I went in Wednesday, Dec. 19 at 6:30 a.m. for scheduled laparoscopic surgery at 8 a.m. and ended up staying until yesterday afternoon.

Evidentially, when my gyn/oncologist went in to remove my ovaries and tubes, everything was stuck to the walls of my pelvis and my colon from adhesions (probably scar tissue from my hysterectomy five years ago.)

He had to convert to an open procedure, so I'm now sporting a lovely, 8-inch incision with 22 staples, along with a semi-circular puncture wound in my belly button and one below my belly button from the original laparoscopic surgery.My doctor said that one of my fallopian tubes was enlarged and there was a cyst the size of a golf ball on one of my ovaries, in addition to the tumor on the left ovary. Fortunately though, everything was normal, no cancer.

I spent three nights in the hospital being miserable. My throat was so sore from the endotracheal tube and for some reason, on Thursday (I think it was Thursday), my throat started swelling and I couldn't breath. They had to give me Benadryl - evidentially I had some sort of allergic reaction, but we can't figure out what it was from. And then I had a lot of nausea and vomiting from the anesthesia and pain meds. The one good thing is that I haven't had a lot of pain; in fact, I haven't needed anything for pain since Thursday night.

The nurse put a Vivelle-Dot patch on my hip a couple of days ago, and so far, so good. No hot flashes or meltdowns yet.

None of this was supposed to happen! I was supposed to just go in Wednesday, come home that afternoon, and spend the time since healing from very small incisions. I've got to go back to work on Jan. 7, so I hope I'm okay by then. I'm just so glad to be home though!

I don't know what you do for a living, but even with an office job, I can't imagine that you would be able to go back to work that quick. 6 weeks is the usual amount of time to be out for major surgery, which it sounds like yours was.
Hope you feel better soon.
Merry Christmas

Thanks, Healthnut. I'm a professor at a community college. The week of Jan. 7, we'll be preparing for our classes, then classes start the next week. I'll be 3 1/2 weeks post-op.

I had a hysterectomy five years ago, and it did take me almost a full six weeks before I was up to returning to the office job I had at that time. I've noticed with this surgery though, that even though the incisions are the same length in both surgeries, I don't have the pain I did then, and I'm up and around better. So, maybe there's hope that I'll be okay, because I really don't have any choice. I'm the only professor who teaches the subjects that I teach, so I have to be ready!

Hugs,

Lisa

Hi Lisa
I'm so sorry things didn't go has you had planned but i am glad that everything worked out and that you aren't in any pain.

I hope all this is behind you now and that you have a happy and healthy New Year!

Take care
~Lisa