Re: My Happy Laproscopy and Endo Story
From: clareS (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Thu Nov 28 15:15:07 2002
Hi Kathy:
It's so good to hear that you had such a good experience, and are
already on the road to recovery!
Best wishes :o)
Clare
At Thu, 28 Nov 2002, Kathy wrote:
>
>Yesterday I had a laprascopy to determine if I had endo. I am 41 years
>old and have been infertile forever. After much effort and 7 years of
>fertility treatments, we had a lovely daughter who is now 12 years old.
>Over the past year, my pelvic pain grew worse and I was aware of it on a
>daily basis. At times it felt like I had baseballs instead of overies.
>I had been complaining about it to my doctors for 12 years and finally a
>year ago one finally said something about endo.He put me on birth
>control pills which gave me unbearable headaches and nausea so I had to
>stop them after 2 weeks. (It was ironic taking birth control pills when
>I was infertile).
>
>After searching the Internet and reading stories from others, I realized
>my symptoms were identical to those listed: cramping pain in the pelvis,
>bowel and bladder problems, pain shooting down my legs and infertility.
>I went to a new doctor about 3 months ago and instead of describing my
>pain I told her "I think I have endometriosis, and I need you to do
>something about it". She sent me for blood work and to have an
>ultrasound-both showed no abnormalities. The next step in the process
>was a laproscopy.
>
>For some reason, I was very scared of this surgery. I have had gall
>bladder surgery, a C-section, D&C and tonsilectomy and was never scared
>at all. But this terrified me. I couldn't find much info on people's
>experience with laproscopy, but what I did find were the horror stories.
>
>Well I am happy to say that this was a wonderful experience. I checked
>into Placentia Linda hospital and they took me to admitting right
>away..They got me settled in my room where I rested watching TV for a
>couple of hours. Then a nurse came and walked me to the surgical unit.
>They had my lie down on a gurney and put warm blankets over me. Several
>people-a nurse, my doctor, two anesthesiologists came and asked
>questions like "do you wear contacts? Are you alergic to any
>medications? etc". The anesthesiologist put the IV needle in my hand
>which burned just a little bit. Then he gave me some medicine to start
>relaxing a bit, and I was very grateful for that. In about 10 minutes,
>they wheeled me into the surgery room which is quite intimidating with
>the lights and machines. People starting putting monitors and stuff all
>over me, but the anesthesiologist must have put his medicine in quickly
>because that was the last I remember. It seemed like seconds later I
>was waking up in the recovery room and someone was talking to me. I was
>aware of some very minor pain in my abdomen like minor menstrual
>cramping and also like when you have a little scrape that hurts. But it
>was not nearly as bad as I was expecting. The nurse in the recovery
>room asked if I needed pain med and I said no because it really wasn't
>that bad. I must have been moaning a bit because she came back and said
>"I'm going to give you some pain meds because you are moaning".
>
>My doctor came in and I really can't remember everything she said and
>unfortunately my husband isn't that good at remembering details. If you
>have this surgery I would recommend asking the person there with you to
>take notes when they talk to the doctor. I do remember her saying that
>they found endo on my left side and a very big lesion on my right ovary
>which they burned off and removed. She said the one on my ovary burst
>when trying to remove it so they had to do some sort of flushing.
>
>It was two hours after surgery and they wheeled me back to my room. The
>nurse came in and asked if I needed meds and I said no because it really
>wasn't hurting very badly at all. The daily cramping and problems
>really hurt worse. She brought me a sandwhich, soda and cookie which I
>ate right away. I had expected not to be hungry and had hoped to drop a
>few pounds, but I hadn't eaten since the night before and was starved.
>After I ate, they had me use the bathroom and said I could go whenever I
>wanted. I left about an hour after returning to the room. On the ride
>home, I did feel a little bit nauseous from the movement of the car
>because we had a 45 minute drive or so.
>
>They gave me vicadin and motrin for the pain which they filled in their
>pharmacy. I really appreciated that. They also had a rose in the room
>which I also thought was very nice. This hospital was really great! The
>people were so caring and friendly. They were awesome..
>
>Today I have a little incision near the bikini line and one in the belly
>button and they hurt a little when I move. But the amazing thing is
>that the symptoms I had lived with for years are completely gone. There
>is no pressure on my bladder, the baseballs in my ovaries are gone. It
>feels so good!
>
>The point of writing this long story is to ease your mind if you are
>planning on having this type of surgery. I wish I had done it 10 years
>ago. The pain is so minimal, almost nothing, compared to the pain of
>living with the endo.
>
>Good luck!
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