What to expect before & after laparoscopy

If you have ovarian cysts, or suspected to have endometriosis, chances are you might be put forward for a laparoscopy, especially if you have been trying very hard to conceive for years.

The thought of going through a surgery often can be very intimidating. Let me tell you that laparoscopy is not that bad. I hope by sharing with you my own experience, you would have a better idea of what is supposed to happen and hopefully it may also offer you some encouragement.

Blood & Urine Test

Before fixing the surgery date, I have to pass the blood and urine test. This is to ensure that I am clear for HIV & Hepatitis B.

Bowel Preparation

I was told to follow instructions for bowel preparation and take medications to clean the colon for consecutive two days before the procedure.The medication made me running to toilet almost every 10 minutes within 30 minutes upon consumption.For my case, the laxative effect lasted for at least 3 hours. If you are working full time, you might want to consider taking half a day off for this.

The day before my operation, I consumed plain watery rice porridge and drank a lot of water to prevent of becoming dehydration. 7 hours before the procedure, I drank only pure rice porridge water. Due to the frequent diarrhea, I drank a lot of clear fluids but stopped drinking 3 hours or so before the procedure.

On the day of the surgery, it took us about 1.5 hours to see doctor, settle some paper work and payment.30 minutes before the scheduled surgery time, I was wheeled into the operating theater after the nurse has taken my blood pressure . A few different nurses came and repeated a few questions before the procedure began. I did not need to wait very long before the anesthetist came to give me an injection and I knocked out soon after that!

After the surgery

The surgery lasted about 1.5 hours. The moment when I woke up, I felt nausea and restless as I experienced some pain. I managed to go back to sleep after the nurse gave me an injection to combat the pain. When I woke up again,  I noticed that I had an elasticated binder wearing around my waist. The purpose of it is to eliminate the abdominal pain. Ask for it when you see the doctor before the procedure starts!

Overall, I rested in the hospital for 4.5 hours before I was getting ready to discharge. Before I was released, the nurses need to ensure that I was able to hold down some food and could urinate. The nurse told me that it is okay to eat a little if I didn’t have the appetite.  My hubby made me a glass of hot Chocolate before I went to bed and that was all I had for dinner.

Thankfully, I did not suffer any unbearable pain after I got home. I took the advice from the nurse to take the pain killers prescribed by doctor, so that I won’t woke up in pain when the anesthetic effect was gone. I did not need to take any more pain killer after that!

I didn’t have sore throat at all, some people do experience that. For my case, I had some shoulder pain (from the gas the anesthetist used to inflate my belly) but it was bearable. I also felt nausea, no appetite to eat and had some bloody discharged for a few days(ceased on day 8).I also notice that my stool is dark green and my urine a bit oil-like. I would have some minor pain and discomfort whenever sitting up and lying down and they are bearable to me.

To sum up my laparoscopy experience, it is not really that bad after all!

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