Tips for Healing and Fading Scars with Vitamin E

Soon after my first laparotomy (I had 33+ of them over the past 30 years), my stoma nurse gave me advice that worked so well to help heal my scars and to help my many scars fade faster: to purchase Vitamin E capsules and to use a pair of sharp scissors with which you prick the capsule, and you massage the vitamin E oil into your scars.

It helped my scars so much, and they began to heal faster and fade so much quicker that I was utterly thrilled with this advice; and I wanted to pass this idea on to as many of you who have scars.

Gracie

Gracie, have you had problems with scars healing in the past? Studies have been performed on the efficacy of vitamin E oil to help heal scarring — many people in the study had their scarring worsen or they developed contact dermatitis. This may be another YMMV tip. I am glad it benefited you, but it may not be universally helpful.

Yes. I had problems with my wounds healing, as I am a prolific proud flesh maker (my stoma nurse calls it over-granulation). They tried all sorts of things. Manuka honey was one of the best things that helped my wound heal. But I reacted to a lot of different things. And yes, I know that vitamin E oil does not help everyone.
Sometimes I think it's utterly ridiculous how many things my skin will react violently to: sunlight, grass, a lot of supposedly allergy-proof ointments and moisturizers, sunscreen, and sunblock creams.
I have had eczema since I was a toddler; now that I'm older, I'm trying to cope with psoriasis on my scalp, face, and other places - the itchiness sometimes drives me up the wall!!

Dogs sometimes develop hot spots, made worse by licking them. A condition called pyotraumatic dermatitis. If it's caused by diet or insects, it is easily fixed, but if it is allergies, it can drive you crazy. I had a dog who had them, and I read about applying vitamin E like you have described, so I did that along with other measures. I also put a vitamin E tablet in his food. Luckily, it disappeared after a while.

Getting Support in the Ostomy Community with LeeAnne Hayden | Hollister

Ummmm - the amount of times I have tumbled down the stairs reminds me a little of your experience with the your tree - the last one was in early May of last year. My John very nearly had a heart attack as he heard me fall, and I fell down ten steps, dislocating my left knee, when the district nurse looked me over I was covered head to toe with bruising, the tread lines on the steps were clearly visible down my back, and holy cow did it hurt....
But, having MS, my knee suddenly gave way, I tried desperately to grab onto the banisters, but no luck. By the time John got to me our late dog was licking my tears of my face, trying to comfort me.
Some Arnica helped enormously, both the tablets as well as the cream.... Yes - I'm a complete Klutz!
And now I am no longer allowed to go down the stairs by myself anymore....

Necessity is the mother of invention. Plus, it was all for a worthy cause... Dairy Queen!

I have a DQ a few blocks from my house. Yummy.

My first surgery in 1983, nearly 9 hours of exploratory surgery, concluding as a total thyroidectomy with exploded carotid artery repair... I ended up with dozens of black stitches on the entire left side of my neck terminating a few inches past my Adam's apple. Looked gruesome.  Even worse after stitches were removed.  After 20 years the scars faded away.  Only remnant today is mismatched skin below my Adam's apple.  

Glad you recovered and weren't seriously injured.

After I returned home from Ostomy surgery in 2022.... I fell down my stairs twice.  First time I slipped and fell half way down.  Second fall was pretty stupid.  My foot slipped on the top step and I tumbled onto the mid stair landing.  My wife ran to bottom of the stairs to see what the heck I did.  I barked out..  "I'm fine"... took a step, slipped, and fell down the rest of the stairs, landing right in front of her.  It...really....hurt.  Lucky my surgical wound and colostomy were not damaged.  After that, I shut my mouth and remained downstairs for a couple of weeks.

Now when I use the stairs, I slow down.  Make sure of my footing and carefully step down holding the railing.  

This must be awful. My neighbor's son is in his early 20s and has recently developed psoriasis on his face, which has been terrible. They are very worried about it going into his eyes.

When I was working as a clinical pharmacist prescriber, I was more up to date with treatments, but I'm useless now. I'll mention manuka honey to my neighbor; thanks for the suggestion. My sister overgranulates too; I'd never heard the term. Her surgical or other wounds look like ropes.

I'm wondering if you could contact the manufacturers of wound dressings to see if they have anything in the pipeline that may help? I think they'd be thrilled to have someone to include in their trials of new products, and you may be able to find something that way.

All the very best to you.

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear this, Beachboy. That must have been dramatic, painful, and scary. I'm glad it faded, but I'm sure it must have impacted your life. I would have been freaked out; you're a stronger person than I am.

Regarding falling down steps, I think that's my Olympic sport. Mind you, fresh air also works as a trigger for a quick face plant for me! I fall over at the slightest invitation and have done so since I learned (late) to walk! But stairs are the worst; they never seem to stop! You fall and fall and fall!! A straight face plant is much quicker and less painful!

Our local NHS decided it would be cheaper for them to fit a stairlift in my house and give me a wheely walker frame for outside, but the stairlift is incredibly slow. I could knit a sling on the way down, and the walker is good, but it trips a lot of other people up!

Hope you stay well.

Allergies can be gruesome. I'm so sorry 😞

Oh dear😳.

Oh my gosh, Beachboy!!! I'm surprised your wife didn't run over there, wave her arms, and yell, “SAFE.” I'm sorry I couldn't resist. 😉

Hee heeeee. Actually, she had quite a few "choice" words for me. Safe... wasn't one of them.

She had warned me to remain downstairs. Me... pig-headed man... declared, "I'd go upstairs if I felt like it."

In the final analysis... gravity won that argument... twice.

As far as the problems with overgranulations are concerned, the only thing my stoma nurse has been able to do is give me a pack of silver nitrate sticks. I HATE having to use it (probably once every 2 weeks, as it stings and hurts; but the overgranulation and my being on blood thinners mean that I get a lot of bleeding around the edge of my stoma. My stoma nurse, as well as the district nurses who come to my home when I need their help (which is rare, as I know more about my ileostomy and what works for me). However, my stoma nurse has said that because I have to remain on my blood thinners, maybe she can give me some Kaltostat (which is made from seaweed) as if I place it around my stoma, it should absorb the blood and stop it from adhering to my flange....
Here in NZ, I don't have to look for products myself, as the hospital has quite a number of ostomy equipment suppliers, so my stoma nurse picks what she thinks works best for me, but if I want to try something, all I need to do is ask if she can send me some samples to try.

When you've lived with them for all your life, it became my normal...
However, my husband John suffers from much worse allergies than I do! He used to be allergic to cats, but after we were married, a kitten walked into our workplace. He told me all day that no, we couldn't take him home due to his allergies. The kitten took a liking to John, eventually fell asleep on his lap, and he called me from the receptionist desk and said, "Look, isn't he just the cutest? Let's take him home." We named the black kitten "Hitam" (pronounced E-tum - it's an Indonesian word meaning black) - the following day I didn't just have to make a veterinarian appointment for Hitam, but I also had to make a doctor's appointment for my husband as he couldn't stop sneezing!! He has, over our marriage, become immune to cats, and now, fortunately, no longer reacts to our cats; but still reacts violently to a cat he doesn't know!!
But shortly after our marriage, I guess that breakfast we both weren't really thinking, and while we were enjoying breakfast, I had run out of sugar, as he drinks his tea black with 2 sugars (while I drink tea with milk, which is the English and Kiwi way), and all I had was honey, so I suggested a teaspoon of honey....
Well, John began to sneeze, and sneeze, and couldn't stop sneezing!! I felt so awful about it, and when I rang the doctor in a panic, they told me to bring him to the clinic, and our doctor gave him a shot with an epi pen.
Because I have been making my own bread since before we got married (gosh! I just realized that's over 31 years!), I started adding a tiny bit of our local honey, which was our GP's suggestion, and it has made things slightly better - but he reacts violently to flowering privets, grass, dust, pine pollen - you name it. Even a change of temperature in the winter, going from our warm house into the garden, will set his sneezing off. I've told him so many times that if he's working around the property and he knows he will react, he should wear a mask so he isn't breathing it in! Does he listen to me? No - he's a stubborn Dutch man! Sometimes I just have to grab a mask, walk over to him, and stuff it into his hand!

🤷‍♂️

I think gravity has a grudge against me.....

I really hope that at some point we can get another puppy, as we lost our last Rottweiler to an enormous heart attack a few months ago. Sometimes in memory, I have to smile because we've had a number of dogs throughout our marriage (I grew up with dogs and have had them all my life), but there were many times that John would throw a ball for one of our dogs, the dog would, in its excitement, forget where I was standing and I'd get bowled over.... after which I'd get an overwhelming "I'm sorry Mum! You're not hurt, are you? Sniff, sniff, lick, lick" - and my husband would have to help me get back on my feet.