laparoscopy soon, autistic and scared

[Tiddler90]

Hey all,

I have a date for my pre op assessment for a laparoscopy for suspected endometriosis. I’m autistic and really struggling with the shear lack of information medical professionals and their admin teams fail to share. I am also petrified of generally being touched and looked at so it’s all rather horrid really!

Would anyone mind sharing what happened at their pre op assessment for laparoscopy? What can I expect?

And one more :), how long was recovery time for you after a laparoscopy?

Thanks in advance for your replies and putting my mind at ease.

[Finechina]

Hello there,To start with, I would say I had a laparoscopy 7weeks ago and was not scared about the procedure at all. So, don't worry. Keep breathing and relax.

I commented on Vee2508 post about 5hours ago, if you want to read that.

My pre operation assessment for me consisted of blood test, weight/ height, blood pressure and a swab for MRSA.

You say about being touched. The Nurses had to do blood pressure and temperature observation several times.

The anaesthetists will obviously need to touch you but I found that bit to be very quick. Once you are anaesthetised, other than feeling bruised/ pain and having 4 wound sites, I would not have known that I had been touched. I was out for about 2hours.

Then the porters helped me move back onto the ward bed.

In my experience you walk to the theatre.

Have you had anaesthetics before? The bit I didn't like was when someone was calling my name and having a conversation with me as I came out of the anaesthetic.

Have you tried looking at the easy health website for a resource. It is a easy read guide but I have always found it useful.

Please reply, if you need clearer information about my experience. I understand the importance of understanding what will happen.

[GreenViolin]

I can completely understand that all of the unknowns feel a bit overwhelming. What happens at your pre-op can vary quite a lot as it depends on the complexity of your surgery, the practices at the hospital etc. It might be worth seeing if there's a contact number given that you can call to ask questions beforehand about specifically what will happen. Also, when you get there, let the nurse know if you are worried, and explain your fear of being touched, so they can make allowance for this and help you feel as comfortable as possible.

My pre-op for Saturday has consisted of two sets of blood tests (one with a urine test), a call with a nurse to go over the pre-op questionnaire I completed and a call with my consultant. I'd given my height, weight and blood pressure on the questionnaire (I've got a blood pressure cuff at home as I used to have problems with low blood pressure), so they didn't do this at the hospital. There will then be another urine test on admission to check I'm not pregnant.

[merlin-mimi]

hi there,

Firstly, I completely understand what you are going through (I am autistic too, and just had my second laparoscopy a week ago). In general for your pre assessment, you will have blood tests done, be asked a lot of questions about your health and will be weighed. I have also found that mentioning my diagnosis of autism has often helped when having all of it done. They even let me bring someone with me to keep me calm (though I did have to fight a bit for this, but worth the fight in my opinion).

On the day of the procedure, you can ask where you are on the list, which helped me a lot. After a meltdown, they were kind enough to bump me up to stop me waiting about. It is very hard, I can’t lie, but hopefully you can bring along some things that may help you (fiddle toys, comforters, or special interests if they help you). On the day, you will be seen by the anaesthesiologist and the surgeon, who will ask you some more boring questions about your health, and tell you some risks associated with the procedure (this freaked me out at first, but the risks are so small and they have to tell you apparently). After that, you tend to get changed and provide a urine sample. When you get called for your procedure, you go into a room a lay down. They give you some medicine through a needle or mask and then you will wake up after the procedure.

One thing I didn’t know about after the procedure was about gas pain which goes up to your shoulders. It’s lasts about 2 days. You can also bleed a little bit. Generally, after a few days it’s much easier to walk about and shower, but every recovery is different. My last lap took me about 4-6 weeks to recover. This lap has been a lot smoother so far though so I’m hoping I’m four weeks time I’ll be back to work.

Sorry for such a long reply- I was hoping the more information, the better for you to be able to process it all. I do hope it hasn’t overwhelmed you too much 💛😊