I have a question for ya'll. Just had a minor (very minor) surgery yesterday to remove a suspicious mole from my right thigh that required 3 stitches. The Dermatologist said I should not exercise for 2-3 weeks to avoid pulling the stitches. Yeah right! Now I'm sure that there are some others of you out there that have gone against the doctor's advice and maybe even against their own common sense in the past, so I'm looking to gain from your experience here. How long do I REALLY need to avoid doing stuff? It makes sense to me that I should probably not swim for at least a week at the local pool to avoid infection. How about cycling, running, weights? The stitches are on the middle inner thigh, above where the elastic of my cycling shorts would hit. I can walk around comfortably and it doesn't seem to me that cycling and running would put all that much stress on the stitches. I'm guessing I should probably avoid squats and leg press for a couple of weeks.
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Re: How long to sit it out? [jkatsoudas]
[ In reply to ]
Quite honestly: Keep in lubed with A&D ointment; put thigh wrap on when you work out. Go easy to test it. 2 days off tops. If there was no real 'stretch' pain, I might not even take off that long. Just my 2 cents. I have no idea what your leg looks or feels like, so take it FWIW. (I did play hockey in college and am pretty at home with stitches. ;-)
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Adam Duncan
New York, NY
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Adam Duncan
New York, NY
Re: How long to sit it out? [jkatsoudas]
[ In reply to ]
A biopsy for a suspicious mole contains more thant just skin it includes subcutaneous tissue, dermis, epidermis, etc. The point being it is nto the same as a cut on your leg or something... it is much deeper, that is why you want to lay off for a while... I would definately stay away from the pool for the 2 weeks at the very least... with anything of this depth the risk of infection is real and you don't want to f**king around in kid piss adn sh*t floating around in the water... no matter how "clean" a pool is I can tell you it is not clean from a microbiological standpoint. I dunno about the rest of the stuff but I would say definately stay out of the pool.
Re: How long to sit it out? [taku]
[ In reply to ]
Taku's right. If this is a DEEP thing that feels like a big charlie horse, then definately lay off. And definatey do not mess around with infection. I'm sure you know that.
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Adam Duncan
New York, NY
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Adam Duncan
New York, NY
Thanks guys,
This pretty much confirms what I was thinking. There's no pain today to speak of, even when I squat down or move the leg through it's range of motion, so I don't think the stitches are being stretched all that much if at all. I totally agree about not going in the pool for risk of infection. Thanks for confirming what I was thinking. I know that doctors have to give conservative advice, but it's a bit irritating when they refuse to give real-world advice to active people. I explained to her that 2-3 weeks with no exercise was out of the question but she refused to acknowledge that recovery needs to be tailored to a person's lifestyle.
-John
This pretty much confirms what I was thinking. There's no pain today to speak of, even when I squat down or move the leg through it's range of motion, so I don't think the stitches are being stretched all that much if at all. I totally agree about not going in the pool for risk of infection. Thanks for confirming what I was thinking. I know that doctors have to give conservative advice, but it's a bit irritating when they refuse to give real-world advice to active people. I explained to her that 2-3 weeks with no exercise was out of the question but she refused to acknowledge that recovery needs to be tailored to a person's lifestyle.
-John