Advice for surgery.

[Travelr]

Hi, i am going private for my treatment and i am booked for laparoscopy on 14 nov. This is my first laparoscopy and i am very scared about it, please can anyone advice me the does and don'ts before and after surgery. What shoud i take with me to hospital?

[Christin_a]

Take stuff with you on the off chance you need to stay over night. It's rare but if it happens you'd rather have everything with you than not.

Take a pillow for the journey home place it between you and the cat seat belt as the belt normal hits one or two of the incisions.

Have comfy easy to put on clothing I had pj's a size to big (you'll bloat due to the air the put into you to help them see. And slip on shoes you won't want to bend down to put anything on.

Make sure you have all the painless at home ready in easy reach of where you'll recover. Plenty of pillows to you'll find it hard to sleep completely flat so pillows help.

Rest up and don't try to do so much to quickly. But also try and already walk about the house after as it helps get rid of the gas I mentioned above

[Travelr in reply to Christin_a]

How much time it will take to recover after lap, and Thankyou so much for advice, it is helpful to me.

[Christin_a in reply to Travelr]

It varies depending on what you have done etc. I was off work for 2 weeks I had endometriosis excised from a few places. I told my job I expected it to be 2 weeks as that seems to be an average but is let them know if I thought it would be longer or shorter and keep them updated. As alot of the time you don't know exactly what will be done /how much will be removed until they actual do the surgery.

[MrsF75]

I had a laparoscopy on Thursday, and so far, so good. Was worried before hand but medical team were great. So far the worst problem has been being full of gas but peppermint tea, plenty of water and moving around slowly is helping, hope it eases soon. Have someone at home to help you as getting up from a sofa or bed is difficult, and you won’t feel up to cooking anything but need to eat light meals. Loose fitting clothes are essential, and take your own sanitary towels because the hospital won’t provide them. I had lots of waiting round before the op so take something to read, I played games on my tablet. They will want you to eat something and pee before you go home, you probably won’t feel like doing either but I was determined not to stay overnight. Take it easy when you get home, because you’ll feel like you’ve been blown up like a beach ball and bounced around abit. You’ll be ok, try not to worry and just think you’ll have a full diagnosis afterwards. Best wishes for your op and recovery.

[Travelr in reply to MrsF75]

How much time it will take to recover after lap, and Thankyou so much for advice, it is helpful to me.

[MrsF75 in reply to Travelr]

My consultant said 2 weeks recovery, but I had an ovary removed as well so not sure how long you will need. Only had op last Thursday, so can’t tell you about full recovery time yet, all I would say is don’t rush or put pressure on yourself to get back to work.