Stressing about surgery; exploratory laparotomy, cystectomy, oophorectomy

[JCalu]

I am having surgery in a on 3/21/06. On my right ovary, I have a cyst, which they think is a demoriod. It is 8cm-9cm. I am very nervous about this surgery, especially since they cutting me open and possible might have to remove my ovary. I am only 19 yrs old and actually I just turned 19 about 3 months ago. I am a college student who must miss a week of classes for this surgery. I was just wondering what are the preparations for the surgery, I read somewhere online that they have to stick a tube down your throat to help you breath and there are several risk factors to have and open surgery. What will they do once I get to the hospital the day of my surgery? Also, I have been in pain for 3 weeks straight now, this week will be the 4, I was given painkillers but dont really like to take them because of the withdrawl symptoms. However, just this past week I started having pains and stiffness down my right leg(my cyst is on the right ovary). I went to the ER and they said it was not a blood clotbu they think its from the cyst pushing on nervous. Has anyone ever experienced this when they had a cyst??

[AnotherKatie]

Oh you poor kid, that is awful.  Yes you certainly can have pains down your legs from cysts.  Pain from cysts can come and go too, they are weird.  How long have they been watching your cyst?  I can understand you do not want to have this surgery, and, are nervous, but, it's not a good idea to leave it.  Hopefully they can even save your ovary.  If not, DO NOT panic.  I had my right one out nearly 30 years ago and I was fine.  That was an open surgery like yours. I recovered much quicker at that age!  I went on to have three kids too.  You won't even know about the tube they place down your throat, it is done after you are asleep and removed before you wake up... and it is narrow!  So don't fret about that.  Take the painkillers if you need them, you are not going to get addicted.  You will need painkillers after the surgery as well.

The thing is, though, you are going to need more than a week to recover.  Do you live at home?  You will not be able to look after yourself when you are sent home.  Get a letter from your doctor ASAP and give copies of it to all your instructors and explain your situation now.  You are going to have to demand some breaks because of this, and extensions on assignments at the very least.  Or you could ask if you could even skip some assignments, it is really hard to concentrate after this type of surgery and you are going to need to recuperate.  Your health comes first!  You can always repeat a semester if you have to (but hopefully you can get some breaks).

Write again anytime, and DO NOT PANIC... the unknown and that feeling of dread is what makes you feel so awful... but you will be OK, honest.

Lots of love and prayers from Katie

[JGMom]

Do you know what the name of the surgery is or if it is one big inscision or several small incisions?  I've had 3 of the laprascopies and 2 c-sections (which is sort of like the one big incision surgery), so I will try to tell you what it is like.  



You will have to get a pre-op physical w/in a week before the surgery.  This is pretty short - they want to make sure you don't have a cold or some bug or unknown other health problem.  They will probably take some blood for tests.  For the laprascopies, they may or may not make you take some stuff the day before surgery to "clean you out" before the surgery. You will probably have to take the clean out stuff if you are getting the bigger surgery.   You shouldn't plan on doing too much this day b/c you will have to be near a bathroom constantly.  It's easier going if you don't have too much to eat the day leading in, but try to stay hydrated.  Less in, less out!  Also, if you take the soda phosphate stuff, I was told it is better to split it - take 1/2 in morning and half at beginning of afternoon.  It's disgusting stuff and it helps to put it in a little soda or something (But not too much or it's more of it to drink).



The day of the surgery, you will probably have to get there 1-2 hrs before surgery.  Then your surgeon will come and talk to you before the surgery to go over what your understanding of the surgery is.  If you're lucky, you won't have residents coming and asking you questions on top of it.  The anesthesiologist will ask you if you have allergies (even if you've answered the questions a dozen times already), if you've ever had anesthesia or sedatives and if you've ever had any problems with these, etc. They are really good to ask about any concerns or fears you have about how you will feel going under and effects of the anesthesia and how you will feel afterward - how long to wake up, when you get to go home, etc.  They are pretty good about answering questions and putting you at ease.  



They will hook up an IV and probably give you a sedative to relax you.  I hate geting IVs - just look away and squeeze someone's hand if that helps.  Your family or friends who come with you can usually be with you right up until you go into surgery and as soon as you wake up.



The sedatives actually work - you sort of don't care what's going on once you get it.  Then they knock you out with general anesthesia and you won't remember anything once this happens (maybe even after you get the sedative).  They don't put the tube down your throat until you are knocked out and they take it out before you are all the way awake, so you won't remember that at all.  You may have a slightly irritated throat or a small cough from it after.  I did once, but not the other 2 times I had general.  The creepiest thing about general anesthesia is that it isn't like sleeping; it's more like a black hole or something.  You don't remember anything and won't be scared during it or anything, but it is just different from sleep - you're really out.



The next thing you will know, you will be awake and will realize "HEY - IT"S OVER!!!!"  That's the best feeling in the world.  A couple of hours later, you will likely be able to leave the hospital if this is an outpatient procedure (which would only be the case if you had the small incisions procedure).  If it is the bigger procedure, you would probably stay in the hospital a couple of days.  



The worst thing about it in my opinion was the gas and getting bowels moving afterwards.  They get sort of sluggish after surgery down there.  It takes around 2-4 days afterwards to get rid of that feeling.  If you have the small incisions operation, they put gas in your abdomen to better seperate out organs and see things better (they are looking at things through a little camera they put in through a hole by your navel).  I found that gas to be really uncomfortable afterward - much worse than any pain I had from incisions.  Once I got rid of that, I felt 10x better.  For 2 of the surgeries, the gas caused some pain in my diaphram and shoulder til I got rid of it.  It just caused more like an icky pressure discomfort this time though.



I'm a little over a week out from surgery now and feel better than I felt before surgery.  This has been true since only 5 days out from surgery in fact.  You are so young, so I bet you'll bounce back and start feeling a lot better pretty quickly.  But everyone recovers differently and even at different times, so just take it easy and don't push yourself too much after the surgery or worry if you don't feel good as new right away.  I found I tired more easily for the week following surgery. I could do a bit and then I had to rest.  When I started feeling badly, it was usually b/c I wasn't resting enough.    Usually you go for a post-op check w/ the Dr about 2 wks after the surgery. A heatpack sometimes helps w/ the pain (I had one that I could heat in the microwave).



The surgeon will come out and tell your family or whoever is with you at the surgery what they found if you want this.  It's nice b/c you will be too out of it to take in the info and don't usually see the Dr after the surgery, so that way you get some info about what they found right away through your family. If you have the laprascope, they often even take pictures of your insides so you can see the high/lowlights of what they saw.



My C-sections were in some ways easier and I'm not sure why except I wasn't put to sleep for these - instead they give you a spinal so you don't feel anything below the waist (they do that b/c there is a baby involved - they wouldn't do that for you).  It's creepy how big the incision looks afterwards, but once it heals, it gets smaller and they usually do them so you could technically wear a bikini afteward w/o the scar showing (though I wouldn't be caught dead in one - scar or not).  Also, the gas isn't pumped into you, so i found that was a huge difference.