pain

[sweetpea03]

I had a musculocutaneous skin flap done this past March and had a lot of pain following the surgery, but it got better with time. I felt as if I had gotten back to normal, but now am having problems with pain again. It sometimes feels as if someone is pinching the area at the end of the incision line above my knee as hard as they can and won't let go. I also still get that twitching feeling, though I was told that was normal since they took the muscle. I was wondering, What is causing the pain this late into recovery? I don't think it is scar tissue, since there is no hardness, but don't know what it can be.

[Archibald S Miller III, MD,FACS]

It sounds as if you might have had a soleus or a gastrocnemius muscle flap. The twitching you are feeling is likely some muscle activity and may improve with time. The pain also can be regrowth of sensory nerves and this is a normal thing. This will frequently start as heat, electrical shocks, pinching feelings. That also improves with time out to about one year. Sorry, but it takes God nine months to make a baby, it should take at least nine months fore surgery to heal also.

                  arch s miller ms md facs

[sweetpea03]

Thanks, I'll try PT and see if that helps.

[Archibald S Miller III, MD,FACS]

If you take an anti-inflammatory and a muscle relaxant, the combination should help. Physical therapy is very helpful and you should ask your family doctor to help you receive this. Have a great day, respectfully,

                 arch s miller ms md facs

[sweetpea03]

Thanks. I somewhat knew that I still need more time for recovery, but I tend to get a little impatient. Is there something I can do to help with the pain? I really don't want to rely on pain meds, since I had to do that for months prior to my surgery. It took a while to find a doctor who would take on my rare case. No one really had experience with lymphatic malformations and they didn't feel "comfortable" operating on me. I have been doing different stretches and such, and they do help, but only to a point. I don't know what else I can do, other than to just give it time. I guess I just get a little impatient since people expect me to be healed and back to normal by now.