Had surgery yesterday

Hi everyone-  I finally had my surgery yesterday and wanted to update all of you--especially those of you waiting anxiously for your own surgeries.  So far, I can say that the waiting is the hardest part!   I had a very large 24 cm ovarian cyst removed laproscopically.  It was a simple cyst, and so far noncancerous.  So, large cysts CAN be removed laproscopically!  I had my surgery at 8AM and was released by 11:30 AM!  In addition to that cyst, the surgeon removed my left ovary and another smaller cyst that he found on the right ovary.  I'm on percoset which I'm taking religiously along with advil and my pain is very manageable.  My worst pain is in my shoulder.  I don't think it's gas pain.  I think they must have had my arm in a strange position during surgery and it's aggravated an old injury.  As for gas and bloating--so far, none!  I finally have a flat tummy again!  The main advice I can give after yesterday is to make sure you ahve a good surgeon.  The recovery room nurse told me if she ever had to have this kind of surgery she would definitely use my surgeon, and I have to agree.  Other advice (gotten here, thanks!):  my recliner, purchased especially for this recovery, has been a lifesaver.  I don't know how I would be functioning without it.  If I think of more, I will certainly share.  I mostly wanted to let people know that surgery can be relatively easy.  I was very prepared for all kinds of outcomes and I think that helped.  Now it's such a bonus to have the best outcome.

[ska4life1986]

great to hear from you so soon after surgery ,wow that was a big one i am shocked that you had the op at 8 and do you mean you were discharged from hospital at 11.30 ?

[fungirl1011]

It is do great to see you on here do soon after surgery. It sounds like you had a very fast and efficient doctor! Now you need to rest and let everyone treat you like the queen you are!  I'm so glad that you are on your way to recovery!!  

[rudme]

yes, I was discharged 3.5 hours after surgery started.  I'm guessing surgery took 2-2.5 hours.  We are all sitting around amazed at how well it's going.  I was all prepared for a laparotomy and a few days in the hospital.  I put my life on hold expecting a long recovery, and now I feel like I may be able to go back to work in 2-3 weeks.

[ska4life1986]

wow i dont know what to say ,when i had my surgery i had to go home after 3 days the vomiting and diorrea bug was in the hospital then it came on the ward so i was safer at home ,so you still have to take it easy it dont mean you are ok you are only human i still cant belive they discharged you whats the world coming to lol .

[MarieMichele]

That's amazing...such a large cyst... such a short hospital stay!  It certainly is less costly, but one reason patients stay longer is so they can monitor for any post-op complications.

Don't rush to return to pre-op activities.  Your body just had a huge change take place. Rest...relax....NO heavy lifting!  Congrats for being in healing mode instead of waiting and worrying!

[rudme]

Thanks for the advice, MarieMichele.  I am relaxing and avoiding lifting mainly because of everything I learned on this site from all of you wonderful women.  In fact, I know my recovery is going so smoothly because of all the tips learned here.  I was so prepared.  Now, back to my prune juice....

[13gemini72]

Prune juice is a savior just take it in small increments until it "kicks in" otherwise you might not make it to the restroom in time. Don't ask how I know! :-)

[JessRae]

This makes me feel a lot better about my upcoming surgery on the 26th. My cysts were first discovered during a pap smear that was extremely uncomfortable in dec09. My family doctor sent me for ultrasounds, and i was sent to a gyno.. I had 2 cysts, one inside each ovary from what the doctor told me. My left one was 5cm, my right at 7cm. Within 20min of seeing the gyno he sent me to the hospital as an add on to have them drained... 3 days later i finally had it done.

At my 3 week post op, i told the doctor that my pains were returning, he told me that there was nothing tht should be causing constant pains gynocelogically( mispelled i believe) and told me to look into other causes. (He sent me for another ultrasound to check after mine and my mothers pushing, the cysts had already come back to 2cm.. )when those results came back he was going to leave it as is, un happy i went back to my family doctor. after a request for more ultrasounds and another trip to the gyno. There was a 3 month wait time for ultrasounds, so during that time my gyno put me on my birth control(that ive been on the whole time, and have been on the pill since i was 14) for 3 months at a time.

I went for the ultrasound, and sure enough.. The left is clear, so the birth control was doing what it should for that one. However, the right one at last ultrasound was showing to be 5cm and looking different than the first cyst he removed months prior but is pretty sure it is non cancerous.

I have a family history of these problems, all women at my age(22) going through this, many miscarriages, etc however they also got to have ful term pregnancies before these problems started.

Now, the gyno has talked about partial removal of the right ovary, itll increase my chance of ectopic pregnancies later on, and that is a concern for me, i would love to be able to have kids, and to finally get pregnant just to have to terminate due to that, would be devestating.

My gynos bedside manner isnt always the best, and doesnt always leave time for questions.. So I was wondering if maybe a few of you lovely ladies could help.

How bad do your hormones go out of whack after partial/full removal of an ovary, and how long did it take for it to start to return to normal? Was there any significant weight gain/loss due to the hormones, etc. Is there anything I can do for myself to make recovery time more..pleasant?

I've taken off a week to start with, and will be going to work to take more time off work if the surgery is as planned for removal. I know I'll need the rest etc and heavy lifting will be difficult, especially when returning to work, i feel the effects of it when i do too much as it is.(I work at a gas station so there is lots o time on my feet and heavy lifting at with stock etc.)

I was feeling anxious before, but after reading a few stories already, im feeling a whole lot better about this process.

[Pixiestarr]

Wow, I am a amazed that such a large cyst and complicated surgery can be done by laparoscopy.
I had my 7cm cyst removed on the 20th of December by laparotomy. The anaesthetist told me before my op that he was surprised mine wasn't being done by laparoscopy, and remarked this was probably due to lack of surgical expertise and equipment. It is very annoying that the British NHS can't afford to offer this option to patients after all the billions of pounds pumped into it over the last few years.
I was in hospital for a week including over Xmas because they couldn't offer me any transport over the Xmas period and I had no-one to run me back to hospital to have the staples out on Xmas Day.

[Sconnie]

Im having treatment on the NHS for a 10cm cyst, first it was drained (laporoscopy) I cannot understand why he didnt take it out of the ovary when it was clearly not a simple cyst (they think its a dermoid) but he said he had to think conservatively about my ovary and my fertility.  I am now having it removed completely by laparotomy next Tuesday, the same surgeon is doing it it, and even though its now 7cm and completely solid, he wants to do the laparotomy because he wants to 'feel' for good ovary tissue to salvage, which I am assuming he couldnt do via laporoscopy.  But I would have just rathered he took it all including the ovary despite my age because its caused me so much anxiety and I have to go through it all again.  I think some of it is down to expertise, older gyno I thikn like the traditional cut and its faster surgery

Pixiestar how did you feel after your operation when you came round?

[tinabro]

I had major surgery 5 months ago for a 14cm cyst but my surgery was complicated cause mine had stuck my bladder and bowel down because od adhesions too many surgeries and once they took my ovary away did not notice any diffrence, but i think the one I have left in has been working overtime and outta whack, yep the surgery was painful due to the circumstances, and the cyst had stuck to a loop of my bowel I had my op on the thursday, i was home on the sunday but I was very poorly, but felt a lot better after surgery, but the waiting for the pathology reports is the worse thing, but saying that I jetted off abroad 4 weeks after just me and my 2 children, I was still sore and thought I was ok but it takes time to heal, Ive had many ops even an hysterectomy found them easy, but my last was bad and my  recovery been quite long but hindered with more cyst, but i had my op in morning and was wondering about onmy feet by teatime, i neede to wander about because of the gas was bad in my abdomen