Sensitive Skin After Surgery: Seeking Advice

I had surgery 4 weeks ago and now have a temporary ileostomy. My question is, has anyone suffered from super sensitive skin across the abdomen after surgery? I can't bear to put clothes on. Lying flat gives me some relief, but I wondered if anyone had ever experienced this and if so, how long did it last?

I did have to be careful because I was very reactive to the adhesives. However, my mother had this issue when she had abdominal surgery and we used well-worn soft pure cotton sheets and in a few days as she began to heal, it seemed to get better...

OMG...I thought this was just me....it felt like pins and needles on my abdomen. I too was reactive to the adhesives. I have a dressing on my abdomen (I have two draining wounds) that are dressed with gauze and tape. We realized it was the tape we were using. It stung like the dickens. We used the adhesive remover to clean the area and then changed to a skin-sensitive tape...and slowly - within a week or so - the pain vanished. Hope this helps.

I had an issue, too. The incision was very sensitive and itchy. It was a vicious circle. If it itched and I touched it, it itched more. I wanted to relieve the itch but doing so made it worse. It got somewhat better over the years and finally, an additional abdominal surgery stopped it. No idea why. Hope your discomfort is better quickly.

The pins and needles feeling you describe sounds like my neuropathy in my feet from my chemo, which is directly related to nerve damage. Is it possible that a nerve was cut during the surgery? My neurologist prescribed a topical cream which contains: It has really worked wonders for me - the pins and needles feeling in my feet had crawled most of the way up my legs and now I only have to use the cream once a day on half of each foot. I think my nerves may be finally recovering.

Adhesive allergies were my issues as well. I ended up getting a yeast infection from the tape barrier of the flange I was using (many years ago), so my skin was weeping and made it impossible to tape to or put powder or cream on. It was the first "yeast infection" I ever had. Being a guy, it wasn't something I ever expected to get. At least an antifungal pill cleared things up, and then I switched to an "all wafer, no tape barrier" model of flange to prevent it from happening again. I am back to using a tape barrier flange, but the adhesive is clearly hypoallergenic now.

I had both a colostomy and ileostomy and now am bag-free and 100%. I must let you know that with an ileostomy, you MUST keep hydrated. Without your colon to absorb water, you are at risk for dehydration. I failed to keep hydrated with my ileostomy, and my kidney function was greatly diminished. After research, I found that a large percentage of ileostomates will develop kidney problems. Make sure you have your kidney function checked periodically and DRINK, DRINK, DRINK!! Good luck with the skin issues. They will resolve once you find a good seal and don't leak any output onto the skin.

Hi Jessica,

I had my ileostomy more than 50 years ago, when I was just 15, and I had tape issues since then. There weren't a lot of choices back then, but when "paper"/ non-allergenic tape was available that's all I used. For the last 20+ years, I've used Bard's Scanpor tape, which is like a second skin. No irritation, stays on and even dries "like skin". Depending on the season, I can keep it on a week, even through showers and the pool...although I often choose to change it before. As for clothes, after surgery, I couldn't stand having any band around my waist, so I bought myself "house dresses" that one might call skimmers...... They were lightweight A-line cotton dresses, and I also had to look for undies that had covered elastic...and were at least a size bigger, and weren't binding on the incision. I think I wore those dresses "around the house", and even outside, for almost a year. Although the incision healed much sooner than that, I was very much aware of it...and the itching for a long time. It's become a habit, even 50 years later....to remove clothes with tight (elastic) waistbands when I get home. Best of luck to you. Marsha