[flutterbye]

Is laparoscopy the right word, keyhole surgery anyway.

Not a question just me fishing for some warm fuzzies!

I go in to hospital Wednesday to have the cysts on my ovaries removed, and as I understand it they will look around and either diagnose endometriosis and scrape/cauterise what they can, or see what else is going on.

I am prepared to be stopping in overnight, but mega hoping to get out in the evening, pre op nurse said it depends how much 'rummaging' around they need to do as to how I will feel and I am hoping to get back to work the following Monday, but will have to see how it goes I guess. I have just been given a permanent contract, last thing I want to do is be cranking up the sick days, I might need them! I had alomost decided that maybe it wasn't neccessary, until I spent a whole day in the sort of excrutiating pain where you either wind up throwing up or passing out, me opting for the passing out! At least there is no danger of me bottling out now as the pain is very much in the forefront of my mind, you kindof forget just what the pain is like and tell yourself it really ain't so bad after its passed a while I think!

And what's my greatest worry....well would have to be the having to remove my false front tooth before the general, oooh the indignity! :hehe:

Hope all's well with you all.

((Hugs))

 

[Clare.T]

Hello Flutter

:there: :hugbetter: :hug: :luck: :flower2: :dust:

I hope it goes smoothly with minimum stay. I have had two, an emergency gall bladder where they kept me in one night afterwards and nearly another night because I had a slight temperature in the morning, and a hernia repair which was day surgery.
I remember being very farty afterwards for a couple of days and very stiff and sore about midriff so that getting out of bed sitting and getting up needed great care. I also managed to choked on a bit of orange - the coughing was excruciating and I felt sure I had ripped everything wide open. I suppose I would have been fit enough to go into work a few days afterwards all depending on what the job involves, but there's always the effects of the anesthetic to consider. It can take as long to recover from as the op itself because it's a major assault to the CNS.

For the elective hernia repair I stopped my meds, anti-malarials and aza, ten days beforehand simply because they have slight anticoagulation properties. I also flared a bit after each starting about a week after.

Let us know how it went and fingers crossed for as well as possible. Think of the relief.:hehe:

Hugs
Clare

 

[Joandublin]

Hi Flutter

The very best of luck on Wednesday:hug:

I had my gall bladder removed this way and the procedure itself was absolutely fine. I was in a heap of pain though for about 24/36 hours after coming home. I spent one night post op in the hospital.

The surgical sites were fine but of course the internal pain is fairly intense. I was discharged without any painkiller medication (this was before I knew I had autoimmune problems so had no painkiller prescription at home). I eventually tracked down my doctor who called in a prescription at my local pharmacy. Phew! It made a big difference

Check with your doctors about pain management for the first couple of days. Max yourself out on whatever painkillers you are allowed.

I had my procedure carried out on a Wednesday and was able to go back to work the following Monday so hopefully you will be the same. Of course I would strongly advise you to do the minimum amount of work and the maximum resting for the first couple of weeks. The effects of general anaesthetic can be felt for quite a while and you will probably feel extraordinarily tired. Take whatever rest you can.

Hindsight is a great thing but its good to learn from others experiences. Make sure your family and friends are all on board to allow you to just lie around and rest completely for at least the first two/three days.

I too wanted to bottle out of my op but I got an unmerciful bout of pain about three/four days before the op and I couldnt get in to the hospital quick enough! Focus on next weekend when the post op pain is becoming a lingering memory.....

Let us know how you are

Much love
Joan:rose:

 

[Clare.T]

Oh gosh yes to the pain killer !!!!!!!!!! It never crossed my mind

I don't normally take any not even a regular NSAID but if I did I would want to check out what I was going to get after the op to make sure it was OK with the stuff I normally took. I got very strong prescription post- op type pain killers. The anesthetist needs to know what meds you are on including any supplements and of course your health status. It may sound obvious but sometimes the doctors don't communicate as well as they should, so don't assume anything


Clare

 

[acard]

Hi Flutter,
I too had this procedure to remove my gallbladder. I spent only 1 night post op. Everything healed right up. I do know I had to take Darvocet for pain for awhile. So I am sure you are going to do great
My surgery came quicker than we originally planned, so I didn't have time to stop my meds and yet it worked out.

I wish you the best of luck and will have you in my prayers.


Hugs,
Becca

 

[Maia]

I've had gallbladder out this way (this year) and had endo diagnosed/treated twice this way about 7-8 years ago. The first lap for endo was simpler and I was out of hospital the same day and felt pretty good within 5 days. The second lap I had more done, and had to spend 1 night in hospital. I was not diagnosed with lupus yet but it had started based on my malar rash and some mild symptoms. I think I took 10 days off work with that one... I remember being shocked at how much longer my recovery was with that one but now I think it was probably due to lupus in the background!

Definitely take your pain meds, and keep taking them as it is harder to get pain to go down... once it has hit hard. It's easier/better to prevent it from reaching a high point, as then it is easier to manage and control.

Good luck on your surgery. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Lily]

(((((((((Flutter))))))))) :hugbetter: I hope all goes well and they don't have to do much endo removal. I've had a cyst taken out this way with investigation for endo (thankfully none found) and I wnet home that night. I was ok in couple of days during which time I got lots of rest. The most important thing is keeping ahead of that pain should you get it, dont wait for it to escalate, jump on it straight away.

A lot will depend on what's going on in there, they irrigate well after these procedures but please dont be doing much physically you don't want to leave yourself open to adhesions.

As mentioned make sure you have a good chat with the anaesthetist beforehand, it's important he knows your medical history and what meds/supplements you are currently taking. This will make the experience oh so much smoother.

Have you discussed which meds you need to go off and when with the surgeon..........that's important.

I wish you an uneventful recovery and will be thinking of you my friend.

lotsa love
Lily

 

[florie]

Hi Flutter,
I had endro.about 6yrs ago. Felt much better afterwards.I was out of the hosp. same day.
I also had full historectomy 4yrs ago and the procedure was the same with the scope(little t.v. they use to see all). I was released the next day. I felt really good and glad it was done.
Don't worry, you will be okay. Please let us know how you are doing.
wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery.
Florieixiedust:

 

[denalirat]

I've had two laparoscopies...one for gall bladder removal (like much of the people here, holy cow!) and another for an intestinal surgery and appendectomy "just because."

I had two very different experiences from the surgeries, to be completely honest. My first was the gall bladder removal. It was an outpatient procedure and I really didn't have any problems other than finding out the anesthesia makes me puke afterward (haha). I went home and the chest pain/pressure from all the air was pretty bad. I went without pain relievers because most make me throw up and I honestly wasn't in much pain outside of the gas needing to get out of my system. I did, however, feel pretty wiped out for about 9 days following the surgery. I would get very winded just walking down a few houses or so. Overall it was pretty good though!

The second surgery was a little different for me...the surgery itself didn't go too awful. It was an exploratory surgery in nature with the anticipation of doing an intestinal resection (which possibly would have required a much larger incision, but didn't end up happening). Anyway, all they did was root around my entire intestines three times and then take out my appendix since it was there. After this surgery, I definitely felt like my insides had been "hurt" or man-handled in some way...I just hurt a lot more, despite them using essentially the same incisions I had for the first surgery (well 2 of the same and one new one). My pain levels were much higher after this surgery and they tried to give me several different pain relievers, but everything was making me throw up. They essentially just tried to treat it with Tylenol after all of that happened.

The plan was to stay overnight and go home the next day, but I ended up in the hospital for five days total from the stupid laparoscopy. The reason was simply that my body responded "funny" to the surgery and various autonomic functions (mainly blood pressure, heart rate, temperature) suddenly went down to abnormal levels. For example, my BP was 70/40 and my heart rate was dipping down to 40 regularly, if not lower. I honestly don't remember days 2-3 AT ALL from my hospital stay because I was practically unconscious within my head. Apparently three of my doctors stopped by to see me during that time while doing their hospital rounds and I couldn't remember speaking with any of them, despite my mom telling me I got upset with one of them for messing with my incisions :lol: My speculation is that this was a CNS response to the anesthetic -- as Clare mentioned, it can really take your body down sometimes. It felt as if my body was done fighting after that surgery and it just let go for a while. Eventually, I was able to keep food down again and was stable for a full day, so they let me go home the next day.



I think that typically laparoscopies are pretty easy outside of working the gas out of your system afterward. The small incisions usually heal pretty nice (most of mine did!) and the surgeries are designed to have you back on your feet in less time. I do hope yours goes well and you find this to be your experience! Good luck.

kit

 

[flutterbye]

Many thanks for your kind words, and for sharing your experiences, I will let you know how it goes

I was impressed really with the pre-op appointment that I had, it seemed very thorough, being as I am right between rituxan treatments and really quite well it is probably the best time to have it done.

I will make sure the pain killers are stacked up, and maybe check on whether I can do a burst of steroids if it seems like I am flaring afterward.

Thanks again,

Love n hugs xxx

 

[lazylegs]

Good luck. I hope all your woes can be taken care of easily.

Take care,
Lazylegs

 

[flutterbye]

Hey guys, I thought I would let you know how it went, thanks again for your kind words, and for some really usefull tips.

The procedure went well, I actually realised just how worried I was, that unspoken fear that someting more sinister could be going on in there, and the surgeon seemed to put his finger on that too, that the point of the surgery was to deal with the cysts, diagnose endo if it were there, and make sure that there was nothing else happening, he was lovely as were the many people involved, very kind and proffessional.

The wait to go down was a bit unnerving, the desire to get it over and done with combined with the urge to get dressed and do home:rotfl: Anyway went down to anasthetic just before 3 and back on the ward by 5. My viens went tiny and hid, which apparently made the injection SOO painfull, like my arm was burning off, good job it only lasted moments.

So the upshot is that the dealt with a cyst, just one, (which makes me think that the bouts of excruitiating pain were the others that were seen rupturing, but I forgot to ask) They were also able to diagnose that it IS endo and nothing else, I must have been worried because when he said that I was just like YAY thats's so cool. :hehe:

The frown is becuse apparently the adhesions are all on my bowel, and my bowel and ovary are stuck together with these adhesions, I got the impression that there was quite a lot there. But not anything of note anywhere else, and we will discuss that at follow up appointment, it sounds to me like to deal with this surgically would be quite involved.

They let me go home last night, to be honest I felt really well quickly, I think I got off really lightly, and that actually 'rummaging' was minimal, the morphine knocked out the pain post op, and I have been keeping on top of the pain with tramadol, parecetamol etc. That's something that you guys helped with, I know my tendancy is to leave it to get baaad, so thankyou for pointing that out to me! I am going to take it really easy for a day or two, I think I was a bit on cloud nine afterwards and asked one of the nurses if I could go dancing last night! (I never dance :lol But on the whole it was all very good. I am just a bit sore, and have the 'windy' shoulders have managed to cough and sneeze, not looking forward to my first poo though! (sorry that is grosse and TMI )

Thanks guys, so much.

With much love xxx

 

[acard]

Flutterbye,
I am glad that it went smoothly Keep us updated on your situation.
I hope you have a pain free weekend.



Hugs,
Becca

 

[Lily]

Hi Flutter :foryou: :hugbetter:

I'm glad you are ok and I hope that the report you get from the doc reassures you about the endo bowel adhesions ((((((((flutter)))))))) only he can answer the way they will go about this, but in experienced hands it can still be done by laproscopy and your recovery time should hopefully be minimal.

In the meantime keeping taking those pain meds and put your feet up I'm sure you have some uneaten chocolate in the house somewhere :hug:

Take care,

lotsa love,
Lily