A little over 2 weeks have passed since my emergency appendectomy, and I’m feeling so much better. The inflammation is gone, I’m back to my regular diet, the staples are out, the incisions are healing, and I’m easing back into regular exercise. I’m fortunate that everything worked out the way it did.
Looking back, there’s just one thing about the appendectomy process that I would have done differently: I wish I had asked the surgeon if I had any options.
In general, I think surgeons are going to do what’s best for your long-term health, and they’re working from a mix of known and unknown information. But given that they’re preparing to cut into your body–a body that you will live with from now on, not them–I now know that it’s definitely worth asking about options, choices, and preferences.
The context in my particular case is that the surgeon decided to make a 3 cm vertical incision well above my belly button in addition to two horizontal incisions below (3 total incisions are necessary for laproscopic surgery). Such an incision isn’t unheard of, but as I now know after talking to the surgeon who removed the staples, the belly button itself presented a better option for scarring.
Also, as the second surgeon told me, staples were an odd choice, especially for the lowest of the incisions. Stitches or even glue would have worked better.
Overall, I’m happy with how my body is healing, and I give the surgeon credit. It’s just a good reminder for me–one I wanted to mention to you–that I should at least ask to see if I have any options if something like this happens again in the future.
Have you learned anything from surgery or hospitalizations that others should know?
There are always options. One option would be to wait and see. But you probably have a high probability of sepsis which has a detrimental cascade.
When I was in college, I had to take my friend to the ED and help her with the decision of whether or not to go through with surgery. She values a “whole” body and her family was in a different country. The doctors were getting antsy but she finally agreed to the surgery.
I would recommend knowing your medical and surgical history, like have a simple text document you can refer to on your phone. You can’t always rely on hospitals to communicate in a timely manner. Or you might be out of your normal healthcare system.
You should take note of adverse reactions – don’t assume the nurse or doctor will add it to your history. It’s always best to be safe than sorry.
And when considering an elective surgery, you can ask the surgeon what is the success rate “in their practice”. If they have an answer then they more than likely know their stuff or at least are comfortable being honest with you.
Thanks Alaena! In this case I wasn’t questioning the need for surgery, but I wish I had asked for my options within the context of surgery (i.e., where I would be cut). Those are great tips about medical and surgical history, adverse reactions, and success rate.
If you really want more control in terms of the surgical method, it depends on the person doing your surgery and the current state of the disease.
If for appendectomy, there is method A or method B (could be different types of procedures or even different locations or types of cuts) and both would have equal outcome, but the surgeon is most comfortable with A, as in they haven’t practiced B in a while, but B is the one you want, then the surgeon has to agree to it and they may not. I think surgeons even have to go through recertification for specific procedures (e.g. they have to have done 10 in the last year) so even if they had done a procedure in the past but aren’t recertified…maybe if they don’t make a mistake it’s OK, but if they make a mistake they could lose their license. Can you imagine, a patient tells the surgeon they want a specific thing done, the surgeon is calculating the risk – in terms of the patient’s health and their own livelihood.
If the state of the body is such that method B would have a better outcome (and assuming one of the outcomes is not death), and the surgeon is comfortable with either, but the patient wants method A for whatever reason, say they had a tattoo in the area of an incision site, then that could be something the patient should have more decision-making.
And, if the alternative method results in death or has a worse outcome, the surgeon may not agree to the surgery. Could lead to lawsuit or maybe most surgeons just don’t want to lose a patient on the table.
Other restrictions are at play, including time and resource availability. Laparoscopic procedures require specific tools and if those tools aren’t available for an emergency (maybe they need to be cleaned or are all in use currently), they might not be able to do that type of procedure.
I appreciate these insights! Overall, I definitely trust the surgeon to make the best choices for my overall health, and I don’t want to force the point or make dangerous/nonsensical requests. Hopefully the question of simply seeing if there are options would be well received by a surgeon–if they say no, I trust that with no further questions.
Well, as I’m eight days following my laparoscopic inguinal surgery and the one thing I learned has to do with pain meds…and it has nothing to do with pain management…at least the way most of us think of it. Pain meds allow the body to relax or more precisely, without pain meds, the body will compensate to avoid pain, which may not benefit you, the patient. I tell you this as by day two I contemplated not taking the pain meds as I hadn’t felt pain. But, that’s the rub…some pain is not discernable to the patient. By taking the pain meds, even if you don’t have pain actually helps you recover faster. In short…take your meds!
Thanks for sharing this! I agree that it’s a tough balance–you don’t want to condition your body to be reliant on pain meds, but the pain meds can also help to give your body what it needs to heal (a good night’s sleep is probably an important part of this).
I suffered the exact same operation about thirty years ago and still have the exact scar you are describing from the incision. The appendicitis occurred two months prior, a large cyst formed around the appendix (which actually protected me for the time period), and then at later stages prevented me from walking upright as a result of the ensuing pain. I was very active at the time and I knew how important it was to get moving again so I started swimming. I’m a very average swimmer but just getting in the water I’m sure helped me recover much more quickly. I graduated from there to hiking and after a short period I was back to normal. In water the body seems to adjust to what resistance is necessary and not go beyond the pain/damage threshold. I highly recommend finding a pool to swim in if you can.
Thank you for sharing that, Brad, and I’m sorry you had such a rough recovery experience. That sounds very painful. I’m not much of a swimmer, but that’s a great tip.