Sutures post surgery - any nurses/doctors out there?

[Loopy83]

Hiya,

I appreciate this may be a long shot and I intend to ring my GP on Tuesday, but I wondered if there are any doctors/nurses/medical types who can help before then?

I had my gallbladder removed by laproscopy a few weeks ago, was glued back together not stitched, and though the scars are healing well I've just noticed today there's a tiny bit of what looks like clear plastic, fishing line esque stuff poking out of the middle scar.

This has freaked me out a bit! I thought it was glue but when I went to pull it off it felt like it was pulling from inside (gross sorry). What on earth is it? I will ring the GP but will be worrying about this all weekend. Nothing looks infected or anything so it's not an emergency, just weird!

TIA!

I’ve had this after my many surgeries (gallbladder and six laparoscopies, and when i had a severe arm injury).

Although the outside is glued, they’ve stitched inside with dissolvable stitches. Sometimes they don’t actually dissolve and the body rejects them through the incision. I had about 15 come out of my arm over the course of many months. Totally normal!

Thank you! That makes me feel better!

Yes it's an internal dissolvable stitch, which don't always dissolve!

I recently pulled a couple out of my husband's neck 😊

Don’t pull it hard. They can take ages to dissolve but the end bit will just come away eventually & it may come off with a gentle pull but only when it’s ready.

Yes, totally normal - if somewhat disconcerting

I pulled a few stitches out of my c-section wound under similar circumstances, it was quite possibly the grossest thing I've ever done, felt v weird.
I'm pretty sure I've still got 'dissolvable' sutures left in there nearly two years on so maybe I should have tweaked out more of them!

Uuugh it's so freaky! I'm not normally squeamish but this is just yuck!

Thank you everyone - I am reassured (but also feeling icky about it!)

I had one come out 13 years later!!

eek, can you cut it so it isnt poking out? i had some left in after getting my stitches out, it was quite fun/gross pulling them out myself! (fyi they werent dissolvable, and weren’t internal)

I think it's too soon to pull it out, I only had my surgery 4 weeks ago. I'll see how it goes, hopefully it'll fall out by itself soon!

Just trim it back to skin level if it’ bothering you.