[Routine help] Cleaning around facial stitches after mole excision
Hello. I had two bumpy moles removed by excision 6 days ago, one from the side of my nose and one from my eyelid. The surgery went well.
I was told to avoid water for 2 days, then remove the bandages, gently clean around the stitches, and apply povidone-iodine every 2 days. However, I was too afraid to remove the bandages because I’m worried about scarring.
I finally removed the bandage from my nose after soaking it briefly with drinking water and managed to apply the iodine solution, but there is still some old iodine residue, surgical pen ink, and dried blood around the wound on my nose. I haven’t been able to clean it because I'm scared to damage it, and I even still haven’t removed the bandage from my eyelid...
I’m returning to the hospital in 2 days to have the stitches removed. Could this cause any problems? Should I try to clean the wounds now, and if so, how can I do it safely without affecting healing or increasing scarring? Thank you in advance.