Botched csection?

[Seaofgreen]

Hi everyone

i had my elective csection 6 days ago now and it was my second csection as my first was an emergency. I opted for a planned csection with my second as his weight was expected to be 10lb and i was worried about complications again.
anyway my first csection the scar was beautiful done and healed really well, this time round i am devastated i look like frankenstein monster! The stitches are all over the place, skin is folded back in on itself causing bumps and lumps and its indented in places and then not in others. I have actually filed a complaint as i feel botched!
i keep crying and really worried about how the insides of me have been put back together if this is the outside!

any advice or words of comfort?

Have they struggled due to existing scar tissue from your 1st c section

Im not sure, honestly the first scar was so minimal you could hardly see it and the skin was really soft so its not like they had a difficult scar to work with!

There would have been scar tissue to contend with under the top layers, I think you should let yourself heal properly first before thinking about it again, it doesn't look particularly bad at all.

Honestly, I think in my experience of two c-sections this is probably normal. Though I never looked at the scars until way more healed. My first one healed so beautifully you would not know it was there apart from a thin silvery line but the second one is not so neat, it's fine but not perfect. I think it's because they are working with scar tissue the second time round. Give it a few weeks, I bet it looks so much better. And enjoy that baby! Mine are quite big now and I would anything to be back where you are

have you asked for a wound review? you can't really see what's going on in the photo. They may be able to explain it/reassure you that it'll improve or if it's not looking right to them organise for follow up.

I have asked, to be honest i don’t think its acceptable how they have left me. It looks so carelessly done and just upsets me as a woman to have had another woman do this when i have to live with the scar for the rest of my life. I haven’t seen one scarline look as bad as mine!

What has the midwife said when it’s been checked? It may heal a lot better.

I had to comment on this. I’ve also had two sections and my second one was much much neater. They went through the same scar and made it a lot neater. So the fact that it’s your second isn’t an excuse. I was really surprised how much the scars varied. It really depends on the surgeon.

However it will fade a lot as the years go by. Mine is barely visible now.

I think a wound review is fair enough OP, it doesn't look anything like mine which is how you describe your first - barely visible. I have to say I had an operation recently and the scar which was similar as in it was bumpy and is completely flat now ,so I would give it another 6 weeks and see who it looks then.

it won't have looked like that when they did the suturing and it may not look like that when it's properly healed - you're less than a week post-major surgery and there's still a lot of healing to do. It is one long suture in the skin layer and things can look different in different positions and once you're body is returning to normal, compared to when you're lying supine on the operating table immediately after having delivered. The surgeons are very particular about skin closure, partly for obvious medical reasons, but partly because they know that's the layer a patient gets to see and is most likely to be upset about. Occasionally though things don't go as smoothly as they'd expect and if it does look like it's not healing well then they would normally want to improve things as much as possible.

Are you sure it’s not just swelling? I had surgery last year to remove my thyroid and when I took the bandages off was shocked to see it looked like they had attempted to hack off my head with an axe….it looked very much like your picture very lumpy and uneven. was really concerned especially with it being such an obvious location, less than a year later and the scar is barely noticeable once the swelling reduced you could actually see the incision and it was close on perfect

My friend has had three sections. I’ve had two. Scar is visible but smooth. Wait a while.

When I had my third my surgeon did what he called a ‘tidy up’ which was essentially cutting away the 2 previous scars and ‘pulling everything together so there’s one one scar’ it looked really good and got rid of the c section ledge then I ruined it all by putting on weight and getting pregnant again 😂

i had a similar experience OP. My first scar was very small , neat and perfectly done. My second is a mess. I had the long strand with beads the first time, and dissolving sutures the second. I think my first surgeon was just much more competent and careful with stitching. A friend had an emergency section first and the scar was very jagged, second time with a planned section the scar was revised beautifully and is much better. Her second surgeon actually said “what butcher did this?” When he saw her scar. I think some surgeons don’t really care about the cosmetic result, but I have a bad “self “ now and a lumpy scar which I hate.

I'm sorry that you're upset OP and I understand why, but it is early days yet and may not be as bad as you fear.
I know it's a different part of the body and may not be directly comparable but I got an infection after some routine surgery a few years ago, had to go back for several further operations to drain it and ultimately they didn't close the wound at all, just left it to heal from the inside out. I had a gaping hole in my leg about 5 inches long and was sure I was going to be left with a massive ugly scar. And yes, at first it looked horrific but I was amazed to find that with time it did heal, and now there's a barely noticeable white line. Yes, it's a bit wider than some of the other surgical scars I have that healed uneventfully but it is long way from looking like someone chopped a bit out of my leg with a pair of kitchen scissors which is honestly what I thought the first time I saw the wound after surgery.
Obviously you should share your worries with your midwife and get everything checked out, but in my experience the body has more capability to heal than we sometimes realise. I hope everything turns out OK.

I think it's early days. I never looked at my 2nd scar for weeks to be honest I had no choice but to check the first one as it was leaking. Everything healed well eventually

I looked like that after my second c section. I remember being upset that it was so lumpy and ugly. I can’t remember exactly when but within a couple of months it had calmed down and then became a normal scar.

This reminds me that I had surgery in August and my scar was very bumpy too but it’s completely flat now.

I can’t imagine they would be willing to do anything about it as it will be seen as cosmetic but I think it’s worth expressing now you feel.

You’re less than a week post section - this is NOT a true reflection of what the scar will look like, as it takes 12-18m to heal, flatten and pale.

You’ve not accounted for the internal scarring the surgeon has had to contend with. FWIW, mine looked far worse than that, wider and bumpier. Within 6 months it was flat, 3 years on, it’s pale and soft. The tissue is traumatised, so please give it time. You have not been ‘botched’.