This may be a strange question, but I'm wondering if anyone has had any of their surgical staples accidently left in?? I had surgery on Feb 5th (TAH/BSO) for a borderline complex cyst, and all of my staples were removed 10 days later (or so I thought). They began the surgery as a laparoscopy, so an incision was made right into my belly button. When they had to switch to a laparotomy, the gyn/oncoloist basically just started at where the umbilical incision was, and lengthened it. My recovery has been completely uneventful; no problems at all, and certainly easier than I had anticipated. For the past few weeks though, the area around my belly button has been VERY itchy. I had expected some itchiness, so figured it was normal. I also noticed sort of a "pinching" feeling if I rubbed against anything. This evening, I saw a tiny bit of dried blood inside my belly button. I thought perhaps it was from all the scratching I was doing. But, when I grabbed a mirror for a closer look, I discovered that 2 or 3 surgical staples were still there!! I am a bit full-figured, so I admit that staples inside my belly button wouldn't be obvious. But since I've been back to the doctors twice now for follow-ups and to have my incision checked, I can't believe no one noticed .
Of course, my doctors office was closed by the time I called, so I have to wait till tomorrow to talk to them. Obviously, the staples need to come out NOW, and of course I suspect it is probably going to hurt like heck to have them taken out some 8 weeks after the surgery. Has anyone had anything like this happen??? I'm wondering what sort of problems could have happened if I hadn't discovered them and they stayed there for even longer??!!