Had 2 bowel surgeries & now want to have a baby, need advice

[sweetnshyjb]

I had my first bowel resection surgery(had about 10inches of my small intestine removed) in May 2007, about 3 weeks later I had to have another surgery because I had an infection that needed to be removed. Now heres the tough part for me to talk about... after my second surgery dont ask me why I did it, I really beat myself up about it, but sometime after my last steri strip fell off of my scar, I started to pick the scabbing scar. I know I know, its discusting & dangerous, but it happened. Well I had a addiction to picking at it and it took a very long time to heal.(my scar starts at my belly button & ends very close to my you know what)Well the bottom inch or so of my scar is extra thin and redish & the rest of the scar is white and thicker feeling. I remember when I was picking it that the bottom part would be harder to pick off, but I still did it&it hurt, but it was like I would start picking and wouldent even think about it, then I needed to pick until there was no scab left. Ugh anyways I know this is really rambling on, but I have a hard time with this because I still to this day dont know why I did it & I think about how I really wish I didnt.

So now I am at a point where I am going to be getting married soon & I am really ready to have a baby. I know I need to talk all of this over with my gi doc. (I have an apointment next month) But I just was hoping to get some opinions and advice on pregnancy with Crohns&specifically advice from anyone who has had major bowel surgeries& has a large belly scar. I am worried about many things obviously. But one thing im worried about is that the skin on the lower part of my scar is so thin that it could rip open or would hurt really bad from being so streched out while pregnant. I could really use a friend right now who has been trough my shoes. I have talked about this stuff with my family & others, but I dont know anyone who has been in my situation. Ok ive done enough yapping for now, if you have read this far thank you!!

 

[Jennifer]

Hi sweetnshyjb, here's another thread that talks about resections, scaring and pregnancy http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=31618. Seems to be that everyone has done well and have not burst open. All the muscle and other tissue under the skin will help hold you together and should stretch just fine. Many women who have had past pregnancies have stretchmarks and you really can't get skin much thinner than those and they have all done just fine as well.

As for the picking, I've got a picking issue as well. In the future you can try to keep a bandage over something you know should not be picked at. That extra barrier does help some.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[jk86]

Hi thought I'd do a quick post I have a large scar from a resction Dec 2011 which ended up infected anyway long story short I'm 26 weeks pregnant and like someone wrote on the other post my scar has actually improved. The only problem well its not really a problem but when baby kicks in that area its numb but other then that having the scar hasn't caused any problem hope this helps x