Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy

I'm going to have a Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy. Has anyone had this treatment done? How was the recovery time, is there any problems during recovery. Has it been any changes in your life after this procedure was done. Please let  me know, I have a small solid mass in the left kidney. Please help.

[el_em_en_oh]

I've had this procedure performed for the exact same reason (solid mass on the left kidney).

Recovery time was about 2 weeks. 2-3 days in the hospital. 4 days of bed-rest/couch-rest. 7 days of taking it easy and only working 1/2 days. Then I was back to full days after that. No heavy lifting or anything like working out or running for about a month after the procedure, but that was more by choice than by doctors orders.

I'll tell you what, the most painful part of the experience was the 1-2 days immediately following the procedure, and it wasn't from the small incisions. It was from the gas.

Let me explain: The inflate your body-cavity with an inert gas (to make more space for them inside your body, like the inside of a balloon) and it's usually nitrogen, or sometimes helium I've heard/read. Anyway, when they're finished with the procedure, they don't suck the gas back out, they just stitch you up and leave the gas inside you. Well, that gas has to go somewhere, so as you're sitting in your hospital bed after the surgery, recovering, the gas starts to migrate to the highest point it can get to... which is your shoulders. It sounds a bit strange, I know, but you'll feel like you have to fart out of your shoulders!

The gas eventually (over the course of 2 days) dissipates and the pain goes away, but it's fairly painful. The doctors dismissed it as nothing, but the nurses understood and said that it's common when laporoscopic procedures are performed.

Life with a partial left kidney is about the same as life with full left kidney. I wouldn't worry too much about the long-term effects.

Good luck to you! Post back and let me know how you do.