Having a Laparoscopy on Dec 1

[Fizzy777]

Hi,
I just joined after finding this site through google. What a great place!

I'm 45 and have never had children. I've always had very regular periods, but had some spotting 2 weeks early back in August. I was also feeling ill and had a lot of mucous build up in my throat. These things are probably unrelated. It turns out I had a UTI but that didn't explain the spotting. My doctor sent me for a pelvic and transvaginal ultrasound to see if it was just menopause kicking in early. They found some small "normal" cysts on my right ovary, and a 5.5cm cystic mass on my left. Follow-up ultrasounds showed no change.

Last month I was referred to a gynocologist who has scheduled me for surgery Dec 1. She said this whole thing will likely be more of a nuisance than anything else for me, and the risks are less than 1% that it would be CA. I'm still really nervous because my mom died of colon cancer 10 years ago and I've read that makes me a higher risk for Ov Ca. She said she will remove the cystic structure and hopefully leave the ovary (but that may have to go as well), and it should all be able to be done with laprascopic surgery. They will biopsy while they're doing it.

I've never had any type of surgery before and I've been having panic attacks over this (which is very unusual for me). I'm scared about what they might find... but I'm also scared about how I'll feel afterwards. I should be home the same day (if everything is ok) but I keep thinking, what if I have to go back to the hospital? Our emergency room waits here (Toronto) are usually about 5+ hours (probably more these days with the H1N1). If I know exactly how I'll feel after, I won't panic and rush to the hospital... so I'm here trying to find out exactly what I might feel after this type of surgery, will there be bleeding, etc. ... what is normal? I also have lower back problems, so I'm worried about lying down afterwards and not being able to get back up, or not being able to rest. I have difficulty lying on my back for prolonged periods of time.

And yes... I'm a REALLY BIG WIMP!

Thanks :)

[Fizzy777]

Thanks outdoorsgirl! After the surgery I asked the nurse if I could speak to the doctor but she said the doctor never speaks to the patient after surgery (unless its something important) because of that twilight state. I only remember half of what the nurse told me, so she's right. Did you ever find out the reason for 4 incisions later?

I was lucky re the anesthesia but I did ask for something for the nausea and told them about my fear of throwing up. I ate very plain food the night before too.

I'm not really a brave person at all though. I had the surgery because of the fear of having the cyst twist (as other people have said) and land me in the ER, or to have it grow so big that I'd need open surgery. It was fear and fear of the unknown that made me get the surgery, and I wanted to get rid of the anxiety attacks! LOL

I weighed myself again just now and 4 of the 5 extra lbs have gone, so I guess it really was just swelling/gas etc. I'm not attempting real clothes for a while though. I bought 4 pairs of large black drawstring sleep pants at Walmart (which look enough like Yoga pants to go outside in) before the surgery and extra large undies (or maybe I should call them uglies!)  that go wayyyyyyyyy up past my waist lol  I look like Steve Erkle but I'm comfortable :)

Fizzy

[outdoorsgirl]

Fizzy, I'm glad you are doing so well! You definitely have me beat in terms of the pain and nausea. Right after surgery, I had really bad pain and had to pee as well so you can imagine how I felt. The nurse asked my pain level and I had a hard time coming up with a number I felt so bad. I have to say mine was about a 6.

I had 4 incisions as well. Two near my ovaries, one through my belly button and one long 4 1/2 inch one near my pubic bone. So you are not alone in the number of incisions. My doctor told me after the surgery what he did, but I was in such a twilight state then. Hopefully, you will get all the details when you see your doctor. I do not understand why some doctors are so stingy with information.

I am glad to hear you didn't have a reaction to the anesthesia as I did. After reading your account of your day of surgery, you are really a brave person! You were really fearful, but you went through it anyway! Now it's all downhill from here. You will be amazed at how soon you will be back to your old self.

[Fizzy777]

Hi paracelsus51... thanks for asking! I've meant to come back and post but whenever I've been at the pc for more than 10 mins, my partner gives me "the look" and tells me to rest LOL. I was also going to wait till my doc gave me some info before posting, but I probably wont hear from her till next week.

The surgery Tuesday went really well. It really was a breeze! Surgery was at 8:30 am, I was in the recovery room around 11 or 11:30, in a room at 12:15 and left the hospital at 1pm. We stopped on the way back to fill my prescription for Tylenol #3 plus codeine and some stool softeners lol.

I'll go into detail so it might help someone else who is going to have laproscopic surgery.

I was ok before the surgery until I got into the room and started having an anxiety attack, but the nurse put a nice warm blanket on me and gave me something in an oxygen mask which calmed me down immediately. My doc came in and told me my last CA125 test came back negative (6) and that's the last thing I remember!

After surgery, when I was wheeled into the room with my partner, the nurse came and asked what my pain level was. I said ZERO. I also didn't feel ANY nausea at all. She gave me some water and apple juice, explained a few things which were in a brochure she gave me and said I could go home.

Getting in and out of the SUV wasn't too difficult. When we got home, I headed straight for the couch because I was really tired. I needed help walking, probably because of the anaesthetic, but didnt feel dizzy or sick. My tummy ached a little, but nothing like I expected. I'd say it was a 2/10 in pain, so I took a Tylenol and went to sleep. I woke up a few hours later and had some soup and went back to sleep shortly after. The first night I had trouble sleeping because whenever I'd change positions or move slightly, I'd get the urge to pee... and pee... and pee! I definitely needed help getting up off the couch and chair, but mostly just my partner's arm to hoist myself up. I did a lot of walking around the house so that I wouldn't stiffen up (I have lower back problems usually - but the Tylenol took care of that too) and so that the gas would move around.

The only thing I'm still unsure about is exactly what I've had removed/done. I havent spoken to my doctor yet, but hopefully will on Monday. I was told she would make two incisions: one directly under my bellybutton and one over the left ovary, but I've got 4 incisions!!! The other ones are over my right ovary and above my pelvic bone, where the line is (the fat fold lol). I'm really curious about why I've got the extra 2 incisions and it's driving me a bit crazy not knowing, but I'm sure if there was anything bad she would have called me by now.

The gas pains weren't TOO bad, but they were annoying so I took people's advice on here and took Gas-X which really worked great. My doc said not to use a heating pad  because it might start the incisions bleeding again.

On Wednesday I was moving around a bit better and was taking one Tylenol every 4 hours (I didnt feel that I needed two). I slept a lot off and on and ate soup again as I didnt have much of an appetite. Wednesday night I attempted the stairs so I could sleep upstairs and was fine, but again had the same problem of needing to get up to pee quite often.

Thursday I had a shower which felt great, and was moving around even better! I had a hamburger but it didn't sit very well. I think I ate it too fast, but I was ok. On Friday I FINALLY went to the bathroom :)  My partner went back to work on Friday and I was able to move around the house just fine on my own with very LITTLE pain at all!

Basically from Thursday till today I can sit, stand, walk without feeling any pain. The only time I feel slight discomfort is when I'm trying to get into a good seated or lying-down position, but that goes away very quickly. I've had a little vaginal bleeding, but not much and I think it has stopped now. I just wonder if my period will still show up on Tuesday as scheduled?

Another thing I find odd is I weighed myself before surgery and was 139.5 lbs. After surgery I was (and still am) 144.5 lbs. I can't image 5 lbs of gas in there, so I wonder where the extra weight has come from? I hope my doc isn't missing any instruments or her iPhone LOL

All in all, this experience was 100x better than I thought it would be. I was soooooooo scared and nervous about it, all for nothing! I work in my home office at a PC so I'll probably start working again on Monday, taking a break to walk around/relax every hour or so. If I worked outside of the home, I think I'd probably take another week off.

I am really grateful for all the advice and kindness I've found from you and others here. It made everything so much easier knowing what to expect! And another thing I've learned is that scheduled surgery is relaxing and calm and they take time to talk to you and smile and answer your questions and make you feel comfortable. They don't rush you around like in the ER.

Fizzy

[paracelsus51]

So, how did the surgery go? Are you doing ok?

[Fizzy777]

Thanks again for your replies! I've been still faced with a lot of anxiety over this (if this IS anxiety!). I had the pre-op assessment which calmed me down a bit. I've only really visited the ER in the last 10 years and havent seen other parts of the hospital where the nurses are calm and friendly and don't rush you.

I think the anxiety is worrying me more than the surgery. I know it's routine surgery now, from reading through the forums here and reading your posts, and I would tell anyone else on this board that it's routine if they were worried, but I'm having such trouble breathing normally that I'm worried I will feel like this right after the surgery and won't be able to go home.

Jennyrose, I'm going to take you up on your offer to message you about this.

Thanks again you guys!

Fizzy

[Jennyrose]

Paracelsus is exactly right. You will not know which symptoms will disappear until you go through the procedure. I have suffered with IBS symptoms for about 10 years. I was really hoping that would all go away. Well, nope, guess I really have IBS... ;-). But I have not taken any kind of over the counter pain killer for headache, cramps, cyst pain, etc since the surgery and that is kind of amazing. I have to say that there is improvement on my overall health. Oh, and the morning lower back pain that I attributed to getting old is also gone.

I also had some episodes of pain that I attibuted to something else. My son remembered some more than I did. I had some "stop in your tracks and breathe" kind of pain sometimes and others where I figured it was just IBS and would try to rest. That pain is all gone and it feels great!!

With regard to your anxiety. I will share this. The same week I was diagnosed with a cyst, I started to have to breathe differently, like taking a deep breathe every few minutes to get oxygen. Because I was aware of it, it got worse and I started wondering if I had heart trouble, etc. One night, it was so bad, I felt like I was gasping for air and actually considered going to the the ER. But I called my mom (she's terrific) and she said it is anxiety and to focus on relaxing. I looked up my symptoms and bingo--anxiety popped up all over the place. As soon as I read that, the symptoms eased. I had also seen my regular doctor right after my surgery was scheduled and she said the same thing--anxiety. But until I read all those symptoms as related to it, I thought something was terribly wrong. Mine improved considerably once I had the procedure. I know it's scary. I didn't "feel" scared, but apparently, my body was feeling it!! If you want to message me about the symptoms, feel free. I really did have a problem with it.

Jennyrose