Hey! These photos look great. Your surgeon did an awesome job! Now once the pain from the surgery resides you will finally have some relief! I am so glad that you posted these on here for us..especially those contemplating this same surgery or parts of this surgery. These pictures really give you a great idea of exactly how you are cut, (typically) and about how you will look after surgery. There are some new people here who think that their wide excision surgery will be done on an outpatient one day basis, they just simply don't grasp how major this is and I know this will help them to understand better. I know some people can go in and have one cyst cut out and then go home the same day.. but this is totally different, this is wide excision.. not just one cyst removed. Thank you so much for your courage, compassion in sharing and all the information we will all be able to get from you from your experience in this!
Your rectal photo still looks so sore and flame red, I hope you are able to cope well with this, it makes my heart hurt for you right now..but soon the pain will pass! Thanks again for everything, you are the BEST!! Godspeed in healing. Love and hugs.

Sorry to post again, but you know I bet your scarring from this surgery will be nearly nonexistant once it is completely healed. Your surgeon did a much neater job than mine did, I have ugly fat scars and your lines are so thin and neat! You will be able to wear a bikini with those cuts if you wanted to, they are just wonderful. The scar between my breasts is different too, it isn't straight and thin like yours, mine is wide and jagged, like he was drunk when he cut on me, lol. Now I am jealous! LOL! Wish I had your surgeon! Thanks again, take care!

hi had a look at your photos..im goin in myself for groin surgery next wk..how was the surgery for you what were you like after were you in hospital for long...all info much appricated...hope you recover well take care.

erinbo- sorry to hear that, surgery is never fun.
my groin and chest surgery were out patient and i wish they weren't, the recovery wasnt as long as i thought. my surgeon said 2 weeks. he was wrong. it was more like a month. i was fine to walk in 2 weeks but i had problems with tearing my incisions. as for my buttocks surgery, i spent 6 days in the hospital.im home now and kinda want to go back.cause the pain is horrible... its only been a week so far,but i am very sore and cannot walk a few feet. my groin incisions are still healiing, once you tear one it takes awhile to heal. hope your surgery goes well.are you doing plastic surgery or general. mine was plastic and my plastic surgeon is very proud of how his work looks, as why my incisions are thin and neat. :)

im having plastic surgery.. yeah your scars on groin are very neat..hope mine are..i dont have much support were i live im in the country all my family live couple hours away so will be dificult after surgery with the kids..hope you are feeling well soon..

I checked out your pics and from the groin angle, looks like we could be twins :) Mine was outpatient as well, and myself as well as my family regret that, should have demanded inpatient. I'm 7 weeks out from my surgery and the pain is still hanging on like a bad habit. The incisions are still quite swollen and I swear I still have stitches that are coming to the surface. I'm running low on pain meds and my surgeon didn't act as if she would give me anymore. I've been stretching them as far as I can and just trying to sleep or not move if I'm not at work. The real bad news is 3 days ago, a small cyst formed right at the bottom of one of my incisions...I don't think this is ever going to end :( Do you have any suggestions to convince the doc that the pain is real and could really use some help? I don't know how to ask without sounding like a druggie.

stefpitt- my surgeon is really great when it comes to pain meds. im allergic to so many medications that he prescribes me dilaudid. which is a very strong medication. i had my groin surgery in august and i still have alot of pain there. my stitches continued to come out for a few months, and i started to get more cysts after the surgery. that sucks your doc wont give you anymore meds. its a pain that never seems to go away. :( my surgeon is going back in the end of January and taking more tissue out of my groin. i have been lucky to have no recurrent cysts to my chest. i hope your doc realizes that the pain is real.

First of all there is a difference between wanting pain medication to get "high" and NEEDING pain medication to survive another day as "normally" as possible. I take pain medication daily and do not consider myself an addict, I DO however DEPEND on pain medication to be able to cope with the pain and make even something as simple as raising my arm as unpainful as possible. The doctor can NOT deny you pain control, if you have ever went to the hospital and been asked to rate your pain with one of those little smiley characters, this is how they determine your pain level and they MUST give you pain medication to make you as comfortable as possible. The doctor more than likely isn't very experienced in HS pain.. its worse than childbirth if you ask me!... and I am sure your doctor doesn't have HS and probably doesn't even know anyone with HS socially to be able to gauge how it affects us daily. YOU may very well be the worst HS sufferer hs/she has seen and they may not "get" the pain at all! Talk to him/her, explain that you need some more pain medication just to be able to go through the day without becoming a moaning crying mess in bed. Tell him/her that the pain is not tolerable at its current level and that you have actually acquired MORE cysts and have even greater pain than they suspect. Don't feel ashamed at trying to get pain medication to be able to live! Believe me pain will make you think and do some awful things, it has to be controlled for you to be rational and as happy as possible.

Ugh! Thankfully I live in a very small community with a country doctor and a small hospital..I was admitted to the hospital for my surgery and stayed for 8 days.. wish I had stayed longer! I would not be able to even fathom having wide excision on an outpatient basis, I can not believe they would do that.. it seems barbaric and cruel to me! Lancing a cyst or even 20 I could handle, but you go cutting my skin out and grafting "new" skin on me and I better be in the hospital or I am going to be in jail! LOL!! So sorry you guys had to go through that as outpatients! The stupid doctors should ALL have to have circumcisions DAILY for a month to see how it feels, then send thir lil azzes on back to work each day and with little to no pain medication and see how they would feel! Come to think of it, circumcision prolly isn't as bad as this!

i agree with you rebecca,im like a damn pharmacy, i have so many drugs at my bedside table. without the pills its too hard to get out of bed.after this last surgery, i just cannot control the pain at all. i spent 6 days in the hospital and regret asking my doc to go home. i wish i still had the iv pump. my pain since i left has been at a constint 8 if not 10. the pain is truely unbarable. worst of all i cannot sit, laydown, lay on my side, walk or even stand without wanting to cry. i get some relief laying on my stomach, but i can only be in that position for a short time because my groin incisions will start hurting. ahhhhhhh

:-( I Hope you get some pain relief soon! I hate the thought of you having to deal with all that pain all the time, it is so hard mentally and physically. I wish I could do more to help, but the least I can do is pray that you are healed soon. Hugs and get well!! You are going to need to feel better to spend all that money you are about to get! LOL!!

Thanks for the pics they really help those of us contemplating the wides excision surgery.

The groin scars look very good indeed compsared to others I have seen. I am seeing a plastic surgeon in 9 days time with a view to similar surgery but now this week I have just had emergencey surgery to remove abcssesses in 3 areas and the wounds left in both groins are approx 5inches by 1 inch and circular about 3 inches so I don;t thinkt he cosmetics will be as important anymore as these will leave bad scars now anyway.

I hope you gets ome relief from your pain soon, you must be thinking now that at least you over the worst point and it can only get better for you from here.

Good luck

John

Wondering if I am doing something wrong could not view the pics

evain- you have to click on my pic which takes you to my profile, scroll all the way down and you'll see the pics. click on one to enlarge. :)

Thanks so much to all of you for your advice. Please know that you will all be in my prayers for speedy recovery...for all of us that is