How many cuts is keyhole gallbladder surgery and how big are the scars really, and will they actually fade or am I left with marks forever?

Bit of a vainer question than most on here and I feel slightly silly asking it next to people worrying about proper complications, but here goes. I'm booked in for keyhole removal in a few weeks and one thing nobody has actually told me straight is how many cuts they make and how big they end up as scars. I'm youngish, I'm in the gym and running a lot, so yes I care a bit about what my stomach looks like afterwards, sue me.

So how many incisions are we talking, and how big is each one? Is one of them really in the belly button because someone told me that and it sounded odd. And the bit I actually want to know, do these fade to basically nothing over time or am I going to have a permanent set of marks across my middle? And the scary version, IF it turns into open surgery instead, am I then looking at one massive scar? Just want to walk in knowing what my stomach's realistically going to look like in a year, good or bad.

Not vain, everyone wonders. I had four little ones. One in the belly button which you genuinely cannot see now because it's hidden in the crease, and three small ones spread across the upper belly. Biggest was maybe a centimetre. A year and a bit on they're faint pale lines you have to go looking for. Nobody at the gym has ever noticed or asked.

Mine are years old now and honestly I forget which marks are even from it. They start out a bit pink and angry looking in the first months, that's the bit that panics people, and then they quietly fade to little silvery lines. The belly button one basically vanished into the belly button. You're worrying about the worst they'll ever look, which is right at the start.

runner, it's not a silly question at all and I got asked it so often that we wrote a whole piece on it, so let me give you the real numbers from my own middle, a year on from my keyhole operation.

Standard keyhole gallbladder surgery is done through three or four small cuts, each roughly half a centimetre to one centimetre, so we're talking little openings rather than incisions in the dramatic sense. And yes, one of them really is at or just inside the belly button, which is deliberate, because it hides beautifully in the natural crease and is usually the one you can't find afterwards. Mine were pink and slightly raised for the first couple of months, which is completely normal and is the stage that makes people think they'll scar badly, and then they settled into faint flat lines over the following months. A year on you would have to know exactly where to look. The site's guide to gallbladder surgery scars has the honest before and after of how the keyhole cuts fade and simple scar care, and there's a fuller walkthrough of the operation itself in keyhole gallbladder surgery if you want to picture where each cut goes.

On your scary version, I won't dodge it. If a keyhole operation has to be converted to open for safety, that is one larger cut of roughly 10 to 15 centimetres under the right ribs instead of the little ones, and that does leave a proper scar and a longer recovery. But that happens in a minority of operations and it's a decision made to protect you, not a default. As for how yours specifically will heal, that comes down to your own skin and how you scar, which no forum can predict, so the person to ask about your particular skin is the surgical team. Being fit and healthy going in is on your side for the healing part, for what it's worth.

Mine are four small ones and even a few months out they're already fading nicely, so I'll back all of the above. The belly button one is a total non event. Honestly the scars were the least of it, I'd stopped thinking about them within weeks.

This is exactly what I needed, cheers all. Three or four little half centimetre cuts with one hidden in the belly button, pink at first then fading to nothing much, and only the big scar if it has to go open, which is the unlikely case. That I can live with easily. Feeling a lot calmer about the whole thing now, not just the scar bit. Op in a couple of weeks, I'll report back on how the cuts actually look.