Recovery time seems to vary from woman to woman and depends also on how much is done during the surgery. I had a cyst removed and some endo cauterized (sigh - if you can get yours excised and not cauterized), 3 incisions, but other than that just a lot of exploration.

I was pretty sore for a couple weeks following mine. I probably could have done light work at 1 week but no lifting. At almost exactly one week I tried to scoot my 2 year old niece up in her car seat and regretted it big time, hurt very badly. And she is pretty small! At 2 weeks I felt pretty good, still tender to lift/bend but could pretty much do most pre-op activities. At 3 weeks my surgeon gave me the full clear.

I still have painful sex so I feel for you with that one...still pursuing options to help with that. I don't have much swelling so I'll leave that for the other ladies. Best of luck with your upcoming lap - I hope they can get your symptoms cleared up!

I just had a lap last friday and im already feeling much better :-) I had 5 incisions but I was COVERED in endo, seems like the # of incisions depends on your condition. Ive had 3 laps, my first 2 were only 2 incisions :-)

My first two days sucked, i wont lie but if you follow docs orders and take it easy (and I know thats hard to do!) you'll be better in no time :-)

I found that ice packs helps tummy pain ALOT and a heating pad on your back helps that gas get outa your abdomen. I felt silly with two ice packs on my tummy and a heating pad on my back, but hey, whatever helps the pain! haha :-) Good luck!

I did ice pack in tummy, heating pad in back as well!! I've had three laps and on the second day post op of my first surgery someone on here told me to take gas-x for the gas pains. I didn't think it would help since this gas is in the abdomen not in the intestines. But it totally works!!!
I had very little do e with each surgery..,went back to work after ten days....and wasn't back to myself fully until 6 weeks after.

Welcome to the board. I have had 2 laps. The first I was back to work in 7 days and was hurting for 8 weeks total. This time I took 2 weeks off, then went part-time for 3 weeks, then felt pretty good.

As for the bloating, do you also have digestive issues too? I get diarrhea and constipation all the time, it is common with endo to have these issues.

Thanks for the replies everyone! Thanks to my schedule I can only take about a week off, so hopefully that's enough time and I'll be able to just take it easy until I get better. My gyno said they will make at least two incisions, and if they find endo it will be at least four, so I know the recovery time will vary based on whether I actually have it or not. Thank you for the Gas-X tip, I was wondering about all that gas they fill you with.

Endowife- I do have digestive issues as well. I was diagnosed with Celiac about 3 years ago, so when I started having digestive issues again 2 years ago I went back to the gastroenterologist who, after performing every test possible, told me I have IBS. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it could actually be caused by endo instead.

I'm telling you...I still don't know how the gas-x helps but it did! I had the worst left sholder pain for the first two days of my first lap...but it greatly decreased rapidly after I started the gas-x. I took it right after getting home from surgeries 2 & 3 and never had the terrible gas pains. I got the extra strength gas x.
Also take the pain med on schedule for the first couple days even if you don't feel you need it. You are still under the effects of the anesthesia for awhile and so it may feel like you are great! But then the pain hits and then you are "behind" the pain...and it can be really hard to play catch up with the meds!

Ah, Celiac's disease? Yup, sounds like endo. Many women with endo also have other auto immune diseases and gluten intolerances are common.

You may want to buy Dr. Cook's recent book on Endometriosis (it's on Amazon, came out this summer) - he goes through all of the endo related pains. Although digestive issues are not necessarily caused by endo, they can be linked to endo. For example, I always have scar tissue growing because of the endo, and the scar tissue grows on my bowels, and voila. Digestive problems.

IBS is one of the catch all diseases that is often a misdiagnosis.

It's like fibromyalgia (a disease which causes pain all over, but in truth, its describing a condition, not a disease). IBS to me means "we don't know what's wrong with you, but you have tummy troubles, so let's call it something."

I was first diagnosed with IBS too. Many of us have been.

I hope you start to get some answers. I was diagnosed 6 months ago and keep searching for better and better doctors in my area. They are hard to find.

Are you going with a surgeon or an OB GYN?

Yes, it took me a while to put together that my IBS symptoms get much worse after sex or my period, I realized it was somehow related but it seems like IBS encompasses everything, so it was really hard to tell. Especially since there's an association of IBS with Celiac.

I am going with an OB GYN, I tried to find a specialist but I couldn't. I do know a gynecologic oncologist, and she does a lot of surgeries, so I asked her for recommendations and she recommended two different OB GYNs, so I just decided to stick with my own since I've been with him for three years now.

so the gynecologic oncologist doesn't do endo surgeries? wow, bizarre.

I went with my standard ob gyn the first time around and am sad that I did. I don't mean to slow things down, but most ob gyn's don't really know how to diagnose endo and most are not skilled enough surgeons to remove it if they find it. my ob gyn for example found a cyst, but didn't feel skilled enough to remove it completely so she left it. the 2nd surgery was with a gyno oncologist and it went much better. smaller scars (he even fixed one botched scar the other doc did!), more stuff removed, quicker recovery time.

She does tons of surgery, which is why I asked her for a recommendation but she just sent me to two OB GYNs, maybe there just aren't specialists in Austin or something? Either way I just want to get it over with ASAP, partially because I am currently super swollen, tender, and in a lot of pain but also because this is my last semester of college and I'm able to afford decent student insurance and time off for recovery during winter break. It's the best time to do it so I guess I'll just take my chances? I am still very worried about it though.

Should I be looking for a gyno oncologist instead? I thought they only dealt with cancer. I guess I also don't know what to search for, because you don't get any results with "endometriosis surgeon."

She actually just sent me another name, I'm checking out the doctor's website and it looks like she specializes in laparoscopy so I am going to look into getting an appointment with her!

Try calling the doctor referral line of your local hospitals and ask for gyns that treat endo. I have found several of my doctors that way over the years. Good luck

In my limited experience searching for a specialist they can be ob/gyn, gyn oncologist, or even reproductive endocrinologists the main thing is they usually have extra training in minimally invasive surgery and have treated a lot of endo. Some of the big things you want are excision (cutting out of endo) not cauterization - and to make sure they are comfortable dealing with the commonly effected areas such as ovaries, tubes, uterus, bladder, bowel, stomach, etc. With any luck you won't have it in these areas, but it saves a lot of hassle if your initial surgeon can get rid of it the first time around. Those are the two big questions I would ask before having another surgery though.

Hi!
I just wanted to share this link with you: http://www.endometriosisassn.org/advisors.html
I found it very helpful when I was looking for a specialist. Not everyone on the list is a surgeon, but if they are a surgeon and on the list it is a safe bet they have treated a good number of patients w/ endo.
You might have some luck calling around locally, and if the same name keeps popping up, it might be worth checking them out, but it looks like the closest doc on the list of advisors is in San Antonio. There are several in Houston and a few in the DFW area. Possibly you might have to travel? If it is out of your network, you may still be able to get coverage because endo is a condition that requires specialized surgery from a highly skilled provider, and very few docs are qualified to treat it properly.
If I'd had surgery with the first ob/gyn I saw, I would have had to schedule a second surgery to remove the tennis-ball sized blob of endo from my intestines. Most docs wouldn't have touched it, and I probably would have lost a section of intestine if I'd waited much longer to have it treated!
From what I understand, if you hear coagulation or vaporization, run. A bad surgery can make things worse. I quizzed my doctor pretty thoroughly before surgery, and I knew I was in VERY good hands. Make sure you trust the person who is about to cut on you! That is my best advice. Good luck!!!

Thank you so much guys! I found a specialist and will be meeting with him Tuesday. I keep seeing a lot of things about the Da Vinci technique, does anyone know about this and whether it's better or worse?