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Laparoscopy

871 views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  Lily 
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." :rolleyes:

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
 
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