I had my decompression procedure at Hope Hospital, Manchester on 9th April 2009.

To be honest, it wasn't as bad as I thought.

I woke up having a rather large plaster on the back of my head

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Small picture of the wound just before the stitches were removed.

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Looks a lot less angry with the stitches removed 15 minutes later. remember that this is 6 days after the procedure! Don't we heal very quickly.

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2 weeks on and its looks great and continues to do so

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4 weeks post op, even better!

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During recovery in Hospital make sure that you keep the wound dry and clean. Don't play with it or prod or poke at it......no matter how compulsive it may seem. Leave it alone to do its work. If you feel intense itchiness, heat or soreness then immediately speak to one of the nursing staff for advice.

When you are discharged, you will probably be told that you can wash your hair at last. I would suggest a mild shampoo, non-fragranced (not that it really bothered me) and non medicated. Just let the would heal, don't worry if you cant look like a million dollars just yet, nobody should expect you too! You can't move around too much anyway.

I used Savlon cream each day, just to keep it moist really and avoid any infection.

When the wound was better healed, probably round week 4, I started to use Bio oil. This is a proven product to help reduce scarring. (I believe women use it during and after pregnancy for stretch marks!) It certainly helped me and seems to be working just great.

If you start to feel any local pain around the scar, undue itchiness, excessive heat or are worried about it in any way, then seek advice immediately. Acting promptly will help you nip any problems in the bud.

In any event, wear your zipper with pride! you belong to a very special club.

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