Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Pelvic Laparoscopy...

I am having Pelvic Laparoscopy surgery on Friday April 9th (which happens to be the one year anniversary I was sent to the hospital for my Pulmonary Embolisms). I started having severe abdominal/pelvic pain on my left side last Monday. I decided not to go to the ER or Urgent Care knowing they probably could not do anything about it. I stayed up all night in pain and went to school 3 hours early to try to occupy myself. I called my OBGYN as soon as they opened Tuesday morning. They got me in with the nurse practitioner that afternoon. She did a pelvic exam and said my left ovary was enlarged. She thought that maybe I had an ovarian cyst. She ordered a pelvic ultrasound and it was scheduled for the next day (Wednesday). I had a follow-up appointment Thursday with the actual OBGYN for the ultrasound results. I was shocked that it was negative. He asked me about my symptoms and did another pelvic exam. He then said he suspected that I might have Endometriosis (a debilitating medical condition in females in which growth of cells similar to those that form inside of the uterus, flourish in areas outside the uterine cavity. Most commonly on the ovaries, cervix, fallopian tubes, and bladder). He said in order to confirm we needed to do pelvic laparoscopy surgery. Here is some info on it. It is really quite a minor surgery especially considering I have had like a million surgeries ha ha.
Pelvic Laparoscopy Surgery:

Pelvic laparoscopy is a surgical procedure that examines and treats pelvic organs through a small surgical viewing instrument (laparoscope) inserted into the abdomen at the navel.

While you are deep asleep and pain-free under general anesthesia, the doctor makes a half-inch surgical cut in the skin below the navel (which may be kind of hard due to scar tissue from a previous surgery). Carbon dioxide gas is pumped into the abdomen to help the doctor see the organs more easily.

The laparoscope, an instrument that looks like a small telescope on a flexible tube, is inserted so the doctor can view the area. Other instruments will be inserted through other small cuts in the lower abdomen to get tissue samples or do other procedures. After the laparoscopy, the carbon dioxide gas is released, and the surgeon closes the cuts with stitches or staples.

The surgery should only last an hour, I get to go home about 2 hours after the surgery is over, there are only small external scars, only moderate postoperative pain that includes some shoulder pain due to irritation from the gas, and taking it easy for only a few days with complete recovery in 2 weeks. If the surgery shows Endometriosis the hope is that he will be able to remove it all during the surgery. If I do not have endometriosis my hope then is that I just had an ovarian cyst that ruptured and is causing pain for an unusually long period of time. I will find out soon.



1 comment:

Kimberly said...

very informative, sister o' mine