Cancer, with a smile — vol. 9: keloid skin, and why the tape matters

Three weeks since the operation.
This was the second operation of my life.
At seventeen I had major kidney surgery.

That was a large operation too, and the scar turned into a bad keloid. I later had keloid surgery in plastics, and then spent three years regenerating the skin.

What is a keloid?

A keloid is what happens when inflammation continues in the dermis, deep in the skin: it itches and hurts, and rises up in a ridge like a welt.
Mine was from abdominal surgery, so it sat along the line of my underwear, and beyond the pain and itching of the rubbing there was how it looked at a hot spring or in a swimsuit. It was thoroughly unpleasant.

Keloids apparently come down largely to your constitution,
but I was at that age, and the plastic surgeon looked after me carefully, and because treatment started early and I stuck with it, that old scar is now astonishingly clean.

All those years later, I was still worried about keloids this time.
I had told my doctor about it beforehand, and he seems to have taken great care over the closure.

Compared with the scars from my earlier surgery, this one is so neat that I found myself asking, really? Is that all? I was amazed.

On the left, two days after surgery; on the right, ten days after.

Compared with the keloid I had before, there is essentially nothing showing so far.

Since the operation it has been taped with surgical tape, and my doctor says how you apply it matters.

Why taping after surgery matters

One of the things I was taught, for the sake of a cleaner scar, is to tape it. I will set that down here.

The stitches came out after a week, but the scar apparently goes on changing after that.
For the first one to three months the scar gradually reddens — the proliferative phase.
After that the redness fades — the maturation phase.

If it is not taped properly through the proliferative phase, the scar can thicken, rise up red, or leave pigmentation.

How to apply it

Cut the tape to about 2 cm and lay it at right angles to the scar.
The important part is to work carefully, drawing the scar very slightly together so it does not spread.

It does not come off easily in the bath, and since taking it off and on would only make it itch or inflame, I do not change it very often — I leave it until it lifts.

Yesterday my son helped me redo it neatly.
Doing it myself in the mirror was rather difficult.

Since the operation he has come to visit between shifts at work, looked after me, and taken it on himself to care for the scar where his mother’s breast used to be. Being able to lean on that son of mine made me feel lucky.