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Post by ksc1968 on Feb 10, 2011 23:19:17 GMT -5
My lap was really sooo much easier than I expected! I was very nervous and afraid, and it was honestly not a big deal. I worked myself up over nothing! I was worried about getting put under, and that was soooooo easy! The recovery was not that bad either. The only issue I had was with my bladder. It was slow to work. I felt like I had to constantly go and then I would just drip like a bad coffee pot! That went away in a few days. I took darvocet for one day, then nothing. I relaxed on the couch and sat propped up. When I took naps I felt the gas in my right shoulder blade, but it was totally tolerable, more of a nuisance. Due to the ovary and tube removal I had limitations with lifting for 4 weeks. I took two weeks off of work because I work with agressive kids and couldnt risk a kick to the stomach. For those nervous about this, please try not to be. It really isnt as bad as you think!
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Post by traceylove on Apr 13, 2011 7:59:16 GMT -5
hi everyone your stories are sure helpful & keeping me hopeful. i have laparascopy scheduled for next week tuesday, im a bit nervous and emotional. any peptalk..
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Post by hannahjex on May 7, 2011 8:17:08 GMT -5
Here is my very long and detailed lap story. Apologies for the essay, but it was all really fresh in my mind, and I wanted as much info as I could get before my lap, so I hope this helps someone: My laparoscopy was yesterday, the 6th May 2011. I didn’t sleep much the night before the lap (too much nervous energy, I guess) and instead stayed up until about 3am re-reading all the lap stories on here and working myself into a tizz about whether I’d behave stupidly if they gave me a ‘loopy’ shot. I can’t put into words how much I hate being out of control of myself. Anyway, I finally went to bed about 3, and woke up at 6am with my husband who had to go to work half-day. I was due at the hospital at 12 noon and couldn’t have anything to drink after 8am, so I made sure I got my morning coffee(s) into me and had a glass of water. After that, I double checked my overnight bag, very grudgingly removed the pretty nail varnish I’d only just had put on at my mani-pedi two days prior and had a bath. It was my nephew’s 3rd birthday and I called my sister’s house to wish him a happy birthday. He refused to talk to me because “he had to fix his monster” but I spoke to my sister and then to my mother, who tried to talk me out of the op—“are you sure you want to do this? These are very extreme steps to take just for period pain; I’m sure if you just have a baby...etc, etc”—she likes a good panic). Time kind of flew after that and before I knew it, it was 11am and time for me to head out. I met up with my husband in town, halfway to the hospital and we went to the hospital together. When I checked in at reception, I was handed over to a lovely nurse who showed me to my (very nice) private room, gave my husband the remote control for the bed to play with and explained everything that was going to happen. She asked me to fill out and sign about 3 forms, which were basically repetitive of all the medical history forms that I’d already had to fill out at my pre-op, put an ID bracelet on each of my wrists and another bracelet stating my aspirin allergy (she wrote ‘aspin’ on it, by the way—I remember worrying about that when I was headed to the operating theatre). She told me both the doc and the anaesthesiologist would come have a chat with me before the op and they expected to take me down to theatre around 2:30. She told me I’d have to take off my earrings but I could keep my rings on. She asked if there was any chance I could be pregnant and if I would give a urine sample and then left a cardboard potty in the toilet for me to pee in. My husband and I stared at this for a while and wondered how the pee wouldn’t just soak through, but I peed in it and it worked just fine. True to the nurse’s word, the anaesthesiologist came down. She was lovely; took more of the repetitive medical history, asked about previous anaesthesia and went over what analgesia I’d be ok with, given my aspirin allergy and made me sign more papers. A little while later my doc came and went over the details of the op with me, told me he’d remove any endo found if it was mild/moderate but to rest assured if it was anything major or complicated, that wouldn’t happen today and I wouldn’t wake up with any important bits missing. There were more papers to sign. At around 2, I changed into my sexy backless hospital gown and flight socks (DVT stockings) and hubby and I had a cuddle on the bed while we waited. At 2:20, two nurses came to take me down to theatre. They wheeled my bed down, but I walked to theatre (after putting on my dressing gown to preserve my backside’s modesty). I was taken to the anaesthetic room, where I had to get back on the bed (after undoing the back of my gown and flashing my booty to the immensely hot anaesthesiologist’s assistant. Didn’t mind that so much ). At 2:25, she put my IV in (after beating on my hand a bit to get my poor dehydrated veins to cooperate) and then covered my rings up with surgical tape. She gave me a shot of fentanyl, which she called “a large gin and tonic” and then a shot of something else that she said was the stuff that would put me to sleep. She warned me that I’d feel “a funny tingling” in my hand and I’d taste it in the back of my mouth. I disagree. It wasn’t tingly and it wasn’t funny. It burned. I told her it was really hurting my hand and she said “take deep breaths”. I remember taking two deep breaths and hoping I’d fall asleep quickly cause my arm was really hurting, and then I woke up in recovery to fiddle with the thing that was itching my face. There was a nurse next to my bed and she said “that’s just your oxygen mask”, to which I replied “I don’t want it”. Then I looked up at the clock and saw it was seven minutes past 3. Tried to do the math for how long my op had taken, which promptly put me back to sleep. I woke up again because my mask was still annoying me. The nurse said “let me just take that off, since you obviously don’t like it”. I thanked her and looked at the clock again. It now said 3:10. This time I was alert enough to realize that my op couldn’t have been longer than 40 minutes, and my heart sank. I figured there was no way they could have done anything if the op was that short. I asked the nurse whether she knew if they’d found anything, and she told me that the doctor would come and talk to me later. I opened my mouth to pester her for an answer but descended into a coughing fit and realized my throat was sore. She offered me a cup of water and told me to sip it slowly. I took a couple slow sips and then downed it and asked for some more. This amused her. After another cup of water, she took the tape of my rings and exclaimed over how lovely my engagement ring was. Then we made small talk about how long I’d been married, how long hubby and I had been together, where we got married, etc. I think she was just making small talk to see how alert I was. She asked about my pain levels and I told her I was fine and asked when I could eat; I was famished. She looked at the clock and said she couldn’t believe it, but it looked like I was ready to go to my room already. It was only about 3:35. I surprised them all with how quickly I’d recovered from the anaesthetic. We stayed in recovery for a few more minutes making small talk while we waited for the porters to come and wheel me upstairs. When I got back to my room, my husband wasn’t there. The nurse had told him I’d be in recovery for at least an hour and he’d gone off to the shops to buy me grapes and chocolates, bless him. He turned up about 30 seconds after the finished parking my bed though. I had been babbling to the nurse in recovery about how bad I wanted coffee and within minutes of being back in my room, a whole pot turned up. Hubby and I had coffees (I had 2 and a half before the pot went cold) and sat back to wait the half hour I had to keep the coffee down for before I could eat. After my coffees I burped like I’d downed a gallon of beer. I don’t know how the gas got into my stomach to be burped up, but it obviously did. I peed with no problems and was very happy to put my panties back on and replace the monster pad they’d put between my legs with a proper pad. I was bleeding a little, but not much—just a bit of spotting (take your usual pads with you if you’re having a lap because the hospital ones are awful). My food took forever to come (turned out they had me down as bring the hot drinks; hold the food until further notice even after the ‘further notice’ had already been sent) so we spent a further hour or so tapping our fingers, waiting for the food and waiting for the doc to come speak to me. I peed a lot. The anaesthesiologist came to see how I was doing and say goodbye, but made no mention of any findings. All the while the nurses kept popping in an out to check on my pain levels and being surprised that I didn’t want any more pain relief. I was told I was a model patient. I had hardly any pain; none from my incision sites (one in my belly button, one just above my pubic bone) at all, just a little bit of mild period type cramping. I wonder if my ‘mild period pain’ is the type of pain that women without endo would complain about because the nurses seemed genuinely surprised that I wasn’t asking for more pain relief even when I was due for more. But they’d given me a good cocktail of pain relievers before I woke up and I was fine. My food (soup, a chicken salad sandwich, a fruit smoothie and fruit salad) finally came and I ate it really fast. Just as I was finishing up my fruit salad, the doc came in. My heart started pounding and I was sure he was going to tell me he hadn’t found any. He looked at me apologetically and said “you do have endometriosis”. I felt like I’d won a prize. He showed me pictures and said that he hadn’t removed any because of a big nodule on my uterosacral ligament that is really deep rooted and tricky to remove, but he was referring me to one of his colleagues, a specialist who only deals with endo to have it removed. Other than the one big nodule, the rest of it is just a lot of pinhead-nailhead sized spots scattered in my cul de sac and around the base of my uterosacral ligament on the left. He told me that my ovaries and tubes are completely clear of any endo, which is a relief, though I know that the location of the endo doesn’t necessarily have any bearing on whether it affects your fertility. Once I had my answer, I just wanted to go home so I asked the doc to let me go home, and that was fine (I had to nag the nurses a bit because they wanted to keep me longer, but they let me go eventually). They sent me home with a bagful of drugs and extra dressings and paperwork (and lots of pictures of Bob the endo nodule). The trip home was fine. I was worried about getting in the car, but I still had no incision site pain. The shoulder and rib pain kicked in on the way home though and that really is horrible. It is not so bad when I’m sitting up or standing, but it really doesn’t like it when I lie down, especially on my side, so I had to sleep on my back last night. I woke up this morning in more pain than I was in yesterday and this time hubby had to help me out of bed. My urethra also feels sore today, so I guess it didn’t like the catheter. It feels a bit cystitis-y, but I’m not dehydrated. I guess the good stuff wore off. I can feel the soreness in the incisions now, but nothing the painkillers can’t handle. I deal with far worse period pain on a monthly basis. The shoulder/rib pain from the gas is a bitch, but I’m coping with it. Been drinking lots of peppermint tea, but I can’t say it’s helping. I’ll keep drinking it though, cause I like peppermint tea. Overall, this experience was far easier than I thought it would be. Obviously, I’m still recovering and I still have to have another op, but I’m very glad I had the lap and I’ve got my answers. If anyone is scared about having a lap, don’t be. It’s not that bad and it’s the only way to really get some answers. Even if it turns out you don’t have endo, at least you’ll know. And thank you Endo Resolved for being my lifeline throughout this journey to diagnosis; you guy’s rock. Hannah xx
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Post by mallori735 on Jun 12, 2011 23:58:09 GMT -5
Okay, so here goes:
I arrived at the hospital around 615 for my surgery which was scheduled at 815 (they told me I was the first surgery of the day) I was given a cubicle, separated from others by curtains in the out-patient area and given a pregnancy test (thank goodness I had at least a few drops of pee left because i hadn't drank since 10pm), asked a lot of questions by a nurse about my medical history and put into a very sexy little paper gown thing with a hole in it where a machine was put that pumped warm air in it to keep me warm. I was given an IV in the inside of the lower part of my arm... (it was a very strange place for me and hurt pretty bad, much much worse than other IVs i've had) Then my parents were allowed to come back and wait with me to go to the OR. My surgeon finally came to talk with me for just a minute (he's a man of few words) and then we waited some more for my anesthesiologist to do the same, which he did a while later. Needless to say, I didn't get wheeled into the OR until around 9... which was a looooong wait. I tried to stay as calm as possible and not think too much about everything going on. I kissed my mom and dad and they took me down the hall to the OR where I waited for about 10 more minutes (during which I was told to climb over onto the operating table and scoot around to a certain position, things were put on my hands and arms to monitor my heart and some thing with pokey things on it was put on my head(idk what it was) and I was given "happy juice" in my IV by my anesthesiologist) They were waiting on my surgeon to come in before putting me under, and it wasn't too long before he arrived and I remember my anesthesiologist saying "okay, you're going to start feeling very drowsy now", I looked at the clock and it was 915 and about one second later (well, it felt like it) I was in the recover room, though at the time I didn't know where I was a proceeded to keep trying to take off my oxygen mask because i felt like I couldnt breath well. I looked at the clock, though my vision was really blurry and it was only 10:00, meaning the procedure only took around 45 minutes. The nurse talked to me to calm me down and tell me that I did just fine and only had to have 2 incisions (one in the belly button and one further down from it). I fell back asleep for a few minutes but the nurse insisted that I wake up and tell her how much pain I was in, and at the time I was in a decent amount of pain in my arm from the IV and some in my stomach from the incisions and I couldnt' muster up the energy to tell her that my arm (covered by a blanket) hurt bad so I just said "8 or 9" (on the pain scale) and she was like "really? you shouldn't be hurting that bad, we've given you Dilaudid. I proceeded to gain more and more consciousness and become more awake in the next few minutes, talk to the nurse a little about things (my name, how things went, birth date) and she told another nurse that I was ready to go to my room out of recovery. They went to take the blanket off of me and both noticed that my IV had been "infiltrated", or leaking into the tissue of my arm causing a big red tender bump in front of where the needle was inserted. So the Dilaudid they had given me hadn't had it's full effect yet so it was no wonder i was in pain. They took out the IV, and wrapped my arm in a hot blanket and sent me to my room where a nurse came in and hooked me up to some machines to monitor my heart rate, bp, and oxygen levels and she set a few saltines and graham crackers in front of me and asked me what i wanted to drink (i said sprite). My parents came in and talked to me and I fell asleep for 30 more minutes or so and another nurse came in and wanted me to get up and try to pee, so I did but couldn't pee when I got to the bathroom. I was bleeding also, from my downstairs and they had put a pad on me, which i changed while I was in there. Then the nurse said I should just try to drink some more and she would come back and see me. Well, i got back into the bed and tried to drink more of the sprite but it wasn't setting well with my stomach so they brought me some ice chips/water which worked better. So another nurse came in about 30 minutes after that and tried to get me to pee again and helped me change into the nightgown I brought and my underwear and I couldn't pee again. AND 15 minutes after that the same nurse came in and had me lay down on the bed while she used something that looked like an ultrasound machine to measure how much urine was in my bladder which turned out to be around 10ml, not much. SOOOO, i drank some MORE and the final nurse came in and told me that they were going to let me go but that they wanted to me drink lots and let them know if i hadn't peed by that night cause i would have to come back to the ER. So, they wheeled me to the car and we stopped on the way home and got my prescriptions and some candy and popsicles for me to suck on because my throat was so dry and painful.
Evidently my dad had talked on the phone to my doctor and that he said that he found "minimal endometriosis in the back area of my pelvis" ... idk what that means, I wish i did. Also, he said that I have cysts on my ovaries but that they're so small that they couldnt' be causing me pain (which i beg to differ because I have what I think is "ovary pain" all the time on either side, or both sometimes, like a shocking/stabbing kind of pain.. any thoughts on that?) I don't even think he removed them, which I'm kinda pissed about... He wants me to see a Gastroentomologist or something to see if they can explain the rest of my pain, because he thinks there' something else going on, but her removed the endometriosis that he did see. (back of my pelvis? i'm not even sure WHERE exactly that is... but I guess I'll find out at my post-op) My post-op is the 27th and I should know more and get pictures, which I'm very curious to see. Overall, I'm not in too much pain right now, just sore when walking around and trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. And the shoulder/chest pain that comes and goes when I move is really the most painful/annoying part. Sorry for the long story, thanks to whoever read it. I'll have to post it in the Lap stories area as well.
WHEW.
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Post by me10026 on Jul 23, 2011 14:49:59 GMT -5
I've been "lurking" on these boards for the past month or so but this is my first time posting. The information I've read on the boards has been so helpful (and normalizing) for me as I've been going through the diagnosis process. The lap stories have been very comforting and have helped me to prepare. So I thought, I ought to contribute and share my own. I am scheduled for my first lap in 3 days. My doc is a local specialist and does the DaVinci robot bit. (I don't particularly love her, her bedside manner, or her office staff…but she's the best locally and I feel VERY comfortable with her surgical skills…also, she did my mom's hysterectomy about 3 years ago). My doc has suspected endo for a long time but I've put off surgery because up until the past year, the symptoms were fairly manageable. I've been told to plan for a possible appendectomy if necessary. (I tend to have lower right quadrant pain, so I guess the thought is to prevent future suspicion of appendicitis and unnecessary CT's). So far, I've had my pre-op appt at the hospital. They took blood, had me fill out a ton of forms, I met with the anesthesia peeps, and a hospital volunteer showed me where I will check in on the day of the surgery. I feel really comfortable with the hospital and their staff and they have made me feel very prepared for my surgery. At this point, I'm trying to eat lightly this weekend as I have to do a bowel prep on Monday 10oz's of Magnesium Citrate is the method this go 'round, and I'm to do a liquid diet beginning Sunday at midnight until my surgery on Tuesday morning. I’ve been asked to arrive at the hospital at 11:15 for my 1:15 procedure. My husband is planning to spend the day with me…I hope he's not too bored! Otherwise, I've been reading tips on the boards to help me prepare (I'm going shopping this afternoon for everything I'll need pre and post op, I've stocked up the netflix queue, laundry and bedding has all been washed, and I'm planning to get a couple new Kindle books to keep me occupied whilst stuck on the toilet for the bowel prep!) This will be my first time under general anesthesia, so that is really the part I’m most worried about. Other than a little fear that they won't find anything and I'll be stuck with a mystery…But I will be sure to report back about my experience as I recover!
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Post by hellsbells on Jul 23, 2011 15:29:50 GMT -5
(Hello, would you like to post an intro thread?)
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Post by me10026 on Jul 23, 2011 18:15:52 GMT -5
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Post by ovarianmutiny on Aug 24, 2011 14:10:48 GMT -5
My lap story:
I had to do a bowel prep, so the day before, from lunch on, no food. I took Citrate @4pm, and then drank lots and lots of liquid to help flush everything out. The bowel prep wasn't horrible (easier than food poisoning!) but it was hard not to eat anything. After midnight I was NPO, and my surgery check in was 11am.
So 11am I checked in and waited (very hungry/in pain!). At 11:30am they took me back and introduced me to my nurse. She explained about all the other people who were going to be coming back to meet me, started an IV with some fluids, and took my vital signs. I changed into my hospital clothes, and laid down in bed.
A little while later the anesthesiologist came in and asked me a bunch of questions about my general health (allergies to meds, other medical conditions). Then the nurse anesthetist came in and asked the same ones. They were very attentive to the fact that this was my first time with general anesthesia, and that I had some adverse reactions to other drugs.
My surgeon also came in and talked to me. She confirmed what we were doing, including removal of my Paragard IUD and placement of the Mirena IUD. I signed another consent form for that switch and told her that I wanted to make sure everything was removed that could be removed.
Then the nurse anesthetist gave me some Versaid in my IV, and the tubing came unhooked in the middle. He cleaned it off and pushed me down the hall. Then he asked if I could feel the Versaid working, and I said no, so he gave me another dose and told me he would follow it with the general anesthesia. I don't remember anything after the second dose of Versaid, but according to my paperwork they then intubated and catheterized me, and my surgeon made 3 small holes in my abdomen: one at my belly button, and two smaller ones at my bikini line.
When I woke up in the recovery room it was about 1.5hrs later and someone was calling my name. I already had my glasses on, and I was asking if they had found anything wrong with me. The nurse was very attentive - I think I yelled that I was in pain, and they gave me something, then I said I felt like I was going to throw up, and they gave me something else. Then I came around and opened my eyes. The nurse sat me up and gave me some crackers to eat - encouraged me to take deep breaths with my O2 mask. It didn't take very long once I started eating for me to wake up. My husband came in and told me that the doctor found some inflammation (with ? source) but nothing specific to endo, so no excision had been done.
After that I had the nice nurse go over post-op instructions with me and have me and my husband sign the paper (in case I didn't remember what had been said). My husband helped me get into my clothes, and then I tried to pee in the bathroom. It was difficult - starts and stops with little volume. It hurt some to move, but they gave me a warm blanket to hold onto my abdomen, and I just went slowly. I don't think my pain was anything near what it would feel like to have a full excision surgery!
The last thing that happened was that my nurse came in with a wheelchair, and a piece of paper with the doctor's handwriting saying: "Don't take cefalzolin, it gives you a RASH." lol. That was the antibiotic they had given me during surgery, and it made me break out in an immediate rash and have breathing problems! They had to push an antihistamine and a bolus of cortisone to stop the reaction, so I actually felt great afterwards because the cortisone took down my inflammation!
Post op complications: I had a sore throat (from the tube) and a bit of trouble swallowing. I had to chew and swallow slowly/deliberately for the first evening. I also continued to have trouble urinating, despite drinking quite a bit. So today I called the office and they had me come in to have that addressed. They placed a foley catheter but didn't get much volume out, so they decided I was having bladder spasms from the anesthesia. To prevent my bladder from becoming distended due to the spasms/not voiding properly, they are having me leave the foley in 24hrs, then remove it myself. Not the most comfortable thing I've ever had to do. :-(
Overall, my lap was a great experience. Attentive personel, very little pain/confusion, and (hopefully) a quick recovery. Even though I didn't have any severe endo found, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this procedure to any woman who thinks she may have endo!
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Post by disturbedme on Aug 29, 2011 11:06:42 GMT -5
To make a long story short and to get right to the surgery part, approximately 6 months ago I had a CT scan done of my abdomen because I was having weird sensations in my abdomen area. The sensations are exactly like I'm riding a roller coaster -- the stomach dropping feeling you get on one.
Anyway, the CT scan found a small cyst on my left ovary. I don't remember now how small the cyst was when the CT scan found it, but from what I remember my gyn saying, I believe it was rather small. At that time, my gyn scheduled me to have a hysterosonogram for a few weeks later. Unfortunately, this gyn didn't really explain anything to me and he kind of just pushed me into the appointment and not giving me a chance to tell him that I really didn't want to do that and would rather just have had a trans vaginal ultrasound. So, I ended up later just canceling that appointment. I also ended up 'forgetting' about the cyst and hoping it would just go away as the gyn said could happen.
Anyway, during the next 6 months I was having weird sharp pains on my left side that would come and go as well as menstrual cramps in my cycle when I shouldn't have been. It worried me but was more annoying that anything. And for some reason, I never put the two and two together... I never thought it could be the cyst.
Anyway, skip to a last month (July), I started having a lot of pain on my left side that radiated into my left leg and hip and thigh area. My husband took me to the ER because I finally thought, 'hey, maybe that cyst burst'. Anyway, the hospital found that no, the cyst did not burst. It was a complex cyst, 5cm x 6cm x 5cm big. The ER is really not very helpful.
I made an appointment with a different gyn than my usual one and after a whirlwind of over 5 or 6 doctor appointments in two weeks, I had my laparoscopy set for August 17, 2011.
During that time, I had another sonogram in which the place who did the sonogram were pretty sure the cyst was an endometrioma from the 'look' of it and the way it had white speckles in/on it. They also told me that the blood flow was a benign blood flow, so that was good. So this reassured me, especially when the CA-125 I had done was elevated. But then when I got the results back for the 'newer' Ova1 test and that was elevated as well, I was worried because the Ova1 test is supposedly more accurate than the CA-125 for ovarian cancer.
So anyway, the day before the surgery, I could not eat anything and could only do clear liquids up until 6 hours before the surgery and then nothing. I also had to do a bowel prep and had to either do two enemas or 10 oz. of mag citrate. I have never done enemas and didn't want to start, so I went with the mag citrate (as I've done that before and knew what to expect). Definitely not fun though!
I can't tell you how hungry I was and clear liquids didn't fill me up at all.
I hae dysautonomia and doing mag citrate and then not having any liquids for a long time kind of scared me. I have an electrolyte imbalance and electrolytes help the dysautonomia.
So I was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. on August 17, 2011. I would be my surgeon's first patient, which I liked and would suggest for everyone to try to be the first surgery of the day. You get right in and don't have to wait and, therefore, sit and worry.
We got up at 5:00 a.m. the day of the surgery. Got to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. Got right in and they took me back to get ready for the operation. After I got dressed in the hospital gown, got on the gurney/bed thing, got the IV put in, my husband and his mom could come back and sit with me until they would wheel me back to surgery.
I was nervous. I cried a little bit while waiting for the surgeon (my doctor) and his team to come talk to me. I really just wanted to speak with the anesthesiologist as that is what freaked me out the most about the entire surgery as I've never been put under before and the whole being put under thing is just... I don't know, scary.
His team came and we spoke some. He came and spoke a little. My doctor is a man of very little words. He is nice and I like him, but he doesn't talk much. With him, it's like 'get in, get out'. That's how he even described what he does for taking out cysts and doing surgeries. Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. lol. I guess it depends on the surgeon.
Anyway, the anesthesiologist came back to talk with me. He was young! He was like my age. He was cute. I told him my concerns about my low blood pressure and my tachycardia (fast pulse rate) and how that will go with being put under and all that. He told me not to worry. That he will be by my side the entire surgery and he will be watching my vital signs the entire time and that there is medicine to fix the issues I told him about if it needed fixing during the operation. Then he said he was going to give me a couple of meds to relax me. I was fine with that. They usually give most people a relaxant of some sort before heading into surgery. I am glad he did! I have read other stories where they wheel you into the operation room and they have you switch from the gurney/bed you are on onto the operation table yourself and if you look around at all while doing this, you'll see the tools they'll be using on you. I really didn't want to see that. lol.
At this time, my husband and his mom had to leave. My husband and I kissed goodbye and I told him I loved him. He told me he loved me. And then they started wheeling me to the OR. I remember them wheeling me down the hall and into an area that smelled 'cleaner', like chlorine or disinfectant of some sort. It was at this point where things started getting fuzzy and I remember mentioning that fact aloud, and the anesthesiologist agreed with me and said something like take a few deep breaths and just relax. So I did and that's all I remember...
... until I could hear people counting (1, 2, 3) and then felt myself being lifted from one table onto another (this could have been them moving me from the gurney to the operating table or this could have been after it was all over and they were returning me to the gurney/table. I think it was the latter). My eyes were still closed during their moving me, but I think I was coming out of being under. I also remember trying to say, "That took forever!". I am not sure if I was able to say this loud enough for them to hear me or not as my throat was very dry and croaky from the tube being down my throat. The reason I said this is because I have read stories where people say that it feels like they are only under for one second. You're put under and then a second later, you're awake. Well, to me, at the time, it didn't feel like this. It felt like I was under for a long time. And in my groggy state, I felt the need to tell them this. LOL. They probably had no idea what I was talking about.
The next thing I remember after that is hearing the anesthesiologist speaking to someone (my post-op nurse) about how I run tachycardic and have low blood pressure. I then don't remember much until I started waking up more and the room became less fuzzy and then my husband and his mom came back to be withme and I was just really happy to see my husband. I didn't really have much pain when I woke up. I felt some cramping in my abdomen. Felt kind of like menstrual cramps. They asked how bad the pain was from 1 to 10 (10 being the worst). I said about a 5. They gave me some pain meds. The surgery itself was about an hour and a half.
I just layed there with Matt and his mother sitting next to me for quite a while. I was given some water to drink. We just waited probably a couple of hours until my nurse said it was time for me to get up and try to walk around and go pee. With this surgery, they won't let you go home unless you pee. Probably because they put a catheter in you during the surgery. They also put a tube down your throat to help you breathe, which sucked because the one side of my lip was hugely swollen and bruised from the tube.
Walking wasn't easy. I tried to pee and couldn't. When we were walking back to the bed, I got really nauseated and felt like I was going to puke. The nurse told me that was caused by the anesthesia and would go away. Got in bed again and stayed there a couple more hours. By this time, I was on my third bag of electrolytes from after surgery and still didn't really feel the 'need' to pee. I was extremely dehydrated from the bowel prep and no liquids. Which didn't help with my extremely low blood pressure and tachycardia. Dehydration only causes your blood pressure to drop lower. My blood pressure at the hospital after surgery was mostly around 88/44 - 90/50ish. My pulse after the surgery was running high as well... around 110 or so but went down to 90 - 100 after being given the three bags of electrolytes.
I think it was around this time that my doctor (the surgeon) finally came to talk to me to tell me what he had done/found. He had spoken to my husband earlier on the phone in the waiting room, but said he would come around to see us later. He was busy and had to attend to another surgery. So when he came to talk to us, he told us that it WAS an endometrioma and got it out and that he found a couple of spots of endometriosis and got rid of them. I am SO very glad and relieved and thankful that it was not cancer (as the blood tests I had done pointed to it being ovarian cancer). He then said that it would probably be a good idea to get me on some form of birth control and we would talk about that in a few weeks when I have my post-op appointment with him. The only thing I'm worried about is if I ovulate when I'm supposed to (despite the surgery and all the stress on my body and mind), then I will have my period a few days before I see him. Is that alone going to cause some more endometriosis right after he just cleaned it all out of me??? Or, worse, cause another endometrioma to start forming?
Anyway, after that, the nurse came back and the second walk to the bathroom was okay. I was able to pee this time, which meant I would be able to pack up and go home. But as we were walking back to the bed, I got nauseated again and felt like I was going to puke. I also broke into a sweat and felt very hot. So the nurse brought me ice and apple juice and told me to relax on the bed for a while longer until I felt like I'd be able to go home. After a little while of waiting and drinking all the apple juice (my goodness, it tasted soooo good after having no food for an entire day and a half and nothing to drink for so long), I felt okay enough to go home. They got me in a wheel chair and helped me in the car and we were on our way home.
Since then I haven't had any real pain. The only thing that really hurt was the gas pain from the carbon dioxide they pump into your stomach so they have room to work and see in your belly during the surgery. They close you up without getting it all out and then it's trapped inside. And boy, does it HURT!!!! I could not lie down flat to sleep at all. If I even reclined back too far, the gas bubbles trapped themselves in my shoulder and rib/lung area and it was EXTREMELY painful and I couldn't get a breath in. It was scary because I tried to lie back and the gas hurt so bad and I couldn't breath so I had to kind of pull myself back up into a sitting position even though my abs are extremely weak and sore right now from the four incisions they made to do the laparoscopy. So I ended up having to sit up straight and sleep that way all night, which is NOT very comfortable on your bum. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well. I woke up every half hour to hour and had to change positions because my bum was so sore and numb.
I ended up taking some Gas X because I read where some people said it didn't help and some said it did help get rid of their post-op gas. I wanted to at least try it. I am pretty sure it helped me a good bit. I still had some gas pains, but it was better. For at least 5 or 6 days I had to have help walking around the house and going to the bathroom. The first few days after the surgery we made a schedule where I would get up to walk around every hour and a half, which is supposed to be good for healing and getting the gas moved around and out.
It did hurt to walk though because my ab muscles were so weak and sore. I never realized how much of your ab muscles you use just to walk. It would be extremely hard and painful without my husband’s help.
It takes different amounts of time for different people to heal. For me, I didn’t start feeling a LOT better until a full week and a day or two after the laparoscopy. The gas was fully gone probably within 4 days after the surgery. I couldn’t walk on my own without a lot of pain until at least a week later after the surgery. I probably would have felt better faster if I didn’t have to have the cyst removed and therefore I had a TON of bruising on that side of my abdomen and the bruising itself caused a ton of pain and made it hard to walk and get up from a lying position, etc. There were times I just wanted to cry. But it hurt to laugh, it hurt to cry, it hurt to stand, it hurt to sit (because of my sore tailbone), and it hurt to lie down!!! It was terrible at times and I felt like I couldn’t do anything.
I also had a low grade fever 99 - 100 starting on the 3rd or so day after the surgery that lasted a few days and I’d wake up in a sweat in the morning. Eventually, that got better. I also would get really weak and shaky and lightheaded if I stood/walked around too much. This especially happened while taking a shower (even if it was a very short shower), and I’d have to sit down as soon as possible. This has only just now gotten a bit better.
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Post by nonnie on Aug 29, 2011 23:08:07 GMT -5
Hi Everyone - I was so glad I found this site a week or so before my surgery which was 10 days ago. I hope you don't mind that I post, even though I do not have endo, the lap did find the answers to my pelvic pain. I have had chronic pelvic pain on my right side badly for a couple of years. My gyn ignored me, and I went to the ER once when the pain was really bad. I had four scans in one year and 3 of the four times there was a cyst on the right ovary. It would burst and eventually another form. So after being pretty much laughed at by my gyn I finally went to another Dr. He had a scan done and there was no cysts. Luckily, he took my pain seriously and offered to do a lap. The plan was to remove the right ovary and my appendix. Since the pain was always on the right side and while I did have some pressure or pain all of the time, during my period I had intense pain. It was very hard for me, a control freak to sign up for a procedure that could be considered elective. And it took 8 months from seeing the dr/surgeon to scheduling the apt. On to lap day. The hospital staff were very good and the Surgeon came in and marked an X on my right side. I was given Verset as I was wheeled into the OR and I don't remember anything after rolling through the doorway. I woke up asking to go to the bathroom in the PACU and I was escorted to the toilet and left alone to pee a little bit. After that they moved me to a room with a reclining chair. They asked my pain # and I said 7. They gave me a pain pill to take. When my pain level had decreased they said I could go home. I was happy to leave, and was wheeled out to the car. I was rolled into the OR at 8 AM and home by 3 PM an hour away. OK, so most important and interesting is what the Surgeon found. I was so worried he would find nothing. I had adhesions from my cecum to my body wall which had it twisted in a not good way. And my right ovary was a bit smaller and not as healthy looking as the left. I am looking forward to feeling better minus the adhesions and body parts. I recovered very quickly, with each day feeling better. I did have cough drops, thanks to advice from this site. I also found when the gas pain was bad it helped me to lay completely flat and without a pillow. I took it slow and would get up and walk around a bit and then go back to bed or the couch the first two days after the surgery. One problem I am still working on is getting my bowels working normally. My best advice to to keep up on that from the start and eat healthy, fiberous food after the surgery.
Everyone handles surgery and procedures differently. The surgery was a piece a of cake for me, but the endometrial biopsy I had done two weeks before was pretty much unbearable.
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Post by hannahjex on Oct 10, 2011 12:13:42 GMT -5
My first lap led to my diagnosis, but no endo was removed because the location of one of growths on my uterosacral ligament meant my consultant wanted to refer me to a specialist for it. So after a 5 month wait, I went in for my second lap to have the endo that was found the first time round removed, a presacral neurectomy (removing some of the nerves that send pain signals from the uterus to the brain) and a Mirena IUD fitted. It started the day before with the dreaded bowel prep, which we won’t talk about ever again. If you need to know about bowel preps, semicolon has posted a link to a very useful and informative article by Dave Barry on the Bowel Prep thread. Bags packed and bowel prepped; I arrived at the hospital at 8:00am on Thursday the 6th of October. I was asked to sit in the waiting room until a bed became available and was finally in a bed at 10:30am. I was in a room with 3 other ladies, all of whom were 60+ and were in for hysterectomies. There was more waiting around once I got to my room. My husband and sister were sent home and told they could come back within visiting hours. Having been on clear liquids only from the day before, and not been allowed any liquids after 7am the day of the op, I was starving, thirsty, and did I mention starving? Around 12:30pm, my consultant popped by to see me, confirmed what would be done during my procedure, went over the risks, the consent forms etc, and told me that I should expect to wake up with a catheter, that I would definitely be staying overnight and that a nurse would be along shortly to give me an enema to clear out anything the laxative had missed … The anaesthesiologist came along shortly afterwards and went over everything as well. Then along came the nurse with my sexy backless gown, DVT stockings and the enema kit. She used a Fleet Enema on me, which basically involved squirting a tube of saline up my bum, which made me run to the loo 5 minutes later and washed everything left in my bowel out. After that I (begrudgingly) unpacked, waited some more and finally; around 2:30, they came to take me down to theatre. I walked down to the anaesthesia room, where I had to untie the back of my gown and climb (oh so gracefully) onto the bed with my ass hanging out. I was given an oxygen mask to hold over my nose and instructed to take deep breaths while they put my IV in and attached all manner of sticky monitoring devices onto me. The anaesthesiologist talked me through what he was doing and what each of the 3 injections he put into my IV would do to me, but I wasn’t paying much attention as things got pretty fuzzy after the 1st one. Next thing I knew I was in the recovery room fiddling with my oxygen mask while a nurse kept trying to pull my hands away from it and ask me about my pain levels. She eventually let me take the mask off and I drifted in and out for a few minutes, then started trying to rip out my catheter because I really needed to pee. Eventually I realised I was peeing without having to get up and decided that the catheter wasn’t so bad after all. When I was fully awake, the nurse came over and informed me that I’d had laparscopic excision of endometriosis, a pre sacral neurectomy and a Mirena fitted. I thought something along the lines of “well gee, that’s SO informative” but hopefully didn’t say it out loud. My throat was really dry and sore from the breathing tube so I guzzled down several cups of water. I was cold and shivering, so she gave me this amazing blanket that was filled with hot air. It was the most wonderful thing ever, but then she took it away I wasn’t in recovery for too long, and was wheeled back up to my room around 7pm. My sister and husband were waiting for me and all the other ladies in my room were being all sweet and worried about me because apparently I’d been down there for far longer than anyone else. At that point all I cared about was food and they told me that I could have a hot drink but they wouldn’t be giving me any food until morning in case I threw up. I had a proper tantrum, accused them of torture and said if they didn’t feed me I’d discharge myself. I’m slightly embarrassed about it now, but in my defence, I hadn’t eaten for 48 hours and I could smell everyone else’s dinner, which technically IS torture. After enough of my pestering, they finally brought me two crackers, a piece of cheese and a tiny pot of yoghurt around 8:30. The other ladies in the room also snuck me some digestive biscuits and my hubby snuck me some chocolate and grapes, so ended up eating a fair bit . I was pretty drugged up and sleepy and my visitors had to leave at 8:30, so after they’d left and I’d eaten, I just dozed. I was sore and uncomfortable and it is hard for me to sleep in a strange place, especially with nurses popping in and out, women having babies down the corridor (we were right next to the maternity ward) and all the other ladies comparing hysterectomy notes, so I didn’t really sleep; just drifted in and out of snooze mode. Around 2:30am, I woke up feeling uncomfortable. My bed felt damp, like I’d sweated out a fever, or had a catheter accident or something. The lights were off, and my nifty remote with the buzzer to call the nurse and the button to turn on my bedside light was hung on the wall beside my bed; *just* out of reach for someone with sore tummy muscles. I spent what felt like a year stretching and cursing and after a lot of creativity, finally got ahold of the buzzer. I pushed the light button, but my light didn’t work (turned out it didn’t have a bulb in it). So then I started trying to reach my phone, also *just* out of reach on the bedside table. Eventually managed to get the phone (at 3:01am) and shine the light from the screen onto my bed, to find my hospital gown and sheets were covered in blood. I called the nurse, who was very calm about it; told me not to panic and that it wasn’t as bad as it looked. She had to take all my dressings off to figure out which incision was bleeding; and then she and another nurse put a huge pressure bandage on it to try and stop the bleeding. That was quite an experience, involving the two of them piling loads of swabs onto my abdomen, pressing down until I thought I might pass out, and then taping them down so tightly I could hardly breathe. They did it all by torchlight as my bedside light wasn’t working and they didn’t want to wake up everyone else. Pressure bandage in place, I was given a fresh gown, clean sheets and an extra strong dose of painkillers and off to sleep I went. I woke up with the rest of the ward around 6am to find I’d bled through the pressure bandage and my gown was wet with blood again. I buzzed the nurse and this time a different one came. Bless her, I think I took a few years off her life when I showed her all the blood. She ran off in a panic to fetch a doctor, and came back with a full team—2 doctors and 2 nurses! Apparently she’d rung upstairs and told them it was like a scene from a horror film. It wasn’t that bad really; it just looked really scary. There was more pressing and trying to put pressure on it before they gave in and accepted that pressure wasn’t gonna stop the bleeding. Eventually they spotted that it was coming from a little vessel in the skin around the incision and after a bit of running around trying to find a suture kit, they finally put some stitches in and were able to stop the bleeding. It took 3 stitches in the end, but only because the incision was so tiny and the first two stitches kept missing the bleeding vessel. During all of this, my phone was on the bed next to me and I managed to accidentally call my husband and leave a really weird message on his phone where all he could hear was the sound of the doctors talking to me and little snippets like ‘bleeding’, ‘pressure’, ‘stitches’ and ‘stay calm’. Oops ;D After ‘the bleeding incident’, I had more frequent checks from the ward staff to see if I was okay and everyone was extra nice to me. My consultant and ‘the team’ came by to see me briefly at 11am. They told me the procedure had gone well, but that the endo had spread more in my cul de sac and was all over my bowel. He said they’d been able to scrape it all off without a resection and that while they’d checked to make sure there hadn’t been any perforations they wanted me to keep a close eye on things because even a tiny fissure in my bowel could lead to big drama. I was told they’d still been able to do everything they’d planned and they’d done the neurectomy and inserted the Mirena. After hearing it had spread, I was very glad I’d had to do the bowel prep (I spent the whole time I was doing the bowel prep grumbling because ‘I don’t have any endo on my bowel, this is a pointless waste of time, etc, etc’). I have a follow up with my consultant at the endometriosis clinic in 3 months and I’ll hopefully get to see pictures and ask my (many) questions then. My consultant copies patients into any letters he sends about them, so I’ll probably get more details from the letter he’ll have sent to my GP, which I expect will turn up soon. They took out the catheter that day, but kept me in a further night as they wanted me to have a bowel movement before I left, plus I think I needed more monitoring post ‘the bleeding incident’. Didn’t have a proper BM in the end, but they let me go on Saturday afternoon (the 8th) after I managed a fart. The gas pain kicked in on the second night and Oh. My. Gosh; is it awful!!! Could not get comfortable unless I was standing up, but even standing up hurt because of my incisions. Painkillers didn’t touch the gas pain, but a heat pad helped a bit. I’m 4 days post op now, and doing better pain-wise. Still sore, but the gas pain is finally wearing off today. Still struggle to get up and sit/lay down without assistance, but I’m making progress. They’ve signed me off work for two weeks, so I should have sufficient time to recover. I’m still awaiting that BM and my stomach is bloated to approximately the size of two adult elephant bulls, but my bowels seem to have gone into shock and passed out. I’ve taken the max dose of max strength Senakot both today and yesterday, so I’m really hoping things will get moving soon. Can’t say much about the Mirena and the neurectomy yet, but I’m really hoping I’ll see an improvement soon. All in all, I’m really happy to have this over with, really hopeful that I’ll be closer to pain-free moving forward, and am thrilled with my consultant and glad my endo care has been handed over to a specialist. He said that any further endo problems from now on, I come straight to him/the endometriosis clinic. I’ll no longer have to do all the back and forth with my GP and jump through hoops for referrals, as I’m officially under his care for my endo. So...yay. Fingers crossed. xx
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Post by cloudyrain on Oct 13, 2011 4:43:08 GMT -5
I had my lap on the 11th October through the NHS but at a private hospital.
I had to stop eating at 9am, and could only drink water until 12noon. I drove myself to the hospital at 2 and was checked into my room. They did the usual checks, had a chat with the Surgeon (who told me i didnt need to write "no hysterectomy" on my belly with a sharpie!)and Anaesthesiologist (who looked like Adrian Edmundson - which was worrying!). I walked down to theatre at about 6pm - by then I was starving, thirsty, and stressed! It was ok though, I did the mature adult thing - cried!
They took me into the anaesthetic room, got me on the bed, and then I tried to run off! Obviously the fact had my gown on the wrong way meant that I had made myself rather exposed! That made me cry again! Adrian calmed me down and agreed to let me have the gas - this was good, all I heard was a high pitched squeal, and then was under.
When I woke in recovery it was a bit hazy, but basically (from what I remember and what my nurse told me) I woke up VERY quickly, ripped my mask off, screamed that they had stolen my womb, and then tried to rip the canula out. It took 4 staff to restrain me, and I started punching out - unfortunately I punched myself in the face and now have a very painful thick lip! I was in a lot of pain so had another load of morphine and just quietly cried about how morphine was c***.
I got to my room and was eating by about 11. I then tried to get up for a wee, forgot I had the blood pressure and heart rate monitors on and half fell, half broke, the monitor! There was a lot of blood, but the nurses were brilliant and cleaned me up well.
I had a terrible night - hardly slept, couldn't get comfortable, and being disturbed byte stupid monitors.
I wanted to leave at lunch on Wednesday, but when I tried to go I passed out so had to wait a few more hours. I was eventually home just before tea time.
I don't think I have explained it very eloquently, but I'm still feeling pretty rubbish! Other than my dramatics though it all went ok!
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Post by Karen on Oct 13, 2011 6:00:09 GMT -5
Sounds like quite an experience!! I'm sure it was quite frightening, but I hope it's comical to you now! Brilliant idea about the sharpie.
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Post by hellsbells on Oct 13, 2011 12:07:32 GMT -5
OMG Hannah I hear you on the post op food. When I had my gallbladder out I went from Thursday night to Saturday evening with no food. I was RAGING and convinced if anything was gonna make me puke it was the nausea caused by hunger!
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dani
New Member
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Post by dani on Oct 21, 2011 17:53:43 GMT -5
Hi everyone. I thought I'd share my lap story too. I wish I had found this thread and site before my surgery and that may have cut down on the massive amounts of stress and anxiety that I had in the weeks prior to the lap.
It was exactly a week ago today, on oct 14th. I was supposed to be at the hospital at 815am so I couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight. I was insanly nervous the night before and ended up taking one of my husbands anxiety pills and fell asleep at 930pm the night before. When I woke up the next morning I was soooo thirsty and probably hungry too but the pit of anxiety in my stomach was hiding those hunger feelings. My husband had taken the day off to be there with me and then we had the following weekend with him home all day to help me move around, which was a godsend.
We arrived at the hospital and checked into the day care area. While I was using the washroom, my husband, who is very chatty, was chatting up the lady at the check in. When I returned, she took one look at me and could see how nervous I was. I guess it was written all over my face. She told me when I go in for my pre op interview to ask for an adavan to calm my nerves and said I wouldn't really care about much. I am not a very shy person, but I am not one to ask for things like that and always like to just follow the rules and just do what I'm told and not overtly ask for things like that. The woman at the desk told me my surgery was scheduled for 945am so my husband and I sat in the hallway to wait. My husband had gotten himself a coffee and out of respect for fasting patients, you are not allowed to bring food or drinks into the day care waiting area. So hallway it was.
They called me into what I like to call "the staging area" at about 845am. I was called in at the same time as another woman. They showed us the dressing rooms, gave us the oh so sexy hospital gown, pants, booties and a housecoat and told us to lock all our personal items in a locker. After the lady and I had done that, we sat waiting for our pre op interview. She started talking about the weird soap they made her buy to scrub herself with the night before and that morning. This started my heart racing again as my doc had not told me to do this. Or had he I began thinking. He had told me all about what he would do the day we decided to do the surgery but that was 4 months before I actually got a surgery date. I was sooo worried at this point that I hadn't remembered any of his insturctions and something terrible would happen after that. I then realized that I had forgotten to take off my wedding rings. Oh man, I was a mess by this point. You could see my hands physically shaking. I went into the interview room and answered all their questions (height, weight, have I eaten, taken drugs etc) and then they let me go back to the hallway to wait with my husband before the surgery. I gave him my rings and we sat and waited and waited and waited. Finally at 10am I went to see if they had forgotten about me. The lady at the front desk assured me they had not. At about 1030am I started to get so stressed I made my husband abandon the coffee so we could sit in the actual waiting room. They started taking in people who had arrived much later than me and I started to worry. Waiting was excruciating until something funny happened. Discusting but funny. A woman had come into the room to check in for surgery. Her ride there was a man. Seemed like a friend of hers. She noticed in the waiting room another man who was obviously very close and important to her and they began to catch up on old times and tell eachother why they were there. Her ride has since gone into the bathroom in the waiting room. My husband and I were sitting in the seats closest too the bathroom at this point watching the tv in the room. We couldn't actually see the toilet but could see a corner of the room. He walked in without closing the door and we figured he just was washing his hands or chking the mirror. He then hit the door in an attempt to close it but it didn't close. We could then hear that he was indeed peeing with the door wide open. We started to giggle uncontrollably and did 2 sisters sitting across from us. Instantly after the peeing stopped, the man emerged from the washroom. There was no way there was time for this guy to wash his hands at all. We then watched him walk over to his friend and shake the hand of the friend that she had bumped into. Omg. We were so horrified and felt so dirty that we giggled while using massive amounts of hand sanitizer.
Back to the lap story... They finally called me in at about 1130. I said goodbye to my husband and the tears started streaming. Tears flow when I'm scared and nervous. They told me to remove the pants, housecoat and booties, put on the blue hair cap and get on the bed. The nurse put a nice warm blanket on me and asked if I needed to pee. I said no. She wheeled me out of the "staging room" and into the hallway right outside the or's and stopped me right in front of the or I would be in. Nurses were coming in and out of the room as they were cleaning it from the previous surgery. One nurse came by and asked me all the same questions I had been asked in the interview. She explained she would be in the room at the time. Over the course of the 30 mins I was left there, 2 other nurses came by, introduced themselves and asked me the same questions again. The ansetgiolist came by and asked more questions. This whole time the tears were streaming. Everyone kept asking if I was ok. I lied and said I was fine but I was a nervous wreck. I wanted so seem brave. Lol. Right before they wheeled me in I heard footsteps behind me and before I could even see him, I heard the voice of my doc. I was instantly comforted to see him. He has amazing bedside manner and a totally calming effect on me (as I had learned from a previous HSG he had done on me). They wheeled me in the room, made me skootch onto the or bed and it all began to move so fast. The anastegiolist started an iv, the other nurses had my other arm and were doing something and then they placed the gas mask on me. I remember them saying it was going to smell and taste like rubber. I have a very sensitive gag reflex and was gagging the whole time while trying to breath the gas. It seemed like it took forever to knock me out but was probably only a few seconds.
I woke up to 5 nurses holding me down in the recovery room. I was having a dream that I was shopping and was extremely hot and trying to take all my clothes off in the middle of the shopping mall. Haha. I was trying to rip off the blankets and rip out my IV and I had taken off the sensor placed on my index finger. They kept saying my name and telling me I was fine and not to worry. I came outta that pretty quick as I soon realized I was going to be sick. I tried to tell the nurse I was going to throw up but because of the tube they had put down my throat during the surgery, I couldn't not talk. I remember moaning until she came over and I whispered it to her. She brought be a cardboard dish to do the deed in and gave my something for my nausea. I also asked her for a drink of water to which she replied quite meanly "NO, you just vomited". It was about 110pm at this point to I realized my lap had been very short and started to worry. I started to feel sick again about 15 mins later and the nurse put gravol into my IV. I was trying so hard to stay awake and seem fine so they would let me back into the "staging area" where I could hopefully see my husband. They put me on a list to go to the next area and I waiting.
It took until about 230pm for them to finally have a bed available in the other room where they release you. By this point, I was fully awake and the sick feeling had gone away. The nurse came over and brought me water and a tea. She read from these pamfletts about what to expect when getting a lap done. I was confused because in my opinion, this should be been read to me before thr procedure and she quickly realized this was silly to be reading me. She couldn't even prounounce laparoscopy. Lol. I could feel a pressure in my abdomen but there was no pain at this time. I felt pretty good but high from whatever they had given me. I waited about 30 mins and could hear the nurses from the recovery area freaking out that I was still taking up one of the beds. The nurses in this area had wanted me to stay to see my doc before I left but I had hear them call him to the OR on the speaker system 30 mins earlier. All the while, they refused to let my husband come into this area. They then asked me to get dressed, with no assistance, which was fine at the time because I could really feel no pain but I was soooo worried about hurting something in there because I couldn't feel what I was doing to myself. I took it slow and steady and got myself dressed and then they asked me to sit in a chair. I waited for about 15 mins for the doc. I was able to txt my husband who was patiently waiting to hear if I was ok in the waiting room. The doc came finally and told me that I was a very "interesting girl" and said they had found what he believed to be endo and that the adhesions had forced and stuck one of my tubes in the wrong direction. He showed me a bunch of pictures which I barely remember now. He said he could do another surgery (can't remember now whether it was laparoscopy or laparotomy, and that it would increase my chances of fertility. He also told me I could have the fertility hospital perfore this procedure for me. (We decided we'd rather have our own doc do this as he has already been in there and the fertility hospital is in another city). Other than that, that's all I remember him saying. He told me to book a follow-up with his assistant on Monday and gave me instructions for the pain meds and cleaning the incisions. The nurses came to take my vitals one more time before letting me leave and I had tears streaming down my face again. Partly because I was happy to hear that there was a reason for my infertility and partly because I was sad about the cists and adhesions riddling my body. I was walked into the waiting room to find my husband and couldn't stop the stream of tears to tell him what the doc had said until we reached the car.
I felt better than I had expected to that day. We went to the drug store to drop off the perscription and then went to visit my mom while we waited for the script to be filled. I really wanted to tell my mom all about it. We then went back to the store where my husband ran into an old friend he hadn't seen since before we got married. I musta been a sight for sore eyes in that 1st meeting looking like I probably did but at the time I didn't care. We came home and hubby had cleaned the house and put the bed in the living room so I could spent the next week curled up in front of the tv and the woodstove. It wasn't till the next day that I really felt my pain. The 3 days that followed were very tough. I could not get up by myself and I had to pee a lot. I had no appetite and was really tired and sore. It felt like rocks in my stomach and shooting pain in the belly button incision. I made sure to move around every few hours to not get too stiff but I think on the 4th day, I overdid it a bit moving around and trying to tidy the house. Its now been a week and I am feeling ok but still resting. My hubby actually put his back out and ended up in emerg today (exactly a week apart in the hospital) and I went to pick him up and take him to the pharmasy. It was the 1st time I've left the house and it felt good to get out. A little tender getting in and out of the car and walking around so much. Now I am exhausted and am going to rest the rest of the day. I definitly feel like I'm on the mend now and should be back to somewhat normal by early next week. Overall, it wasn't as bad as I had worked myself up for it to be. There is pain and its definitly not comfortable for a few days, but if I can get through it (I have zero pain or sickness tollerance), than anyone can. Its the next one that I really worry about when they start lazering and cutting things in there. Oh well, I have a great hubby and 2 wonderful best friends to take care of me.
Onto the next one.....
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