Ovarian cyst, what to expect?

Pre op tomorrow then surgery on the 20th, will get home on Christmas eve or morning. I have to have the vertical cut. 

Sending prayers for a successful surgery, and healing.  I had my surgery on 11/1.  The mass had grown since my CT scan was done.  I also had to have about 6 inches of small intestines removed as it was adhered to the mass.  I spent a total of 10 days in hospital.  mostly due to the small bowel resection.  I have a rather large scar, that has healed, but not nicely.  I had 80 staples total.  After surgery,  Thank goodness the dr gave me a pain pump that I could push when I needed it.  I had that for the first few days.  I also had air compression things on my legs, I could not move and begged for a belly compression binder.  because the pillow thing was NOT working at all.  They pushed so much IV fluids in me that my legs swelled with fluid 2-3x their normal size.  I couldn't even bend my ankles or knees. Even my toes were swollen beyond belief.  It was not until they stopped the fluids that my legs began to go back to normal.  I had an NG tube in my stomach because of the re-sectioning for several days and my bowels were not "waking up:.  On the 4 day, i was on liquid diet, and on the 5th day they said regular diet, but i could not eat, and was in pain.  On the sixth day, they were attempting discharge, but the stomach pains were horrible.  They did an xray, and found my bowels obstructed....called ileus of the small intestine.  Which basically meant that a section of my bowels were being lazy, causing a back up.  They asked if I had nausea or vomiting.....I didn't vomit, but wouldn't try to eat because I knew something wasn't right. I also told the PA that if they sent me home, I would be back in the ER within 24 hours because of the pain I was in and extra strenght Tylenol wasn't helping.  I didn't feel nauseous but then again, they were giving me anti nausea medicine.   (I felt like all the staff thought I was just exaggerating my pain - like I was just looking for pain meds (Which I never take).) I protested for about an hour and finally the attending came in.  I told him that I have to have proper pain management if they were to send me home.   Then, he ordered an x-ray.   When doctor came back, after seeing the x-ray, he said my small intestines looked a bit kinked in several areas, so partial obstructions. Causing a 4cm dilation in intestines (double the size it should be)  Switched me back to NPO, and there came the IV again.  Crazy stuff.  He said that the kinks (where the loops are) made sense, since the cyst displaced and squished everything.  So.......guess I wasn't so crazy after all.  I did leave the hospital after 10 days, on a very soft diet, easily digestable diet.  I have been on that same diet since.  I am now almost 30 days post op.  The incision is healed, but there is a substantial bulge on my upper left abdomen spanning from the incision.  It is always sore, and painful depending on how I move, The bulge gets bigger when I eat, and is sometimes painful when I eat.  I can feel waves in that area and it is sometimes painful.  Most likely, I have a hernia from the incision - but I will find this out at follow-up appt.    If you are having open surgery, you should ask about a belly binder, if you don't initially have one.  They don't like you to wear it all the time because if it is too tight, you can develop pneumonia - but it so helped to walk and stand because i felt like my belly was going to fall out from the incision area.  It also helps to keep from getting adhesions after surgery.  It compresses things and also helps reduce swelling.  If it weren't for the resectioning - or what ever this "Bulge is" , I believe I would have been farther along in my healing.  It has been an extremely slow process and I still walk around carefully, can't bend, riding in a car is painful.  On a good note.  The mass was benign. 

OMG Michelle, that is awful. The fact they wouldn't listen when you knew things weren't right. 

The whole reason you stay in hospital is for them to spot complications. 

I had my pre op yesterday. I have to do an enema on the morning of the surgery to reduce risk of knicking my bowel. 

I'm counting down now, I just need my life back, even 1 day pain free would be great. 

 

Surgery tomorrow