Noun:

A stitch or row of stitches  holding together the edges of a wound or surgical incision.

 

If you go for a DIEP flap reconstruction, you will have an impressive row of about 180 stitches, which go from hip to hip. 

 

Fortunately, these days, most stiches are dissolvable, so you don’t have to go through the ick of getting them removed.

 

The stitches on my tummy have left an awesome scar though.  People double take if I am in a bikini (not because I look like Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in Dr No, but because I have a massive Joker smile on my midriff).

 

I like to tell people it was because I was nearly eaten by a shark.