Some swelling is normal and perfectly fine.
Swelling is a normal response of the body after any “injury”, no mater where it is located. Just as your ankle will swell when you have a twisted ankle, your neck will swell a bit after your parathyroid operation. Usually this is very minor and it just looks a little puffy. This is absolutely normal. This is supposed to happen! Ignore it and it will be gone in a few days or a week.
Should I massage the scar?
Our parathyroid scars are pretty small. And, no, you do not need to “massage” the scar—that won’t do anything. It is also important to understand that there are a lot of stitches inside that are holding the tissues together and these stitches typically take about 4-5 weeks to dissolve. Relax and give it time—our incisions almost always look great in a few months. We have more on this topic in the Post Op Instructions section.
Hey, I have a ping pong ball under my incision.
“Hey guys, I have some swelling around and under my incision like a small ping pong ball. Is this normal? When will that go away?” Yes, it will always go away! As we stated above, it is very normal to have swelling around the incision, often for a few weeks. The incision also may feel lumpy or and the skin may feel hard – this is all normal and will go away as everything heals. If you have a small lump under the skin, leave it alone. It will always go away when the stitches dissolve in a few weeks.
