For those who don't know but may want to know...

I'm tired and it's late, but I just realized that, apart from my coworkers, I've only told about five people this... Sometime Tuesday morning I'm having laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis. Apparently it's routine for the patient to not know until the night before what time the surgery is going to be. Lame. The surgical center is supposed to call me after 3 PM on Monday (tomorrow) to tell me when to show up.

In this case, the laparoscopy is a minor outpatient procedure that will both confirm the diagnosis of endometriosis and treat it if the doc finds that it's there. Endometriosis is where endometrium tissues that are usually in the uterus are found elsewhere in the abdomen. This causes pain. For me, the point of this surgery is to hopefully reduce the pain. How I understand it is that there'll be an incision near/in? my belly button and another about 4 inches down from that. One hole is used for the viewing instruments and the second is used for the cutting instruments. If the doctor sees endometriosis areas then he will cut or laser them off.

A coworker asked me last week if I was nervous. I told her then that I was trying not to think about it and it would be good to get it over with so that I could have less pain. Really though, I'm nervous. First off, I just plain don't like the idea of some stranger mucking around in my insides. Also, it's my first time going under general anesthesia, being intubated, and getting catheterized. Yuck, yuck, yuck. The surgical center called Friday to get a health history. I was asked if I have any caps or crowns on my teeth. Yeah, that's because if you have dental work on front teeth then sometimes they can get knocked off with the intubation process. Fun.

Here's the full story:
1. Last July I saw my general practice doctor because of some persistent abdominal pain. She sent me for an ultrasound and CT scan. When both tests came back normal, she referred me out to a gynecologist.

2. Due to not liking to try out new doctors, I procastinated and didn't get in to see an OB-GYN until November. The new doctor (well, nurse practicitioner really) listened to my history and immediately said it sounded like endometriosis. She gave a brief explanation of what it is and stated that the best treatment is surgery. Keep in mind that it took me 3 months to go to a specialist in the first place. My distaste at the idea must have shown on my face because when I asked if there were any alternatives she told me about a procedure called HSG that we could try first.

3. I went home and researched endometriosis and the HSG procedure (short for hysterosalpingogram). Turns out the only way to diagnose endometriosis is surgery and HSG just shows that it's not other things but it can't show that it IS endo. Which is probably what I would have heard from the nurse practitioner gyno if I had known what questions to ask and she had known how to say it so I understood.

4. I sucked it up and scheduled a pre-op appointment. That was March 18. I met with the doctor gyno who is doing the operation. I learned something - one doesn't have to be a surgeon to perform surgery. How reassuring. At least the doc seemed self-confident. Good. When he goes out to tell hubby that I'm a vegetable he'll be able to do so with poise.