My laparoscopic surgery for diverticulitis will be on April 9. Anybody here have this surgery?

[CTyankee]

The surgeon also wants to take out my appendix and I don't think I quite caught his explanation as to why. Anyone have this too?

I'm getting the surgery because of repeated bouts with diverticulitis. This has left the sigmoid considerable narrowed (a pediatric scope had to be used in my diagnostic colonoscopy).

What's the recovery time like? They tell me 3 to 4 days in the hospital and after a week I might be able to go back to normal activities.

If anyone has info about this, I'd appreciate hearing from you. I've been on Google so I know the basics but real life stories are helpful.

Thanks, Duers! Wish me luck!

[lumberingbear]

1. I don't have any advice......

but I do wish you the best!!! :pals:

[CTyankee]

2. Thanks so much! It's not the worst scenario really and I feel OK. n/t

[Lost-in-FL]

3. Why take the appendix?

Because if you suffer from acute diverticulitis you have a much greater chance of developing appendicitis than anybody else (sometimes it is just a matter of time before you get appendicitis if you suffer from diverticulitis). If the doctor is going to do your laparoscopy for diverticulitis now, you might as well ask him to take the appendix out NOW than wait until you get Appendicitis for real. Appendicitis can be very nasty specially if you don't go to the emergency room on time. It makes a lot of sense to me specially financially. They ask females if they want their appendix removed during laparoscopic hysterectomies also (the surgical removal of the uterus).

About the recuperation time it depends of how much the doctor removes (if he does remove something of if he finds something in the process that might affect you in the future,etc.). But 1 to 2 weeks sound fair to say depending on your degree of tolerance to pain. I have not had the surgery but I know lots of people who do get it. I will be having a laparoscopy for other reason so I guess I can learn from your experience.

Good luck!!!! :hi: :hi:

[CTyankee]

10. Wow! Thank you!

I don't know why my GI doc who did the original diagnostic colonoscopy didn't go over some of these things. She just wrote m a prescription for antibiotics and went on her merry way! I thought mostly only people in their late teens got appendicitis!

You have been enormously helpful! I will post after the surgery to let people know about this. It seems to be very common and hopefully someone might benefit from my experience!

Thank you again for helping me.

[Neshanic]

20. While he's there, he might as well take it out as explained very well above. I had a Meckels

diverticulum that was taken out when I was 42.

I spoke to two surgeons, one that wanted to scope it out. "I never have done one of those, it would be interesting", he told me. The next doctor said that he was going to do it the old fashioned way, and cut me and I would be in and out of the OR in thirty minutes. His rationale was that the other doc would be in there poking around forever to get at it, and I would be under much longer since they are rather rare.

I agreed to do the traditional way, and after getting a shot of Versed, while wheeling me in, he said that he may take out my appendix out while he was in the neighborhood...and he did.

It took a month to get back up to speed, and I sport a scar from my bellybutton to the nether regions. Boy did it hurt, but not as half as bad as a kidney stone attack.

Your situation is different, as scoping out an appendix is so common now, and your recoup time will be much shorter. You will be fine, and it sounds like you are in good hands.

Don't worry, you will be fine. Don't overdo anything and take it easy.

Let us know how it went when you get out of the hospital.

[GenDem]

4. My hubby had a re-section a few years ago

It was not done laproscopically, however. He was in the hospital five days before they decided that surgery was the only option. He then spent another 4 days in the hospital, post surgery, before being released. He actually went right back to work a couple days after getting released. He was able to work at his desk and go home early for the first couple weeks.

Good luck to you, and I hope you feel much better after this is over.:hug:

[CTyankee]

9. Thanks. So did your husband have the open abdominal surgery?

I surely didn't want that and the surgeon said they only do that when someone has real problems in acute diverticulitis, or something to that effect.

One of the reasons I wanted to get this done now (it is actually elective surgery) is that 1)I don't want to wait until I am old and fragile 2) I have excellent health insurance as my husband is a municipal employee and belongs to AFSME and 3) I am semi retired and travel a lot, including Italy twice a year. This year I am doing a hiking trip to the Amalfi Coast and the last thing I want to be doing is sitting in a hospital in Naples talking to il medico (I speak some Italian, but not enough to get me too far in a hospital setting!).

[GenDem]

16. Yes, he did.

His diverticulitis was acute -- with perforation. In a six month time period he spent at least 3-4 weeks (total) in the hospital on Cipro, Flagile, and Morphine. He will still suffer a bout from time to time, but it is always mild and is easily controlled.

[Left Brain]

12. ohmigosh GenDem,

is that YOUR beautiful baby in the picture? What a gorgeous dog!

[GenDem]

17. Yes. I have two - Bear and Sidney

This is Mr, Gen and our two Schipp's -

[Left Brain]

22. Cuties!

Looks like Bear and Sidney adore their papa!

[Kajsa]

5. Good luck to you.

I'm sending good thoughts for your surgery.

I hope you feel better when it's all over.

:hi:

[hippywife]

6. Wishing you well.

I just had laproscopic gall bladder removal this week. Not as complicated, I'm sure, as what you are having done. I was in and out of the hospital the same day. Hope your procedure goes according to plan and you're feeling well soon.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. My dear CTyankee...

I don't know anyone who's had this.......

But I sure can hold the good thought for you!

Good vibes heading your way.......:hug:

[CTyankee]

11. Hi there , Peggy!

Thank you for your good vibes, hon!

I feel I am in pretty good hands. I'll be at Yale for the surgery and my surgeon got his training at Harvard Medical and Dartmouth Medical School. Don't know about the anesthesiologist but I'll be meeting him/her soon to go over their role (eek!).

It's always a pleasure to meet up with you here on DU. You are a good friend to fellow DUers!

[dropkickpa]

8. Didn't have the same thing

but had a lap gallbladder removal. My biggest issue was more of a lap common problem (not just gall bladder), and that was the pain in the shoulders from the gas. They fill the entire abdomen with gas and the ridding of this over the next couple days can cause a bunch of shoulder pain, etc. I was actually only at the hospital, from check in to check out, for 6.5 hours.

Because you are dealing with the dig tract, you may have a few issues with that (have 'em with gb too).

Within 10 days of surgery I was back in school, and at 20 picking up 50lb dogs. I was amazed at how quickly I felt well enough to do this. The biggest thing is to take it easy afterwards. Let yourself heal.

I have postcholecystectomy syndrome (PCS), but that is very specific to what I had done, and even with that my quality of life is much higher than before the surgery.

I was really scared to go under general anesthesia, but the only ill effects it had was a sore throat (endo tube) and a migraine (which I knew would happen, I get them when even only minimally exposed to flurane anesthetics, which I use @ wor a lot). My gramma had the same surgery as me, only the old fashioned open version, and she was laid up for at least 6 weeks.

Good luck!

[CTyankee]

14. A friend who had both the gb and diverticulitis surgery said the gb

was worse because of the "hangover" of too much anesthesia, but that might just have been her version of what you experienced.

My mother had the open abdominal type of diverticulitis surgery 30 years ago. She had a long incision, long hospital stay and long recovery, compared to what is done today with the laparoscopic surgery.

I do hope for the appropriate amount of anesthesia. When I had my diagnostic colonoscopy I felt discomfort and was awake enough to complain (they said they gave me all that they could). Everyone else I know doesn't remember their procedure and didn't feel a thing.

[SPKrazy]

13. Not on April 9th

and not on any other day either.

it sounds pretty routine, but i have no idea

good luck!

:hug:

[CTyankee]

15. Good for you! I'm just a little freaked out (not by much, tho).

Just looking for info. Obviously, I am not getting alot from my docs (what else is new?).

I'll be at Yale a few days, then back home and on my treadmill, so I am looking for a good outcome.

It could be worse, ya know? I'm doing OK.

[Briarius]

18. Haven't had it

but I work at a place that makes all the equipment for it... :D Good luck!

[knitter4democracy]

19. Trust me, you don't want appendicitis.

He should take that out while he's in there, with your increased risk of developing it. I had appendicitis for ten years (it hid as something else), and trust me--freakin' painful. Hard to walk, breathe, drive, you know, function. I had an exploratory lap that ended up finding it, and it's made a huge difference.

[Lost-in-FL]

21. Appendicolith or fecolith

I am not a doctor but sounds like you had a stone in the appendix (appendicolith) for 10 years. OUCH!!

http://rad.usuhs.edu/medpix/medpix.html?mode=display_factoid&recnum=1589

Believe it or not they do happen but are way less common than kidney stones or gallbladder stones. In this case the doctor ask you to make a choice to have it removed or to wait and see if you get appendicitis for real. Why they make you wait for the infection instead of just removing it? Cause with ANY surgery there is a chance of complications and death and you might live a happy life without getting full blown appendicitis. Removing a stone from the appendix in not a life threatening situation but only if it gets infected. I your case, since it was bothering you so much and you were in pain for so long the doctor would just go on with surgery to get the appendix out. That sounds like you had it bad, sorry to hear that! They are not very common and that is why you had it for over 10 years (hard to diagnose for being so uncommon or thinking you just have food poisoning or a simple belly ache).
The reason we get appendicitis is when the appendix is blocked with junk (or calcium deposits) and the garbage get trapped in the appendix until a bad infection occurs. Appendix stones cause blockages just like kidney stones and gallstones do, but they won't explode with infection like the appendix do. When you have diverticulitis you can have a bad infection in the bowel near the ceccum (where the appendix is located in the bowel) that can affect your appendix.

Please! Please! ANY doctors please feel free to correct me if I am wrong!!!!

[knitter4democracy]

23. We don't know.

They didn't find any in pathology afterwards, but they said it had been bad for a very long time. It had inflamed at some point and glued itself to my pelvic wall, and there was tons of inflammation all around, but it never fully ruptured.