Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Yes I have had th surgery. It's not bad at all. I'll admit I was really scared beforehand too, and it was the first surgery or hospital thing I had ever had done, but it was a piece of cake (relatively speaking). They do it via laparoscopy, where they make a small incision at your belly button and a small one lower and use special instruments to look around...that way you don't have to be cut right open. It's almost always a day procedure so you don't have to stay overnight, and in about 3-4 days you should be totally recovered. I personally thought the worse part was from the gas they pump into your belly to be able to see better, it causes shoulder pain of all things!

As for your appointment, I would just quiz the doc and his/her experience with endometriosis. There are vast differences in how much ob-gyns know about the disease...if the doctors practice is mostly delivering babies, they might not know that much. I finally found a doc who specializes in infertiltiy and other disease of the female reproductive system, and doesn't deal at all with regular pregancies, and he knew a lot more.

Some things I would ask:
- Most important: Ask what type of removal method they would use if they found endo. Basically there are 2 ways they can do it, laser or excision. It is generally thought that excision is the best way (I've actually gone through 4 docs before finding one who will do it that way). With excision they actually cut out the lesions. With laser, they just burn the lesions off which can cause problems because often it only removes the superficial endo, leaving some underneath which can cause more problems later on.

- Ask what he/she will do to prevent adhesions if you have surgery. Basically, becuase of the nature of endo, the surgery can leave you with a lot of raw tissue which can lead to adhesions, which can in certain cases be more painful than the actual endo. There are things docs can do to try and prevent it, so you want to make sure the doctor will do that.

- If you're going to have surgery, ask what he/she will do if endo is found on the bowel. Some gyns won't even touch it, they'll just tell you it's there and you'll have to have a second surgery, so it's best to know that up front.

That's all I can think of right now, I'll post again if I think of anything else. The only other thing I can suggest is to really research it (especially the drug treatment options). I've found a lot of docs will push Lupron and other heavy-duty hormonal options, and you really need to know what you're getting into before you go on those drugs. There's alot of information out there, so you want to check it out

Hope that helps!
Kelly

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