Incision Pain-Comparing TAH/BSO to Lap. Surgery for Endo

I'm scheduled for a TAH/BSO December 8th. I've had two laprascopic surgeries in the past for endo and I was wondering how much more pain I can expect from my hysterectomy incision than from my laps. I am anticipating the swelly belly will be much worse (even though I did swell considerably from both laps); and I know the incision will be much larger and include staples whereas the lap incisions did not.

Just curious if anyone else has had both procedures and could compare the two...(I know the 2 procedures are ENTIRELY different. I'm just curious about the incision pain and the abdominal muscle pain not the "inside" pains).
Thanks!!

~Christy~

Hi,

I cannot say for sure as my hyster was a LAVH. However, I have had four laps and two c-sections. I had most of my discomfort from the laps in abdominal muscles and shoulder pain from the gas inserted. I would guess that the incision pain will be more similar to my c-sections which was not too bad.

This may not help much. I guess what I am saying is that the pain will be more than from your laps, but not too bad.

Best wishes,

Judy

Hi Christy,
I've had 7 laproscopic surgeries and my TAH/BSO on 9/10/04 , I also had an appendectomy at 15yrs old the old way with an incision about 10cm long . I would say that the pain from the incision wasn't as bad as I was expecting , the aneathesist will usually numb it really well and if anything the feeling doesn't always return for a while , whereas with the laps I found the incisions a bit of a pulling sensation and also stingy. so for me the incision on my tah wasn't an issue, I personally think the soreness I had was from all the stretching of the abdomen and ab muscles , not being able to sleep on my tummy also didn't help it was when I was able at 3 1/2 weeks that I had really good sleep and improved in leaps and bounds , sleep depravation really is a torture!!! you won't have the shoulder pain with TAH and that really hurts , but remember to stay on top of your meds , you have alot of healing to do inside and you don't want your body to be wasting precious energy with pain. To answer your question I don't think the pain was that much worse just for a longer period of time.
Goodluck with your surgery and wishing for you a speedy recovery
Wendygai

You know...I had almost forgotten about the gas used to "inflate" the abdomen during my laps. (I don't know how I could have though. That was almost the worst part of it...The shoulder pain was a killer lol)! I'm glad to hear the incision will be numbed well and I'll make sure to keep on top of the pain once I get home. I'm definitely not looking forward to the sleep deprivation, although I've been experiencing some of that already with the thoughts of surgery weighing on my mind.

Thanks for your input!!

~Christy~