"flap" after healing of 4th degree tear?

[wombatclay]

Heyla!

Before calling my OB with what may be a totally ridiculous question I was hoping to hear from natural minded medical mamas who have some experience in "what a healthy scar should look like"!

I had a 4th degree tear and repair 10 weeks ago. My OBs actually teach a class in tear repair so I'm pretty confident they "did it right" though it was an unpleasant 45 minutes.

Anyway, a few days after the repair I took a look and the suture line looked kind of like an "M" in that there were no visible sutures...just an "indentation" with the perineal tissue sort of rounding up on either side. I assumed this "valley" would level out over time as the swelling went down and things healed. However, when I checked again a few days ago I found that one side has sort of healed "up".

Instead of smoothing out like this " -- " it has healed like this " /- ". DH says it looks like my left labia now runs all the way back and wraps around the anus, terminating about a quarter inch past the anal opening. This "flap" is about a 16th of an inch high, and soft/floppy like the labia though thicker than the actual labia. The suture line itself seems to be healing fine (no gaps, splits, redness, swelling, hot spots, etc) but the left side is much more sore than the right and I'm wondering if the way it healed has something to do with this? Have any of you seen a similar scar/flap or have any suggestions as to what happened to cause this or what might still be happening that could change this?

Thanks!

(BTW I saw my OB 3 weeks ago and she said I still have a lot of healing to do but that I looked good for the amount of time I'd been healing. She suggested gentle massage with vit e oil to further healing but it's still to sore to touch. She did say she expects me to make a full recovery with no lasting damage. Not sure if butt labia counts as damage though! )

[G8P4]

Ooooh. I hope everything is okay with you. It's hard to know from reading this rather than seeing it.
It takes a long time for scars to settle down. If you look under a miscroscope a lot is happening on a cellular level for 4 months.....then, gradually over time the scar smoothes over....that takes up to 2 years!!!

[Jane]

10 weeks isn't a ton of time in the life of a scar, but it's a really long time for the person healing it. I would suggest you schedule another appointment with her and ask specifically, when and what would she do if YOU were unhappy with the scar. Sometimes a scar heals "fine" but it causes the woman problems and should be fixed. Although, I've heard from women about scars that caused problems for 6 months, but then resolved after that. Many OB's don't want to repair until the mama stops breastfeeding, because breastfeeding reduces bloodflow to the area (that's why many women need extra lubrication for sex while breastfeeding).

[wombatclay]

Thanks! She specifically said that she wouldn't consider anything "final" in the healing department till at least 6 months post-partum and that while she'd be happy to take a look if I felt there was something wrong she really thought things looked good. Since there's no swelling/redness/hot spots/openings/sharp pains/etc I can't really say that "something is wrong" and I realize saying "it's still sore" is pretty silly considering how recently the tear and repair happened!

I just wasn't certain if this sort of "one side up, one side flat" look was a normal outcome for such an extensive tear/repair. My c/s incision healed "flat" with no lumps or bumps (it was closed with staples, removed on day 3 and replaced with tape) so I was sort of expecting a similar "flat" healing. DH thinks it's kind of funny looking (he works in bio-tech and does surgery on horses) since essentially it looks like the left labia simple continues all the way along the scar line and around the anal opening...but he isn't the one with the "funny looking" bottom!

I guess I am just curious if any of you have seen scars that healed with this sort of "flap" of skin sticking up along one side of the scar line? It's not like it's going to cause me a heck of a lot of embarassment since you'd have to be pretty up close and personal to see it and DH doesn't mind it, but... I guess I'm sort of back to the adolescent mindset of "is this normal?" And since the left side has this "flap" and the left side is more sore (there is no pain at all anymore on the right side of the scar line, it's all on the left) I'm wondering if maybe the way it is healing has something to do with this and if I should be doing something other than waiting for my 6 month check-up.

[Momma Aimee]

I had a 4th in 05.

Without seeing it is tough to say -- though you wrote it out well .

I know my libra attachment at the "back" where it "fades" into the body is now differnt, and is differnt on the side where i tore compared to the other side.

I also know it was a full year before the scar and area were "calm" again for lack a better word. DH commented about the time of DS's birthday that it "looks almost normal again". your know -- smooth and "normal" (the new normal anyway)... the tear itself healed pretty fast, but the bumps and swellings and the puffy stuff took a long long long time to settle down. and even in now i can still feel the line and we are 21 months PP

and I was sore for months and months. we didn't DTD till 16 weeks PP and I was still sore then, and even after that for a while. not bad, but tender i guess is a better word .

my scar is not flapped that i have noticed or DH has commented on. however the one side of the labia fades intot he body dufferntly thant he other so i no longer match on the two sides, but in me, that is where the tear went -- that direction).

No harm in calling for a 12 week PP follow up.

AImee

[Kat_shoshin]

Hello,

I just wanted to mention that I have something similar... it went down quite a bit, however, mine has apparently become a "skin tag". I mentioned it to my OB and they said I would need a consult with a rectal surgeon to have it removed. I decided I like being able to sit finally and so it is fine as it is.