Laparoscopy

A procedure that is considered less-invasive than a laparotomy. May be referred to as “keyhole” or “minimally-invasive.” May be robotic-assisted, such as with a Da Vinci machine.

Share Your Story : Josi

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text on a chalkboard that reads Don't Give Up!

Josi is 19 years old and lives in Torrington, WY.  She was diagnosed with Endometriosis just two months ago.  Like so many women, just knowing there was a cause to her pain gave her a little bit of peace of mind and she has begun her journey toward relief.  Josi hasn’t let this pain stop her from living, as she recently married the love of her life and is moving forward with hers!

Josi’s Journey: I started vomiting constantly and experiencing bad pain at 11 years old. I thought it was anxiety, and didn’t get it checked out for a couple years. At 14, I finally had a scope done to reveal a hiatal hernia. I thought, “finally, this is the cause!” And began taking prescribed medicines for acid reflux and IBS. Nothing helped. Another scope. Nothing new.

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Share Your Story : Courtney

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A woman with brown hair wearing sunglasses

Courtney lives in Canada, and was diagnosed with Endometriosis a year ago, when she was 28 years old.  Now 29, Courtney makes beautiful jewelry and donates a portion of her sales to Canadian charities that deal with Endometriosis and other women’s health issues.

Courtney’s Journey:  I’m a pretty private person for the most part, and the thought of sharing my personal medical history on the internet was something that took a great deal of careful consideration on my part. But the more research I do, the more I find that the reluctance of women to share their stories is in part due to the fact that they have often spent years repeating their very personal medical details and symptoms to doctor after doctor, without getting the treatment they need. In many cases, these women are told that this is their “burden as a woman” or worse, not having their concerns taken seriously at all and told that – since the doctor can’t see anything wrong – it must be “in their head”. As personal as it is, I think it’s important for women who feel comfortable enough to do so, to share their story; if not online, at least to their family and friends, so that they may help raise awareness about this disease and help women get the care they deserve!

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Reader’s Choice : Enough is ENOUGH!

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text that reads "Enough"

A personal choice for every person with Endometriosis : When have I suffered enough pain and when do I step up the treatment?

Some prefer natural methods of controlling their Endometriosis symptoms : supplements, vitamins, diet, and essential oils.  But these methods may not work for everyone. I’ve gone the route of prescription narcotics, surgery, hormonal treatments, eastern medicine, acupuncture, altered diet, etc. Others may have undergone hysterectomies.

When and how do you decide which is right for you?  Only you know the answer to that question.

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Readers Choice : Hysterectomies & Endo

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Hystery (haha) of Hysterectomies

The first recorded vaginal hysterectomy was in the 2nd Century AD, performed by Soranus of Epheus for a prolapsed uterus.  During the 18th Century, there was a 90% mortality rate for women who underwent hysterectomies.   And in 1843, Dr. Clay performed the first successful subtotal hysterectomy in Manchester, England, although the poor women died several days after her surgery. In 1847, chloroform was introduced as an anesthesia during surgeries, but due to it’s toxicity, surgeries had to be performed within one hour.  In 1853, Dr. Burnham of Massachusetts, performed the first successful abdominal subtotal hysterectomy with a surviving patient.  Interestingly enough, it was somewhat accidental: while excising an ovarian cyst, his patient vomited (there was no anesthesia) and the force of her vomiting pushed the uterus out of the abdominal incision. Unable to return the uterus to the cavity, Dr. Burnham was forced to remove it.  During his next 15 hysterectomies, he only lost 3 patients.  In 1878, German doctor, Freund, introduced the first reproducible “simple” hysterectomy; and in 1898, Austrian doctor, Schauta and his student Wertheim, performed the first successful radical hysterectomy for uterine cancer. In 1929, Dr. Richardson of the United States performed the first total abdominal hysterectomy.  France introduced the gynecological laparoscopic surgery in the1940s; however, the first laparoscopic hysterectomy was not performed until 1988 by Dr. Reich.  The DaVinci robotic laparascopic system was approved by the FDA in 2000 and the first robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy was performed in 2005.

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I <3 my Robot

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In June of 2014, my surgeon opted to perform a robotic laparoscopic surgery to remove the cysts from my ovaries.  Little did we know, the surgery would progress into an excision surgery to remove Endometriosis implants that we didn’t know existed inside.  A traditional laparoscopic surgery is performed through a rather large incision in your abdomen, while robotic is done through small “ports” (incisions) where robotic tools are inserted and the doctor operates at a remote station, controlling the wee robotic arms. AND there’s pictures!

The surgeon’s plan was to go through my bellybutton, extending it a little bit with a small incision, remove the cysts, and close up my bellybutton (a single incision laparascopy). Voila: done.  However, it was discussed that he may need to open up multiple ports if things “weren’t as they seemed” once inside  (the middle image below).  Which is exactly what needed to be done.  The robotic surgery avoided the traditional, large incision (first image below).

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