Day 6 after keyhole gallbladder surgery, the belly button cut is a bit weepy and the glue is peeling off. Normal or infected? And when did you all shower properly?

Ok so I was fairly chilled about the whole operation and now I'm the one panicking over the smallest of the four cuts. Had the gallbladder out by keyhole last Tuesday, home the same night, the three upper cuts look great, tiny, dry, glue on them going cloudy but fine. The belly button one though. It's the one they took the gallbladder out through I think, and since yesterday there's been a little bit of clear yellowish stuff on the dressing when I change it, not loads, no smell, and the edge of the glue has curled up like a bit of dried PVA on one side. It's a bit pink round the edge but I genuinely cannot tell if that's "healing pink" or "infection pink".

The discharge leaflet says "keep clean and dry" and "you may shower after 48 hours" and then nothing else useful. So I've been doing a sort of pathetic flannel wash with the belly button held out of the water for six days and I'd quite like an actual shower. Do I let the water run over it? Do I pull the peeling glue off or leave it flapping? Is a weepy belly button at day six a phone-the-ward thing or a stop-being-dramatic thing? I've got a temperature of 37.2 which I think is nothing but I've taken it about nine times today.

Mine did exactly this. The navel one was the only one that was ever damp, and it was the last to settle by a week or more. No infection, it's just a deeper cut in a fold that never quite dries out. Leave the glue alone, it drops off on its own.

I had a proper look at mine every day for a fortnight with a hand mirror like a detective so I feel your pain. The two things the nurse on the ward told me when I rang, and I did ring, were: a bit of clear or straw coloured fluid from the belly button one is very common because that's the biggest cut and it sits in a crease, and the thing they actually care about is spreading redness that's getting bigger day on day, heat, swelling, pus that's thick or smelly, or the wound edges opening up. Pink right at the edge that stays the same size isn't what they mean.

She also told me to stop dabbing it with anything and just let clean shower water run over it, pat dry with a clean towel, and leave the glue. I'd pulled a corner of mine off and she was not impressed. Two days later it was drier than it had been all week. But ring your ward, honestly, that's what the number on the leaflet is for and they will not think you're being dramatic.

I run this board and I had the same operation, home the same evening, and my navel cut was the one that made me ring the ward too, so let me give you the plain version of what I learned, with the usual caveat that the people who can actually look at it are your surgical team.

A little clear or straw coloured fluid from the belly button wound around day five to seven is common. It is the largest of the three or four cuts, usually the one the gallbladder came out through, and it sits in a damp fold that heals more slowly than the flat upper ones. The skin glue is doing what it is designed to do: it goes cloudy, then peels at the edges, and comes away on its own somewhere around 1 to 2 weeks. Picking it off early is the one thing every nurse I spoke to warned against. The cuts underneath are closed with dissolving stitches in most cases, so there is nothing to have taken out.

Showering: the advice I was given, and the NHS leaflet says the same, was that showering after about 24 to 48 hours is fine, letting water run over the wounds rather than scrubbing them, no soaking in a bath or swimming until the wounds are properly closed, and patting dry with a clean towel afterwards. Your own leaflet says 48 hours, so at day six you are well past it. Six days of flannel washing is heroic and unnecessary.

Where I would stop reassuring and start pointing you at the phone: redness that is spreading outward day on day rather than a stable pink rim, the wound feeling hot or increasingly swollen, discharge that turns thick, cloudy or smelly, the edges gaping, or a temperature of 38 or above, particularly with feeling unwell or with tummy pain that is getting worse rather than better. That combination is a same-day call to the ward or your GP, because the things it can signal go beyond a wound infection. The site's week-by-week recovery guide lists those warning signs, and if it is the look of the scars you are worrying about longer term, how the keyhole cuts fade covers that. What you have described, a bit of clear fluid, curling glue, a pink edge and 37.2, is what mine looked like at day six. Ring anyway if you are unsure; that is exactly what the number is for.

Adding the one thing nobody told me: once you're showering, dry the belly button properly afterwards, a clean bit of kitchen roll pressed gently into it works, because it's the trapped damp that keeps it weepy. Mine went from damp for a week to dry in two days once I did that. Yours sounds completely ordinary by the way.

Reporting back. Rang the ward Tuesday, nurse asked me to describe it, said "that's a healing belly button, go and have a shower". Had the shower. Genuinely the best ten minutes of my recovery. Glue on the upper cuts came off in the shower two days later, navel one hung on until yesterday. The weeping stopped about two days after I started drying it properly like Maria said. Temperature never went above 37.3 and I've stopped taking it every hour. Back to gentle running next week, which is a different worry for a different thread.