New to all this, I am confused and concerned

Hi, mine is about 20cm from I would say from about my bra line straight down and it goes around the edge of my navel… if that helps.. 

Michele 

Hello, the scar depends on what surgery you have. My husband has a big dome shaped scar, from one side of his tummy, all along just under the rib cage and down the other side. He had a total gastrectomy for linitis plastica. The surgery took over 9 hours and they also removed 30 lymph nodes. I wish you all the best.

Hi there mime is about 20cms below my sternum

It healed well and I don't think about it.

I think I had 20 plus staples.

All the best wishes. I am sure that you will be just fine

Chad1

@ Cestrian - HI Cestrian, thanks for the info.  Did you have a total or partial removal of the stomach?  Was wondering because if it was a total I will definitely discuss that technique with my surgeon should I need a stomach removal.

HI everyone.  Thanks for the replies, greatly appreciated.  I was figuring it would be about 20 cm's, sounds like I was about right.  I think I will get some solid answers on March 8th.  Feels so far away. 

Hi there, my husbands scar is from his breast bone to his belly button, it’s glued together so looks ok, I can e mail you a photo if you want of how it looks 10 days after op xx

Hey Sue, that would be great if you could?  Don't recall if I gave you my email address, it is tstvince@shaw.ca  Any of you are free to contact me there if you like.  Thanks again for all your support!

Hi, currently they are looking at doing a full removal of the stomach. Apparently this is the preferred method of the surgeon who will be completing the surgery as it’s less invasive and the recovery period is quicker. It’s definitely worth discussing with your surgeon.

It depends on your surgeon and their technique, there’s no standard thing.

My surgeon did the first ever robotic procedure with the Da Vinci robot years ago and so you can either have 1) the bullet holes (keyhole) via the robot or 2) the Samurai Slash and open surgery by hand.

He did my total gastrectomy with the open surgery via the Samurai Slash and cut me open from the top of my belly button, across my abs, up under my armpit, round my shoulder blade and finishes mid way through my shoulder blade.

It was 69 surgical staples, cracked two ribs to gain access, deflated my left lung to get space to work in, lifted my heart up and then went to work removing my stomach and joining my oesophagus to my small intestine whilst removing 72 lymph nodes for histology and did live pathology in the operating theatre to check he had clear margins before stitching me back up. The video was pretty surreal to see !

I guess the short answer is my scar runs from my belly button to the middle of my left shoulder blade and on the beach nowadays I’ve a cool scar that looks like I survived a shark attack, I love it and it’s a part of my life story now better than any tattoo could tell it ! 

WOW!  That is quite the souvenir!  I wonder if the incision was so large because they were removing 72 lymph nodes?