I’m due to have a laparoscopy next Tuesday after about 8 years of symptoms including excruciating leg pain and almost debilitating nausea through ovulation until a week after my period.
I’m expecting pain and all the horrible after effects of surgery (I’m definitely a pessimist!) but another creeping thought has started to cloud my mind. What if after all this waiting, all the pain, all the doctors appointments and pushing to get this taken seriously - it isn’t actually endo? What if I’ve wasted the NHS’s time and money that could have been used helping someone with endo? Won’t that just perpetuate stereotypes and make it difficult for other people with it to get it diagnosed?!
I don’t really know if I’m asking a question or just venting my concerns here.
Conversely, I’m equally concerned that it is and that I’ll be in debilitating pain for the rest of my life or that there’ll be some kind of mistake and they end up taking my ovaries or Fallopian tubes 🤦♀️
Has anyone else felt like this? Is this just an overactive anxious brain with too much time on its hand overreacting?
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BeeBee23
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If laparoscopy has been offered to you, it's because a health care worker has decided that it is worthwhile looking to identify what they can about your case. They wouldn't offer to do it if they didn't think it would be useful.
If it's not endometriosis, that's ok. Then they can try another approach to try to discover what the issue is.
Surgeons who do diagnostic laparoscopes are trained to identify organs, so the likelihood of them removing anything by mistake should be tinsy-weensy (hopefully never).
As for over anxious minds - I think it's completely normal to wonder what the results will be.
I had a laparoscopy last week, and the consultant showed me the pictures after! Wow! It's so interesting what the inside of a body looks like! When I felt better later on, I did a search for images of a healthy body in laparoscopy to compare them. That was really interesting too! I feel completely justified in having had symptoms now because I've seen the evidence. In a strange way, that made me feel better.
I think you'll find the results informative too. 🙂
As much as you’re just told it’s IBS, it’s fibromyalgia, or one of many things you have probably been told over the years, the only way to definitely diagnose any pathology, is via a lap! If it isn’t Endo, it might be something else! If nothing is found, at least it’s ruled out things! I don’t think anyone should feel guilty for having a diagnostic lap, seeing as it’s the only way to rule in or out everything! If your symptoms effect your life, and you know what, they may just be ‘normal women problems’ as normal doesn’t always mean painless, at least you’ll know how to manage your symptoms that are effecting your life! Xx
Hi BeeBee23, I had a lap back in 2014! I had really weird leg pain, strange pelvic pains as well as lots of other symptoms! I never had heavy periods or major pain though. Before my op (5mins before) I said I don’t think I have it abs going to be wasting your time blah blah! Anyway after the op he told me I was riddled with it, had it everywhere and that my bowell was stuck, ovaries stuck and all sorts!! They know!
Anyway fast forward to now, I am actually due to have another lap on Wednesday! Again not the usual pain that most get! Leg pain is back, nausea all the time which is a new one, tiredness, really bad tinnitus, periods are going a bit all over the place too! I keep thinking maybe I don’t need it too but then deep down I know I do!
Just make sure you write everything down before hand about your worries about tubes etc. I am going to do the same
Let me know what they say after the op! Tip - have some fizzy drinks, peppermint oil capsules, arnica, peppermint lotion as you can get some pain in the shoulders from the trapped gas!! That was the worst for me but the above really helped!!
Don’t worry. The anxiety is completely natural and understandable. I’m having my fifth operation in less than three years on Saturday and I’m feeling nervous (three weren’t endo related. I broke my ankle 🤦🏼♀️).
When I get nervous I think about how this isn’t a huge thing for the consultants or the nurses - they do this week in and week out. There’ll be someone in my hospital bed right now ready to have surgery or recovering from surgery and there’ll be someone in it after me. They’re good at this stuff because they’re experienced in this stuff. Nothing’s new to them. I’m absolutely sure they can’t accidentally remove an organ either!
I try breathing exercises to calm myself down when I need to.
I was scared they wouldn’t find endo too. It’s a weird feeling but it’s because our pain is so hard to diagnose. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. (Btw if it isn’t ask for an MRI for adenomyosis if you haven’t already had one - I have both and I’m fairly certain the adenomyosis gives me the worse symptoms including pain down my legs). Keep pushing for a solution - no one should be left in pain.
As for the pain afterwards, I had my last lap in Jan. Because it was diagnostic only (nothing was removed because I was referred to an endo centre instead), the internal bruising was the worst bit for me - very sore! But lots & lots of rest worked for me.
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