Nervous about skin graft

I had a skin graft on my back due to melanoma in situ.  It was a split thickness graft.  The healing for both sites was uneventful but the donor site was much more tender than the WLE site.  Donor site was my "hip". Neither site was what I would call painful.  I don't remember exactly how long the healing time was but it wasn't more than a month or two for complete healing.  Both sites just need to be kept moist and clean (lightly covered) during healing.

I had a skin graft on my back due to melanoma in situ.  It was a split thickness graft.  The healing for both sites was uneventful but the donor site was much more tender than the WLE site.  Donor site was my "hip". Neither site was what I would call painful.  I don't remember exactly how long the healing time was but it wasn't more than a month or two for complete healing.  Both sites just need to be kept moist and clean (lightly covered) during healing.

I had a skin graft on my back due to melanoma in situ.  It was a split thickness graft.  The healing for both sites was uneventful but the donor site was much more tender than the WLE site.  Donor site was my "hip". Neither site was what I would call painful.  I don't remember exactly how long the healing time was but it wasn't more than a month or two for complete healing.  Both sites just need to be kept moist and clean (lightly covered) during healing.

Hi Christine – Let me first say that I did not have a skin graft, but I did have a melanoma removed from my calf about 6  inches above my ankle in February that required a WLE with about a 3 inch incision after accounting for the ellipse of skin they needed to put my skin back together with sutures. My incision/repair was pretty tight.   I did not have pain after the procedure.  The most annoying part was chilling out and avoiding too much activity  (hard for those with kids and lots to get done) because that area undergoes a lot of daily stress that we don't think about – kneeling down, or even just the stretching out of your legs puts stress on the skin.  So while I don't think you will have much pain (it will be slightly tender and you may lose some feeling in the area temporarily), I will repeat what others told me – allow your body time to heal and for your skin to weave its way back together.  Follow your doctor's advice in terms of how much time to take it down a notch.  For me, it was two weeks for the stitches and even after that, I was advised to wait for another two weeks for light exercise/jogging. I expect with a skin graft, it would probably be at least another couple of weeks after that – and of course, protect your wound from the elements.  Good luck – this will probably be more of a general annoyance to you as opposed to a really painful experience.

Hi Christine – Let me first say that I did not have a skin graft, but I did have a melanoma removed from my calf about 6  inches above my ankle in February that required a WLE with about a 3 inch incision after accounting for the ellipse of skin they needed to put my skin back together with sutures. My incision/repair was pretty tight.   I did not have pain after the procedure.  The most annoying part was chilling out and avoiding too much activity  (hard for those with kids and lots to get done) because that area undergoes a lot of daily stress that we don't think about – kneeling down, or even just the stretching out of your legs puts stress on the skin.  So while I don't think you will have much pain (it will be slightly tender and you may lose some feeling in the area temporarily), I will repeat what others told me – allow your body time to heal and for your skin to weave its way back together.  Follow your doctor's advice in terms of how much time to take it down a notch.  For me, it was two weeks for the stitches and even after that, I was advised to wait for another two weeks for light exercise/jogging. I expect with a skin graft, it would probably be at least another couple of weeks after that – and of course, protect your wound from the elements.  Good luck – this will probably be more of a general annoyance to you as opposed to a really painful experience.

Hi Christine – Let me first say that I did not have a skin graft, but I did have a melanoma removed from my calf about 6  inches above my ankle in February that required a WLE with about a 3 inch incision after accounting for the ellipse of skin they needed to put my skin back together with sutures. My incision/repair was pretty tight.   I did not have pain after the procedure.  The most annoying part was chilling out and avoiding too much activity  (hard for those with kids and lots to get done) because that area undergoes a lot of daily stress that we don't think about – kneeling down, or even just the stretching out of your legs puts stress on the skin.  So while I don't think you will have much pain (it will be slightly tender and you may lose some feeling in the area temporarily), I will repeat what others told me – allow your body time to heal and for your skin to weave its way back together.  Follow your doctor's advice in terms of how much time to take it down a notch.  For me, it was two weeks for the stitches and even after that, I was advised to wait for another two weeks for light exercise/jogging. I expect with a skin graft, it would probably be at least another couple of weeks after that – and of course, protect your wound from the elements.  Good luck – this will probably be more of a general annoyance to you as opposed to a really painful experience.

Christine

I havent' had a skin graft but I've been amazed how quickly and relatively painlessly the three wounds (8cm, 10 cm, 10cm) from my 3 wide excisions have healed up. I have had maybe one poor night's sleep with a bit of breakthrough pain (e.g. taking Panadol/paracetomol but still feeling some pain) and then been pretty fine. It does mean 'nursing' that limb for a while – I've had one on my thigh, one on elbow and now one on chest. Weirdly, the chest has been the most painful and TBH it's not that bad, just a little more sensitive than the others (still have the stitches, only had it done on Saturday). The procedure itself is remarkably painless after the anaesthetic injection and it amazes me that such major surgery (for me, at least) can be done in a GP office. You say your onc anticipates a graft – who knows, maybe he can do a flap repair with no need of graft at all. All the best,

Stars

Christine

I havent' had a skin graft but I've been amazed how quickly and relatively painlessly the three wounds (8cm, 10 cm, 10cm) from my 3 wide excisions have healed up. I have had maybe one poor night's sleep with a bit of breakthrough pain (e.g. taking Panadol/paracetomol but still feeling some pain) and then been pretty fine. It does mean 'nursing' that limb for a while – I've had one on my thigh, one on elbow and now one on chest. Weirdly, the chest has been the most painful and TBH it's not that bad, just a little more sensitive than the others (still have the stitches, only had it done on Saturday). The procedure itself is remarkably painless after the anaesthetic injection and it amazes me that such major surgery (for me, at least) can be done in a GP office. You say your onc anticipates a graft – who knows, maybe he can do a flap repair with no need of graft at all. All the best,

Stars

Christine

I havent' had a skin graft but I've been amazed how quickly and relatively painlessly the three wounds (8cm, 10 cm, 10cm) from my 3 wide excisions have healed up. I have had maybe one poor night's sleep with a bit of breakthrough pain (e.g. taking Panadol/paracetomol but still feeling some pain) and then been pretty fine. It does mean 'nursing' that limb for a while – I've had one on my thigh, one on elbow and now one on chest. Weirdly, the chest has been the most painful and TBH it's not that bad, just a little more sensitive than the others (still have the stitches, only had it done on Saturday). The procedure itself is remarkably painless after the anaesthetic injection and it amazes me that such major surgery (for me, at least) can be done in a GP office. You say your onc anticipates a graft – who knows, maybe he can do a flap repair with no need of graft at all. All the best,

Stars

Take it easy, you will be fine.

Take it easy, you will be fine.

Take it easy, you will be fine.

Hi Christine,

in 2009 I had a half thickness skin graft on the back of my hand.  The dr took to skin from my hip (same side).  To be honest, they didn't hurt as much as I thought they would.   I was told that the donor site would hurt more than the skin graft site, but I kept it covered with tegraderm plastic and it didn't hurt at all, unless I bumped it.  The skin graft site didn't hurt as much as look nasty.  And with a little bit of PT I have no lasting effects, and you really have to look for the cars to find them.

Trust yours will be similar,

Blessings

Julie

Hi Christine,

in 2009 I had a half thickness skin graft on the back of my hand.  The dr took to skin from my hip (same side).  To be honest, they didn't hurt as much as I thought they would.   I was told that the donor site would hurt more than the skin graft site, but I kept it covered with tegraderm plastic and it didn't hurt at all, unless I bumped it.  The skin graft site didn't hurt as much as look nasty.  And with a little bit of PT I have no lasting effects, and you really have to look for the cars to find them.

Trust yours will be similar,

Blessings

Julie

Hi Christine,

in 2009 I had a half thickness skin graft on the back of my hand.  The dr took to skin from my hip (same side).  To be honest, they didn't hurt as much as I thought they would.   I was told that the donor site would hurt more than the skin graft site, but I kept it covered with tegraderm plastic and it didn't hurt at all, unless I bumped it.  The skin graft site didn't hurt as much as look nasty.  And with a little bit of PT I have no lasting effects, and you really have to look for the cars to find them.

Trust yours will be similar,

Blessings

Julie

I've already told you about my wound vac experience, so I might as well tell you about my skin graft experience. 🙂

I had a split thickness graft done from my thigh, to the wound on my back. It didn't take, and that's why I wound up with the wound vac, as I told you in my other reply. As far as pain, the donor site was by far the most pain that I dealt with from the surgery. The surgical site was no big deal…no pain at all. Maybe because nerves had been cut there in prior surgery. The donor site was ok as long as it wasn't being messed with. But dressing changes HURT. I had been doing pretty well in the hospital, and told my surgeon that I didn't think I needed any pain meds to take home. Don't make that mistake. Take whatever they offer you.

Each dressing change got easier, but the first few were very uncomfortable. And marijuana, which I had successfully used to manage post-surgical pain in lieu of narcotics previously, didn't do the trick. I had to have Vicodin to deal with the pain at the donor site.

I hope that doesn't scare you too much, but that was my experience. And like I said, each dressing change gets easier. Best wishes to you!

I've already told you about my wound vac experience, so I might as well tell you about my skin graft experience. 🙂

I had a split thickness graft done from my thigh, to the wound on my back. It didn't take, and that's why I wound up with the wound vac, as I told you in my other reply. As far as pain, the donor site was by far the most pain that I dealt with from the surgery. The surgical site was no big deal…no pain at all. Maybe because nerves had been cut there in prior surgery. The donor site was ok as long as it wasn't being messed with. But dressing changes HURT. I had been doing pretty well in the hospital, and told my surgeon that I didn't think I needed any pain meds to take home. Don't make that mistake. Take whatever they offer you.

Each dressing change got easier, but the first few were very uncomfortable. And marijuana, which I had successfully used to manage post-surgical pain in lieu of narcotics previously, didn't do the trick. I had to have Vicodin to deal with the pain at the donor site.

I hope that doesn't scare you too much, but that was my experience. And like I said, each dressing change gets easier. Best wishes to you!

I've already told you about my wound vac experience, so I might as well tell you about my skin graft experience. 🙂

I had a split thickness graft done from my thigh, to the wound on my back. It didn't take, and that's why I wound up with the wound vac, as I told you in my other reply. As far as pain, the donor site was by far the most pain that I dealt with from the surgery. The surgical site was no big deal…no pain at all. Maybe because nerves had been cut there in prior surgery. The donor site was ok as long as it wasn't being messed with. But dressing changes HURT. I had been doing pretty well in the hospital, and told my surgeon that I didn't think I needed any pain meds to take home. Don't make that mistake. Take whatever they offer you.

Each dressing change got easier, but the first few were very uncomfortable. And marijuana, which I had successfully used to manage post-surgical pain in lieu of narcotics previously, didn't do the trick. I had to have Vicodin to deal with the pain at the donor site.

I hope that doesn't scare you too much, but that was my experience. And like I said, each dressing change gets easier. Best wishes to you!

Just to add one more experience to the heap. I had a large split thickness graft on my scalp following a very large WLE to treat a recurrence. I just measure the donor site on my thigh (kind of hard to see but it can be done in the right light) and it is almost exactly 3×3.

Like other posters have mentioned the site receiving the graft did not hurt because of the nerves that were cut. And the donor site did not really hurt either. I kept the original Tegaderm on it for 2 or maybe 3 weeks. The site was originally bright red which gradually faded and there was visible fluid which eventually was reabsorbed. I was told to remove the Tegaderm earlier than that but I was a wimp and left it there but it worked well for me!

– Paul.

Just to add one more experience to the heap. I had a large split thickness graft on my scalp following a very large WLE to treat a recurrence. I just measure the donor site on my thigh (kind of hard to see but it can be done in the right light) and it is almost exactly 3×3.

Like other posters have mentioned the site receiving the graft did not hurt because of the nerves that were cut. And the donor site did not really hurt either. I kept the original Tegaderm on it for 2 or maybe 3 weeks. The site was originally bright red which gradually faded and there was visible fluid which eventually was reabsorbed. I was told to remove the Tegaderm earlier than that but I was a wimp and left it there but it worked well for me!

– Paul.

Just to add one more experience to the heap. I had a large split thickness graft on my scalp following a very large WLE to treat a recurrence. I just measure the donor site on my thigh (kind of hard to see but it can be done in the right light) and it is almost exactly 3×3.

Like other posters have mentioned the site receiving the graft did not hurt because of the nerves that were cut. And the donor site did not really hurt either. I kept the original Tegaderm on it for 2 or maybe 3 weeks. The site was originally bright red which gradually faded and there was visible fluid which eventually was reabsorbed. I was told to remove the Tegaderm earlier than that but I was a wimp and left it there but it worked well for me!

– Paul.