I was very lucky, because not only is my scar fairly small because the operation was done "Sudan style", but it is also very straight and neat.

I'll be honest, I was really scared to look at it.  The first time that a nurse changed my dressing I looked away.  Then she said "Oh, it's healing nicely, do you want to take a look."  So I did.

In order to minimise the scar my surgeon did subcutaneous stitches, that is, the stitches themselves were below the skin, and then the top layers of skin were held together by the dressing and left to heal naturally.

My scar was healing beautifully – until I took a bath about a week later and unfortunately the heat made it start to weep.  Please take my advice and stick to showers for a good month if you can stand it.

Although my scar was on the small side it was still too big for most standard dressings.  If you can, try and get the hospital to let you have as many as possible when you leave.  Failing that you may have to get them on prescription (I don’t think I had to pay prescription charges for these, but you may end up doing so.)  Two things about changing the dressing:

1. 1)You may need some help to start with.  I got very good at changing my own, but at least for the first few days it helps to have someone on hand.
   

2. 2)If your dressings are not large enough for the scar, then you need to use two.  Although this may sound like a no brainer, what you have to remember is that most dressings are a soft pad surrounding by sticking material (like a plaster.)  You DO NOT want to have anything sticking to your actual scar as you really don’t want anything pulling on it.  So, what you have to do is take two dressings; with the first you use surgical scissors (or any pair that you have cleaned in boiling water) and cut widthwise, cutting the sticky end off... okay here’s a diagram - forgive me if it’s a bit rough.  You then place this dressing over the scar, so that at the end of the dressing, where it overlaps your scar there is no sticky stuff.  You can then place the second, over the top - it’s fine for that to stick onto the other dressing, and there you have it - your DIY extra large dressing.
   

It’s hard for me to remember how I felt about my scar straight after the operation.  I was worried about how boys might see me (see That Special Someone), but I was also wary of women staring at it when I got changed at the gym.  In the end I decided to just strip off and not worry about it.  A few years later and I decided it was silly to hide in a one piece and went back to bikinis.

The scar was still a little bit red and raised a year or so after the operation so I did try some of the healing patches on the market, but I'm not sure that they really made a difference.

Although you may lose some feeling around the area of the scar, they say that all of the healing around the scar will be complete two years after the operation, so whatever feeling you have then is it – so they say.

Then three years after the operation I started doing Reiki. Literally the day I had my Level 1 course my scar started to itch and tingle.  Slowly more and more feeling came back to it and the redness disappeared.  Five years later and the photo should show you how things are (although that pinkness is the camera flash, it’s actually paler than the surrounding skin) – and all the feeling is back!

Also see Common Maladies for some interesting ideas about honey!