Many teens are afraid that their incision will split open easily. It’s important to understand that your surgeon sews up the incision in layers. There is a lot of support built into this kind of technique so the incision will not split open with everyday activity.
The main things to watch for are signs of infection: pus or drainage from the incision, redness, swelling, pain, and a fever.
Your incision scar
"I know that mine got a bit infected at the very top. I went back on the Thursday and they said to keep it covered a little bit and it’s gone away. Like they said, just keep it dry. It opened a little bit and I was really scared. I started freaking out and I put band aids on it and there would be a little bit of blood on the band aids and I’d be crying almost. And my mom’s like "No, it’s just like a cut. It’s not open to the extent where you can see inside of you." And I know that’s what it feels like because it’s an incision but that’s not what it is. If it opens a little bit, it’s nothing severe. It’s just like having a cut on your arm."
"I still had a couple Steri-Strips on ‘cause they hadn’t fallen off in the shower or anything. My mom just started ripping them off and it stung and I felt like it was pulling on my incision. I still had the little bit of string ( suture) that hung out at the very top of my incision.… I had remembered them telling me that you can cut it off if you want."
Numbness
You may feel numbness or a tingling sensation after your surgery. Sometimes it may be around your ribcage area, sometimes down the front of your legs or directly over the incision area. The numbness can also be around your hip if bone grafting was taken from that area. This happens for a couple of different reasons. When the surgeon made the incision into the skin of your back, some of the "feeling" nerves were damaged. This cannot be helped. The numbness usually takes up to a year or so to go away.
When you had your surgery, you were placed on your stomach on a specially padded frame. Because there was pressure on the front of your thighs for many hours, this also damages the "feeling" nerves on the front of your legs. Again, this usually gets better with time. Make sure to tell your surgeon about all the numb areas you have when you visit the hospital for your check-ups.
"When I got home, I was really numb around the back of my ribcage. Then all the numbness started going away and I had the three most painful days of my life. That’s because as the numbness goes away, your muscles start to feel more and that’s the part where it gets sore."
"The doctor said (the numbness) could take a couple of months to go away. That’s right where my bra line is and I was like, that’s going to feel really weird. So when I got home, I was very hesitant to put tight clothes on. Now (the numbness) has gone away but it hurts more."
Pain
Aside from pain in the back and ribcage area, the two most frequent complaints about pain are neck pain when looking down and hip pain if bone grafting was taken from that area. Both types of pain are normal and usually get better after a couple of months.
"About a month or two after my surgery, I couldn’t even look down because it killed. And sometimes you just do it without noticing and you’re like, ‘Oh man, I forgot’. But it does go away eventually."
"I was sitting in the car and I was like, almost asleep and then the car stopped really fast. All of a sudden, my neck just jolted forward and I was in pain the rest of the way home."
"I had some pain in my hips when I walked up the stairs just from using the muscles in that area. It just felt like I had a cut there but now I have no pain down there anymore."
"I still feel like that right now. After a long day … I went to school and then I came home right away. Basically I left to go to a football game back home and we were there for hours. We walked all the way to Tim Horton’s and all the way back. The whole time I was there, I was like I just want to go home and lay in my bed. You want to have a good time so all you really think about is just when you get home, just laying there, just ahhhhh."