usually dresses things a little bit differently.

If you don't want to call, don't follow the above advice and put soap anywhere near your wound until it's got a hard scab on it, as chances are you are just going to irritate it/the skin around it. What you'll want to do is to get some Normal Saline from the pharmacy and a small adhesive dressing with a pad in the middle of it the size of your wound. Clean the area carefully with the saline and then apply the dressing.

The dressings can be changed as often as required, but at least second daily. When the wound has a hard scab on it, and isn't an infection risk then it can be left uncovered.

Jasconius

Two or three days, then keep applying new bandages (a big bandaid would do) every time you take a shower until someone tells you to stop.