To worry I’ve done damage to myself?

[cutstitch]

Ah, I’ve got myself really worried about this and im hoping it’s for no reason. I had plastic surgery 3 months ago and the scar healed well apart from the last stitch which never dissolved. Long story short it was causing a lot of pain and discomfort and I couldn’t get through to the provider to fix it. It was also getting infected and had pus coming out of it etc and it was generally miserable.

for some reason tonight I lost my patience and cut it off with scissors. I seemed to do an ok job and it cut cleanly and it already feels SO much better. It was sharp and hard and had been jagging in and feels so much better already now it’s off.

sounds silly but will I have done any damage or harm by doing this? I cut it flush against the skin and it’s not sticking out anymore. Just suddenly worried I’ll have done more damage or caused a risk of infection, and I’m also worried I’ve affected how the scar will heal or something like that!

I’ve attached a photo of the stitch I cut off

any advice would be really really appreciated , thanks x

Surely not! The little bit left in will just dissolve away.

Well that’s not what I meant. Work it’s own way out!

Bathe the area with booked salty water. Keep a close eye on it for any redness or swelling.

My only concern is if there was infection inside that cannot now get out.

I'm not a doctor but I'd suggest you still speak to them. They might want to give advice on cleaning and whether you can manage a potential infection at home or need antibiotics.

There will be a risk of infection, particularly if you didnt stabilise the scissors so as well as speaking to your provider you should use cotton buds and salted, boiled water to swab it.

You won’t have at all. That is the advice, and as long as your scissors were sterile I’d not be concerned.

My c section scar was very pussy/irritated with undissolved stitches and in the end after a long wait I pulled them out and disinfected the area - the scar healed well and stopped itching.

Oh no, they weren’t sterile , they were literally straight out the ‘everything’ drawer in the kitchen! I wish I hadn’t done it but I just felt so fed up and annoyed 😩

It looks like you got the whole stitch out there, I'd not worry, keep the area clean, bob a dressing with a bit of honey on it if you're concerned (it will draw out anything yucky, just a new jar yeah not a jar full of crumbs and butter!)...

The likelihood is it’ll be fine. Get some wound spray to disinfect, whack on manuka honey and it’ll be grand. And if it’s not, GP.

If anyone bothered to check my medical records, they would see that I have 9 stitches in my forehead from 30 years ago. 4 stitches in my hand from 20 years ago and two stitches in the same hand from 5 years ago.
None
of the stitches are still in me, I could not be bothered to do to have them
removed so cut them out myself. No problems at all and it saved the NHS a bit
of time.

I’ve never had a phone call or any other contact questioning why I did not go to have the stitches removed.

Oh I had some stitches in my leg this summer from a small removal and the ones that didn't dissolve (2 or 3) I just picked out with my dirty unsterile hands - similar to you felt immediately better and it all healed up nicely

I'm not a medic, but I'm married to a man who plays a lot of contact sport, and regularly has small cuts on his head and face. I always take out his stitches for him. I sterilise a small scissors and tweezers, clean the stitched area with disinfectant, lift the stitch up with the tweezers, and snip with scissors. I try to lift out the threads with the tweezers. Usually they come away easily. The odd one doesn't, but a soak in warm salty water usually loosens it up enough. I've been doing this for years, and he's always been fine. He prefers me to do it, rather than all the bother of making appointments to have it done.

I also pulled out the jaggedy stitches of my C section scar that didn't dissolve, it was fine. Keep an eye out for redness/heat/irritation in the area

My child had open heart surgery and a stitch was left in... they said not to worry it would come out on it's own... it did! 8 months later! I understand the worry, i had did to, but it'll come out.

You'll probably be absolutely fine - keep an eye on it and if it still looks infected in a couple days or gets any worse then see a GP. But honestly they would have just removed it like you and using kitchen scissors is very unlikely to make it any worse

I'd speak to a doctor to be safe especially if the scissors wasn't sterile.

Your fine! Between cats/dogs/accident prone humans I’ve taken out more stitches at home than I could count. Sure sterilizing the scissors could have been done, but honestly it’s overkill. You aren’t breaking the skin with them.

Wash the area and keep an eye out for further infection. It will be fine.

ETA… if you ever have to do this, just make one snip next to the knot…then using tweezers pull the knot and the whole stitch will come out.

if you cut it you should have removed it!!! you cut as close to the skin and then pull the long bit through! by using sterile scissors or a stitch cutter!!

That’s a resolvable stitch so won’t have done any harm cutting it as they start to dissolve from 2 weeks.

Sorrry dissolvable not resolvable.

won’t know how to edit post on iphone

The knot is the last to dissolve. It looks like monocryl which dissolves slower than some. It'll be fine.

Please don’t - there is nothing they will do and it’s just taking up time that is in short supply

You could pick that last bit out with sterile tweezers, but do it gently, using the really sharp grabby tweezers (soz, dk the technical term!)
If you wash it and put antiseptic on it it will be fine. Some of my stitches from my hip were still there after 3 months, the nurse thought I hadn't been showering! They picked it out with tweezers and it was fine. Sometimes they just done work their way out alone.