Surgeon may not be able to do laproscopic due to scar tissue from a Splenectomy I had 44 yrs...

Just wondering if anyone had to be opened up the old fashioned way? If so- how long were you the hospital? My surgeon thought that it might be a possibility due to the splenectomy when I was three! He won't know until I'm on the table....

I hope he's just covering his bases because it sounds a little ridiculous.

I changed surgeons because the first I consulted wanted to do open surgery. I ended up having it done laparoscopically and it took a total of 40 minutes with zero complications.

My surgeon told me it was a possibility I'd have to have an open surgery if there was a lot of scar tissue from another surgery I had 4 years ago, but he wouldn't know until I was in surgery. Thankfully I woke up with it done laparoscopically! My surgery I had 4 years ago to remove a cyst and an ovary was an open one because the cyst was so big (50 lbs!) and that took twice as long to recover from. I was in the hospital for 3 days and out of work for 6-8 weeks. But WLS is totally different so the time could vary.

50 lbs cyst? Wow, that's "an interesting way" to lose 50 lbs in 24 hours.

My friend complained about severe abdominal pain, and her gyn doc did not take her complains seriously. Told her she needs to lose weight, and stop eating food that cause such discomfort. Without ordering any tests, he told her she probably has IBS and gas, and to take gas-x. 2 days later, when her cyst burst, it took 3 hours of emergency surgery to try to clean her insides. She spent a few days in ICU, followed by a few weeks in a hospital on IV antibiotics. She is suing the "educated moron" for negligence. But since the event, her life is now full of pain. Her insides are still full of infection, and scar tissue. She is in pain after eating almost anything. Most likely this going to be her life from now on.

Yeah, funny thing was I had no pain. The only symptom I had was that I looked 9 months pregnant. Knowing I wasn't pregnant I went to a gastro doctor who told me I just needed to take a probiotic and stop chewing so much gum because I was swallowing a lot of air. That just didn't make sense to me and even after following her advice my situation didn't get any better. So the next time I went to my gyn she could not locate my left ovary. Had an ultrasound and could not see it, but there was a lot of fluid in my abdomen and I was diagnosed with meigs syndrome. They sent me for an mri which finally showed the huge cyst. When I went in to my gyn for the results she informed me that she was referring me to a gyn oncologist and I was being scheduled for emergency surgery. Talk about being freaked out! But I'm glad I had finally gotten to the bottom of it. Went almost 2 years not knowing what the heck was going on.

I hope you put that gastro doc in "educated moron" files. I would sent him a later telling him that he misdiagnosed you, and he may need more training to be able to "practice medicine".

Docs like that - I call them "educated morons". Unfortunately I met a few like that in my life.

My DS was open by surgeon's insistence. For such a complicated procedure, she preferred to have eyes and hands on everything in person. Aside from a scar, it wasn't a big deal at all.

• No pre-op diet because there was no need to shrink my liver for lap tools to navigate around.
• Incision was glued all the way down - no sutures.
• Incision was healed completely in 2 weeks.

Don't be concerned about the scar - it's the smallest reason you won't be baring your midriff after you lose weight.

I've had seven abdominal surgeries total, 6 in the past 3.5 years with the last one being only one week ago to correct candy cane syndrome. Everytime I had surgery, I had extensive adhesions that needed to be taken down. However, I've never needed to have an open procedure. It just took a really long time for the surgeon to lysis them before getting to do the actual surgeries.

I kind of remember my surgeon saying "laparoscopic unless I can't, then open" or something along those lines; I had my gallbladder out about 15 years before. It might be something that happens enough that they want to set the right expectation (ie prepare for the worst).

I was told that if he needed to, he'd open me up if he wasn't able to perform the surgery laparoscopically... I was ok with that, as long as I got the surgery! I think I was willing to do anything, including die to do whatever it took... I think I thought that later down the line (still think this) that I'll have surgery scars from plastics and I think my scars (overall) have healed pretty well. Plus, I don't see myself wearing a bikini any time so scars can be covered up with a one piece or tankini.

I know I didn't really answer your question, but coming to terms with "whatever it takes" was what has really helped me with my new lifestyle