<p>I am 18 and will be having both of these procedures done later this summer. I’ve been trying not to think about it, but I’ve never had surgery before and I’m really scared. I figured I would post on here and ask if any of you ladies have had experiences with these procedures, hoping it would ease my mind a little bit.</p>
<p>The lap is to diagnose & possibly zap away some endometriosis (the chances of me having it are about 99.9999% with my pelvic pain and four-generation history of it). I was wondering if the laser treatment is done, does that make the surgery more intense/invasive/painful?</p>
<p>My hysteroscopy will be to determine the extent of my bicornuate uterus which means my uterus is “heart-shaped”, or partially split into two. There may or may not be a wall separating the two sections, which is why they need to look because that has to be removed if I want to have kids. I don’t know much about this procedure at all besides the fact they will do it the same time as the lap.</p>
<p>Is recovery really simple, or is it rough? What about the bowel prep beforehand? I’m just really nervous. :(</p>
<p>not sure why there is bowel prep for a hysteroscopy. I had one last week along with a D&C. I was put into twilight sleep and was fully awake after the procedure. I had some cramping and bleeding for a few days (due to the D&C). No big deal, you’ll be okay :-)</p>
<p>I’ve also had a D&C/hysteroscopy. No bowel prep…just the usual no food/drink for 12 hours prior. If you’re ok with IVs, you’ll be fine. Afterwards, I had minor cramping/bleeding. I was running within 48 hours. I’m usually very skittish about any medical procedure, but this one wasn’t bad</p>
<p>Laparoscopic surgery is not bad at all; the incisions are tiny and recovery is quick. I had laparoscopic surgery to have my tubes tied almost 20 years ago and was back to work after a long weekend. I’m a worrier by nature so I understand you’re scared but laparoscopy is really not bad. </p>
<p>I don’t know why the bowel prep either but the worst of the bowel prep is drinking the concoction they give you to drink. I suggest having hard candy to suck on and you’ll do fine with that too. I’m not familiar with the hysteroscopy at all but just try to stay positive. Being young is in your favor so you’ll recover quicker than most of us old folks!</p>
<p>The laser treatment doesn’t worsen the surgery, it is the extent of the endometriosis will determine how extensive the surgery will be. The hysteroscopy will not add much to the recovery.</p>
<p>The bowel prep will be a bit hard, as you will likely have to take a large number of pills and/or drink a lot of salty liquid, and then have frequent and watery bowel movements, sometimes with cramping, for a good part of the time you’re on the prep.</p>
<p>Most people are close to recovered in a few days, and back to 100%, give or take, within around 10 days.</p>
<p>They used to call lap surgery “band-aid surgery” because the incisions are so small. I have had several. The recovery is really not a big deal at all. Some tenderness at the site for a few days and that was it. Never needed to do bowel prep, either.</p>
<p>Just so you know, I have a septum in my uterus. Not complete though. I found this out on sonograms during my first pregnancy. There were no repercussions other than both my sons were breech (head up) and the head got stuck in the smaller top portion of the uterus and neither could turn around, flip, etc. </p>
<p>As the doctors didn’t know if it was a septum (partial wall) or something loose that could affect the babies, they watched me/really the fetuses closely. After first c-section, the obstetrician took the uterus out to examine it and noted the septum and not something loose/hanging. Put the uterus back in and all was well.</p>
<p>p.s. The bowel prep is a precaution to provide a “clean” bowel in the event that surgery on the bowel might be required. Bowel prep is not indicated for hysteroscopy and is sometimes indicated for laparoscopy.</p>
<p>Bowel prep is a pain in the a$$ (pun intended) but is absolutely, positively not a big deal. As others have already said, you take pills/drink liquid and poop kinda non-stop until you’re five pounds lighter. I supposed your doctor wants this step in case they need to go other places. This is not something to get anxious about. </p>
<p>That said, I completely understand anxiety in general – I’m a master at it – but chances are you’re taking all your anxiety around the entire thing and putting it onto this one aspect of the experience. Take a deep breath. The entire procedure will be completed in the time it takes to have a leisurely lunch. That’s not very long, is it??</p>
<p>Thanks for the help, everybody. My$0.02, I already know all the details of the procedures, I just wanted to hear about personal experiences, which medical sites don’t provide.</p>
<p>The bowel prep will be for the laparoscopy, because they think I might have endometriosis on my bowels. Yuck.</p>
<p>I know it’s a relatively no-big-deal surgery, I guess I’m just nervous since I’ve never had surgery before.</p>