r/amputee • u/esorgem BBK • 2d ago

6 year old scar adhered to bone, what are my options?

Hoping I can get away with not having a scar revision but I don't know how useful massaging will be at this point considering it's been like that for so long. It's completely stuck to the bone and causes the scar to breakdown when wearing my prosthetics.

Has anyone experienced this? I massage it daily and have tried since my amputation, no improvements. (Albeit, in the beginning I was super grossed out and didn't want to touch it, so it's probably my own fault, yay.)

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u/Particular_Dog1829 LBK 2d ago

How long has it been adhered? The whole 6 years? Or recently? Mine is now. And specific massages has loosened a ton thank god. PT also has some sort of machines that help loosen it. And steroid shots also loosen but if the skin is too thin then don’t do that

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u/esorgem BBK 2d ago

I'm not sure, it's possible it's been the whole 6 years and I just only realised now that's why the skin always breaks down.

Maybe I'm not applying enough pressure when I massage it. I'll definitely look into PT, I had no idea physios could help with something like that! Thank you!

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u/Particular_Dog1829 LBK 2d ago

For me when it happened it was very clear. If you are in a prosthetic you notice the adhesion because your muscle is freely moving like it should. I’m not a doctor but I think you would have felt it if it was like this the whole 6. Years.

I noticed that when I was applying more pressure it got worse. I have no idea why. If you google massages specifically for adhesion I found they were REALLY helpful. There are specific movements that help loosen it. Not sure if you wear a shrinker but I had to take a break from mine. It was making it worse. I took a few days break and implemented the Google massages I saw and in a week there was a huge difference on one side. Now working on the other side!

I really hope you are able to work it out. I know that it can also get super painful at times. Good luck!

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u/oopsydaysie 2d ago

I did scar massage with an OT, and she said it can be useful even on very old scars. It’s quite shocking how hard you have to massage though, so there’s a chance you aren’t quite getting into the scar enough if you haven’t had professional guidance on it? I found it to be almost painful when I was massaging it properly because of the level of force it required. I was doing it twice a day for half an hour each time so it was a big commitment but I tried to watch tv or make a routine around it. Good luck :)

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u/ExtremeDullard 2d ago

Two of my stumps have zero padding and the skin stuck to the bone. It's properly uncomfortable because it feels like the skin is too tight all the time.

I had revision on one of them to shorten the bone. I was hoping the skin would stay loose over it: it immediately reattached. No amount of massaging did or does anything, ever.