Is it a tendon, stitch or something else?

Right from the moment I woke up my left side hurt more than my right. Since then it's been a few days behind my right in terms of healing and moving through the stages. After a few days I felt like I had bruised ribs on that side which I mentioned at. My one week check up and was told is perfectly normal.

A few days later I realised that it could be the stitches being quite tight as I got a sharp pain if I twisted or reached out too far and now that I've stopped the pain meds and have more movement it's more noticeable.

Well, on Friday it twanged and I jumped and screamed! A friend had warned me that this may happen as the stitches start dissolving and effectively snap and/or ping! I called the surgery but the nurse was away that day - she'll call me back on Monday but if I get any serious pain or any bleeding to call over the weekend straight away.

Well, today (15 days po) I started to massage the scars and what do I see? What looks like a verticle tendon exactly where the pain is! It's a solid, movable tube about 1" long - I can't see where it starts and ends, but I can move it side to side. I massaged it s bit thinking maybe it's a stitch (duh!) or something and boy does it hurt now. Of course it doesn't help that it's directly under my sports bra band.

Any ideas? I'll speak to the nurse in the morning and unfortunately I'm going to have to pop some pain pills now to get through the day. Hopefully it's perfectly normal?!

It might be Mondor's cord, a trapped vein. It will eventually go away on its own, I think you can massage it xxx

roxanne wrote:It might be Mondor's cord, a trapped vein. It will eventually go away on its own, I think you can massage it xxx

My darling if you were here I'd hug you! Just googled Mondors Cord and yep, that looks exactly right, pics and all. Phew! Just knowing what it is makes a huge difference, especially as it's nothing to worry about and will go away of its own accord, eventually.

No problem, at least you know it's nothing to worry about. I think icing it might help relieve the pain too? Hope you don't have it for too long xxx

Bless you! Glad that got sorted, hope it starts to feel better soon! X

Hey sweetie. Has your clinic/nurse/surgeon told you to start massaging your scars at just 15 days post-op? If they have then that's fine sweetie, but if not they're generally left well alone to heal until you get the all clear at 6 weeks post-op. xx

About mondors cord. This is very common after a BA babe and massaging 'that' area but away from you scar it will help it settle down lovely. X

Aw hun, as the others have said, mondors cord is very common after a BA, and it can take a little while to heal, but if it helps you can massage it, I wouldn't put heat pads on it as it will be close to your scars, but ice packs if you feel it's painful and take painkillers if you need to. As cookie said, I wouldn't massge your scrs until told to do so. As they need time to form first.

Cheers guys. Ibuprofen does seem to do the trick... and yes, my PS told me I would be good to start massaging now at my one week check up. :)

Thanks again.