Recovering after 3rd lap

Question:

Hello all, I had my third laparoscopy on Thursday the 10th. I’m recovering rather well with the exception of starting my period on Saturday. Yikes! I haven’t been having very much fun with it. Get this though, my doctor put on my discharge instructions that I could go back to work in 2 or 3 days! What?? I don’t think so! I called them today and someone will be calling me at HOME tomorrow. I am nowhere ready to go back yet! For my first two laps I was off for 5 to 6 days and when I went back it was too soon and I ended up having to take a couple more days off. I don’t know why they don’t want to give us sufficient time to recuperate. For those of you who don’t know I had to fill out Family Medical Leave Act papers to protect myself at work. (My Exec VP suggested it because I was concerned about my job after missing quite a lot of time over the last couple months. As far as what my doc told my fiance(I won’t see him until 4-22), he said I had a cyst on my ovary that was causing all the pain. I’ve never had a cyst before so if anyone can give me any info I would appreciate it. I understand it is quite common for women with endo to get cysts. He also cleaned all the endo that has grown back since my 2nd lap in Aug 2002. I don’t know yet what the extent of that was. When I go back we will be talking about dum dee dum dum… Lupron.. Ughhh! I still have not decided on that one way or the other. I hope you are all having a pain free day. Take care Shalona

Response:

Shalona, I am glad to hear that you are recovering well but sorry to hear you are having trouble with your doctor! Is this the same doctor who has done your previous laps? It does not seem that you got much releif inbetween laps if your last one was in Aug 2002. A GOOD cleaning out should giv eyou much more relief than 7 months!!!! I assume you got less than that actually. Did this doctor do an ultrasound prior to your lap? That would have shown the cyst. Do you know what kind of cyst it was? Do you know if he actually removed it or did he just drain it? This will make a differance on weather or not it comes back or not. Also the size of the cyst matters where pain is concerned. Our ovaries are only 2-3 cms big. Cyst are IN our ovaries, not on them as many people think. Anything bigger than 3 cms is going to hurt just due to the fact that it is stretching our ovary bigger than it is supposed to be. Cysts are at risk for rupturing around 8 cm’s but can rupture as small as 6 cm. To give you some referance to size 4 cm is about the size of a golf ball and 8 cm’s is about the size of an orange. If you think of it in those terms it’s not hard to imagine that it would Absolutely HURT to have a golf ball inside your ovary!!!! About going back to work…I can only say that he may have only given you 3 days because of the weekend. Knowing that you would have the weekend to recover as well. It really should only take about 4-5 days to recover from a laperoscopy. BUT we all heal differantly and that is only an average!!! You very well may heal a bit slower than some of us so do NOT be afraid to tell a doctor that you need more time. If he won’t listen go to your family doctor. As far as Lupron goes… I am sure you’ve read about it. Make sure you know EVERYTHING!!! Many of us have life long illness due to taking Lupron. I had a stroke in 1997 and several small ones prior to that from taking Lupron. They resulted from the complicated migraine condition that Lupron caused. There are other problems that it caused as well. Just be informed! The reality of it is that at BEST it only works for 6 months. That is all the FDA recommends. Then the endo grows more. Like more treatments it’s a stop gap. There are better doctors out there. Maybe you will have enough relief from this surgery to take some time to find yourself one. Then you can find some better options for you long term. Good Luck! Kimb

Response:

Hi Shalona, Glad you are recovering from your op well. The first few periods are often really painful since everything is still swollen and sore anyway. Take extra time off work if you need it, don’t be pressured into returning too early and making things worse in the long run! Donna PS love your email addy "endomyrope" LOL!!! http://asefaqs.tripod.com

Response:

Hi Shalona, Glad to hear things went well. I had a lap March 21 (Friday) and doc said I could go back on Monday. I was ready to go back on Wed. and went back Thursday. My first lap, I took 2 weeks off and could have taken more. Doctor skill made a big difference. I hope you get rid of the cyst. Having PCOS, I can say they aren’t a lot of fun sometimes. Victoria – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hello all, I had my third laparoscopy on Thursday the 10th. I’m recovering rather well with the exception of starting my period on Saturday. Yikes! I haven’t been having very much fun with it. Get this though, my doctor put on my discharge instructions that I could go back to work in 2 or 3 days! What?? I don’t think so! I called them today and someone will be calling me at HOME tomorrow. I am nowhere ready to go back yet! For my first two laps I was off for 5 to 6 days and when I went back it was too soon and I ended up having to take a couple more days off. I don’t know why they don’t want to give us sufficient time to recuperate. For those of you who don’t know I had to fill out Family Medical Leave Act papers to protect myself at work. (My Exec VP suggested it because I was concerned about my job after missing quite a lot of time over the last couple months. As far as what my doc told my fiance(I won’t see him until 4-22), he said I had a cyst on my ovary that was causing all the pain. I’ve never had a cyst before so if anyone can give me any info I would appreciate it. I understand it is quite common for women with endo to get cysts. He also cleaned all the endo that has grown back since my 2nd lap in Aug 2002. I don’t know yet what the extent of that was. When I go back we will be talking about dum dee dum dum… Lupron.. Ughhh! I still have not decided on that one way or the other. I hope you are all having a pain free day. Take care Shalona

Response:

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