skin flap surgery

Hi @Harlyn,

I didn't have a flap but I did have a skin graft and then a second skin graft beside the first one. Though the skin is still a bit raised between the two grafts four years on, the rest has flattened out completely. Consistent and fairly strong massage is what helped the most.

Three weeks is a bit soon to start massaging the area with any degree of vigour but you can keep it well moisturised and when it is well healed work up to fairly vigorous massage and pinching to make the skin supple again. Wiggle your nose, stretch your lips over your teeth, wink, sing, whistle ... all sorts of facial movements will help too as well as massage.

You are very lucky to have had a flap. If I had had a flap instead of a graft from my collar bone I think you would hardly see the site of my WLE on my cheek as it has healed so well. The colour is the problem, the grafted skin is a different colour and always will be.

I hope this helps

Stay safe

Miranda

Thank you so much Miranda for your reply. This has helped me as didn't know what to expect at 3 weeks. They don't tell you.  I am putting vaseline on as Consultant siad he preferred this to anything so hopefully it will flatten out in time. xx

Hi Harlyn hi Miranda2 

your thread is from a while ago but maybe now you can tell me about your "end result"?

I have a flap on my forehead and I think it is quite raised. I had dermabrasion done for a better color match and hoped it would flatten it a bit or make the edges less striking but no. Have a next appointment in 3 months to discuss what's next (or not?) but I am having a bad day and are just sick of it and feel this process takes forever.

Also so far no one recommended to massage the thing so I didn't get exactly what is that supposed to do? Thr flap skin is actually more supple than the rest of the face and when I touch it too much it gets annoyingly itchy and also in connected areas on top of the head? Can s.o. relate?

Sorry, I feel, I am only writing about me, me, me... but actually I am really interested in what You experienced. And hope one day I can help s.o. with my experience too ;).

Anni

Hi Anni  My end result is good from skin flap.  I can still see it as I use a 5x magnifying mirror to do my make up but friends say they cant see it.  My cut was down my facial line near nose and lip and the flap was from there.  The flap part was red and raised for quite a while, then one morning I went to my mirror to check as I did every morning, and this particular morning the area was flat and less red.  My Plastic surgeon told me to massage with bio oil as many times a day as I wanted to.  I used to sit at night watching tv and massage it and he said to do it quite heavily and it must have worked.  The other thing I used was nivea cream in the navy blue tin and that helped too.  Where did you have yours done.  My plastic surgeon was brilliant was so lucky to get him as he had only just taken on work at Nuffield, Derby but is experience was brilliant and so nice.  I had them done under locals just in a treatment room. I had lots of stitches all so very tiny which I think helped and the line scar was my facial line so that just matches the line on the other side of my face.  (just another wrinkle!!!) The one at top of nose where I had graft done was more nasty but that has healed ok but did take longer as it scabbed very badly and apparently it shouldnt have done, but it is ok.  Feel free to ask anything and if you make me a friend I can send you some photos that only you will see of before and after.  These things are such a nuisance, not life threatening, but a pain, and I am not a sun worshipper or a sun bed user, so wonder where they came from xx

Hi Harlyn,

I ended up here because I had a mole removal with a FTSG (side of my nose). You mentioned scabbing and I think that's what is happening with my graft. I'm not sure if I should leave it and let it heal? I feel like of these dry bits come off my graft will come off. I had a surgery 3 weeks ago so I put vaseline aaround the graft and a bit on it, but I'm not sure when I should start massaging it. It feels very numb, I still have a bit of dry blood around from the stitches and in the middle it looks a bit concave if that's the correct word (sorry I'm not British, so medical English is something new for me. I still keep it cover because it looks really bad and I'm not sure if covering it is a right thing. The doctor said I don't need to cover it, but I can't see myself outside without having a dressing on my nose. And I'm still waiting for the biopsy results. I'm so glad I found this website. Talking to people who had similar issues always helps. 

Thank you in advance for your reply. 

I hope it will heal well and I won't have bad aesthetic result. Sometimes I wonder why he didn't do a flap since it gives better results. I only read after the surgery that flaps are better. Well, maybe it wasn't possible to do skin flap in my case.

Hi Monika I have accepted your friend request so we can chat now privately and can send pics if you want me to. xx