No Belly Button After Surgery....

[Tami Lynn]

So I just had my fourth abdominal surgery performed and just realized upon further inspection of my incision that I no longer have a belly button! :ywow:

Has ANYONE else here experienced this?! I'm not sure how to feel about it honestly. I'm glad the incision seems to be healing well, but I sort of feel a bit like a "freak" now. :sign0085:

Before surgery my old incision resembled a miniature butt crack due to becoming infected last time. After they re-opened the incision and allowed it to heal by being packed with wet dressings, each side of the opening sort of turned inward creating the miniature "crack".

So what's worse, a butt crack stomach or no belly button?:confused2:

I'd love to hear from anyone else with this experience or who knows someone currently living without a belly button.

 

[laureny]

after having my first surgery my belly button got infected and packed, etc, too...as soon I was allowed the dressing off (1 week ago...wahoo!) i took a photo and sent it to my sister saying this was belly button and not my bottom. When I glanced at it while it was being packed, I thought it looked like I didn't have a belly button...I'm not sure which I prefer as I'm now getting used to the fact that this is how it is so anything would be better at the moment. I can't say I really like looking at my butt crack stomach at the moment. I was offered plastic surgery/skin grafting? to get it covered up...which made me think it was going to be so much worse than it is, so i dont think i will take them up on the offer...

 

[Tami Lynn]

I lived with the "butt crack" scar for over 9 years since my last surgery. I wasn't thrilled about it, but accepted it as being better than the alternative....not being here at all ;-)

@ laureny: I don't blame you for not taking them up on the offer of plastic surgery. I mean, it would be different if you needed more surgery and then they wanted to try to "fix it", but who would voluntarily subject themselves to more surgery after the things we've already been through, right?

Does anyone else here not have a belly button anymore? I mean...has anyone else had their sewn up during surgery and woke to find it was "gone"?

 

[Terriernut]

Tami, I had alot of stitches in and around my belly button. It looked as if it was closed for good. Then, 4 months after surgery, it just appeared again.

Hope this happens for you!

 

[Nyx]

I had the same thing as Misty...I thought mine was gone too, but it reappeared...lol I also have the butt crack belly. But the way I see it, it's better than being dead...

 

[Tami Lynn]

Thanks for the encouragement guys! I hope my button will mysteriously reappear too. That's probably a good question to ask the surgeon during my post-op evaluation on the 28th.

@Nyx

But the way I see it, it's better than being dead...

I agree wholeheartedly!

 

[bruscar]

Hi Tami,

Yes i am in the club too. . . . but hey butt crack jokes aside my butt functions on my tummy now anyway !!

Sort o' strange isnt it . . . . thats the way it goes, we are here aren't we . . . I also lost my lucrative swimwear contract because of my scarring too !! . . hahahaha . . . i wish !!

Take care and keep smiling

Big hug

Bruscar

 

[Jennifer]

My surgical site got infected too and I had to heal from the inside out by packing the wound as well. My bellybutton does not look the same. I used to have a perfect inny but now it looks off like a little butt but other people see a peace sign. My mom did the packing and her and I discussed my bellybutton because it was simply a flap of skin. She told me that she was doing her best to position it right. I was prepared to wind up with no bellybutton though. Neither is worse than the other in my opinion. You gotta do what you gotta do. I wouldn't worry about it really.

 

[Kev]

Hey Tami Lynn

Just my 2 cents worth, but if I'd had the forsight (or is it foresight?) to think about it, I'd have asked my surgeons if they could permanently remove my belly buttion during surgery.
It is just so problematic, I don't know why 'they' (surgeons) just don't eliminate it while they are cutting us open or stitching us up. Mine post surgery drained forever, became an infection site, and took forever to heal properly. It really didn't stop being an issue until I'd been on LDN for quite some time. And, it certainly isn't the same post op as it was pre-op. My post op belly button is the size of an infants, and is very hard to keep clean. Hey, I've heard some movie stars pay plastic surgeons big bucks to remove them.
Figure we should be entitled to have ours taken away for free. I wonder why they don't? Maybe I'm the oddball. Is everyone else really attached to their belly button????

 

[ekay03]

I had the same thing as Misty...I thought mine was gone too, but it reappeared...lol I also have the butt crack belly. But the way I see it, it's better than being dead...

I also have a butt crack belly. Oh how I hate it (sigh) but you are right. It is better than being dead.

 

[gavinol_28]

Hey don't worry, the no belly button is something you'll get used to. It's almost a running joke when people ask "have you got an inny or an outy?" i say I've got a noughty!
Plus it's entirely numb so its probab;ly best I dont have one really!

 

[LindaS]

I, too, have a butt crack belly. And for some strange reason, my belly button is like a little straight line across the butt crack, so it is like a cross or something. When I was pregnant, it was very uncomfortable.

 

[vonfunk]

I think I still have the indent, but the button itself is most likely gone, but it's hard tell as I am still healing.