c-section wound won't heal - help!

[tipgal]

I had my second child be c-section 4 months ago. The cut a new scar as they said the old scar from my first child was too small to open again. my new scar is quite large and goes right across my lower stomach almost over to my left hip bone. the side nearest my hip bone has refused to heal properly since i had the c-section done. as soon as my epi started to wear off i could feel pain which I expected.. but the pain on that particular side was really really bad. I had a large blood clot which they had to do a lot of pushing on my stomach to remove and lost a bit of blood then. i was fine but my stomach sort of folded down over my wound forming a crease and the scar in inside. my wound healed all along except the left hand corner and has been sore, bloody and weepy since i had my daughter 4 months ago. at first they did a swap and put me on antibotics that didn't work, then i had by uti for a long time and more antibotics, my gp put a small stitch in the wound to heal it but that didn't work (btw they used the sticky internal strips not staples or stitches when they closed the section scar). I've been on 5 courses of antibotics between the uti and the scar. the last lot of antibotics did dry it up a bit and even though it was still bleeding (I would see blood on my underwear at the top.. bright red) it wasn't weeping much and the smell had almost gone. another gp i saw said that my uti that wouldn't go away wasn't showing up as a uti but was probably a bladder infection or irritation caused by the surgery and gave me antibotics for that which have worked on the uti finally! (I also cut out caffine completely from my diet and this seemd to help too). I have just finished that last course of antibotics for the bladder irritation thing.. but notice that this week my wound is weeping again quite badly. If i move at all it seems to open the wound up as it's in the crease in my tummy. it just refuses to heal! today i did a lot of housework and the smell is horrible. it's also very itchy and wet. when ever the drs at the hospital or my gp look at it they say it looks quite clean and are not worried. how much longer do you think i should wait for it to heal. it's been 4 months now and i want to start exercising properly to lose some weight. my husband and i still haven't had any sex yet (for nearly a year! as I had spd pevlic problems during pregnancy so could hardly move then).. it's getting me quite depressed as i feel i smell all the time and hate the smell!! please help!!

[sjm72]

that sounds very frustating.  I might try neosporin and butterfly bandages or just the bandages.  My mom(a nurse) always said to let wounds air out.  Maybe when you're at home wear a loose fitting t shirt. try to keep it uncovered as much as possible and then when you have to get fully dressed use the butterfly bandages. I had a c'section and felt like the one area on the end took longer to heal.  Hope it heals up soon.

[tipgal]

how long did your wound take to heal?

[kimmy0713]

Im sorry to hear what you are going through but i could relate a bit. I had 2 c sections two and had not healed properly either they told me it was staph infection. I had to have a nurse come to my house every day for months to clean and pack it. It did take a while so for my second one they gave me antibiotics before my c section and immediately after. I still opened on one side and it took longer. Are you cleaning it a few times a day . and either packing or putting sterile gause there.

[tipgal]

no i'm not. i was cleaning it for a few months but it made no difference. i've been trying to keep it clean though. just saw my dr today. he referred me back to the surgen.. hope i get some breakthrough soon. smell is horrible!

[tipgal]

good news.. i'm using malanuka honey as instructed by the hospital and it's working!! hurray!!

[melimeli]

great

[Heather5]

OMG! I just saw your post and was going to get on here and tell you that I had seen this study on c sections and honey!!! They said it is not very well recognized in western medicine, but has had a huge success rate in...I think it was India. And wouldn't you know it...your doctor actually told you to use malanuka honey!!! And it's working!!! That's great!

:-)

[tahariel]

Thanks for the update, I'll have to remember this in case my incision doesn't heal well. My other 2 c-sections went well, but you never know what to expect.

[ysqueen]

Where do you get the honey. I have an incision from breast cancer surgery that will not heal. It sounds a lot like your c-section incision, the top skin is over lapping and the incision can not breath.  It has been over 4 weeks. My Dr. says to just give it time, but it is getting bigger not smaller.  thanks

[motorcycle_mama]

I have had the same problem.  My c-section incision doesn't want to heal in one spot.  It has been over 5 months now.  Where do I find the malunka honey and how do you use it?  Do you ingest it or put it on the incision?

I am glad it is working for you.  Maybe it will help me.

[Heather5]

I believe you apply it to the incision. I'm not sure where to buy it, though. Did you try to google it?

Hopefully it will work for you too!

[tipgal]

hi there.. me again.. i haven't been back on this page for a while as you can see.. there was some development.. i moved countries (went back home to Australia) and doctors did surgery. they opened the whole thing up again, took a huge chunk of skin and flesh away, cleaned it and then stitched me up again.. my scar was lovely and clean looked amazing.. smell was gone.. it's been about 5 weeks since my surgery.. i had another appointment thursday with the gyne.. was excited as thought in my mind 'oh i can tell them it's all healed!'.. but as expected.. last week it started to weep again in other corner.. and the smell was back.. girls to say i was depressed is a massive understatement i'm soooooo upset about it.. even the surgeon was amazed it's not healing.. he gave me more antibotics and cleaning routine but i expect it will heal for a few weeks (like it always does on the antiobotics and even when i used the honey) but as usual it comes back.. i truely believe it will NEVER heal.. i need my gallbladder removed in a couple of months but now they say that is on hold, sex life has been on hold (only just back on again until it started weeping again) and we are supposed to be trying for another baby but now all that on hold again.. so upset.. i'm 36 so don't have much longer to try for a third baby.. starting to wonder if my body will ever get back to normal.. i seem to be a medical mystery.. if ANYBODY can help, advise, or even point me in the direction of any sort of researcher or specialist online I can talk to or even refer my surgeon to i'd really appreciate it as i'm at my wits end.

[Super_sally888]

Hi,

Probably worth it to try the manuka honey again, with high dose oral vitamin c and vitamin b (these both help healing and skin).

Your doctor should do a culture to see whats causing this and the best  and targeted treatment.

There are wound care specialists.  You need to be referred to one.

Let us know how you go.  What a horrid situation to be in.

Don't give up.

Sally

[daylight54]

Hi,

I, too have a wound that won't heal.  I've had antibiotics which haven't helped.  So, I decided to research "wound won't heal" by googling it.  There were some products that sounded promising, one of which I've attached the link.  There was another product called Terrasil that sounded good.  I'm going to try these as my doctors don't seem to know how to help me.  All they tell me to do is cover it with gauze.  Good luck to you.

http://www.progressivedoctors.com/wound-care.html

[tipgal]

well quick update...

I had more surgery they opened up the old scar and cleaned and restitched in.. this time it healed. it still took a while after but it was much neater and they took a chunk of skin and flesh away which seemed to help. air seemed to help as well.. i would lie on my bed at night making sure it got heaps of air and this helped so i can finally say it healed.

i also just had my gallbladder out.. lots of cuts to the stomach etc.. but they are all doing fine. oddly my c-section scar started to weap a little again and I thought 'oh no!' but it was a tiny bit and i think it was just from all the pushing and shoving they did when taking my gallbladder out.

so i am happy to report both surgeries went well and I'm finally on the mend.

if you are suffering from this though... try the honey, try airing it out.. but honestly if it won't heal go back and get them to open it up and sort it out.. i'm so glad i had such a good team here where i now live (they were amazed i had been left with this problem so long where i used to live).. if i can help any body let me know.

[Candy768]

I have exactly the same problem it's been a year now and i still have the smell...it heals then it just gets wet again as my stomache isalso folded over the wound and all the time it gets wet.

i also do not have any idea how to deal with this it's seriously so frustrating i mean my son is a year old already and i still have this problem.

these medications don't really help we need something natural.

when i gave birth they also did not stich the wound close they used some type of glue to close the wound although i was stiched on the inside and i was told to always keep the wound dry,  but no matter what i try it will never heal.

[littlebee2009]

I had the same problem with my first c-section, it lasted 3 months I went back and forth to different Doctors. Finally my family Dr. tried Nystatin powder, she said it wont heal b/c there is a yeast infection there from the moisture. I also have a skin fold over my incision area. Also I would lay flat on my back and make sure the skin was off the incision area while letting the fan blow on me multiple times a day. I would shower twice a day with dial soap and use hydrogen peroxide 3 times a day. It healed in a week or two. With my second c-section the Dr. used staples which helped a ton with the healing process.

[nina2249]

I had a tubal reversal done last year in May and they made a incision like a c-section it took 3 moths to heal they packed the wound with the tape looking strips. . And was told to use 1 part peroxide and 2 parts saline eye solution basically sterile water . And use it twice a day keep a bandage on to keep area clean. And it finally healed. But i know how you feel i was told i was allergic to the sutures they used there made of cat cut. and Im allergic to cats . I was like what who knew in order for my incision  to heal the sutures they used had to come out. And they did on there own my body pushed the sutures to the top of the skin and my  Dr was like I have never seen this before. So once the Dr got the sutures out it heeled right and no more problems