Appendicitis recovery surgery
What happens on surgery day?
The first step will be reporting to a nursing unit which would be pre operating. Here you will be asked to come in your hospital operation clothes or the operation gown. The paper work and other formalities will be taken care of by the nurse attendant; she will check whether all your formalities are done away with. Then you will be shifted to the pre operating nursing unit of the hospital where you would be treated. Here you would be given anesthesia after being checked properly by the anesthetists. The name and the type of your procedure and your surgery would be checked before hand and thus the appropriate form of the surgery would be given to you.
What will be the type of anesthesia that would be given?
There will be an interview a pre operative interview done with you, this interview would basically check your medical history and even see what your body complications are; accordingly you would be given anesthesia. Mostly appendectomy is done with the general anesthesia.
How is the surgery performed?
What happens during it?
If you are undergoing laparoscopy then there might be a small operation, this would be simple as the doctor would just make three or four incisions mostly small, in your body. Then a tube like instrument would be inserted then through it the surgeon will view the abdominal cavity that is filled with gas. A camera would be fixed inside your abdomen that would make the viewing of operation easier for you. This helps the doctor and he doesn’t have to make a large incision in your abdomen.
There might be factors that require surgery other than laparoscopy; otherwise in most of the cases laparoscopy is done. The incision points are made two third distances between the belly button and the hip bone.
The surgeon will cut and remove the appendix after the surgery; this is done if the appendix has been ruptured. The incision might be left bit open to prevent infection.
After surgery?
You would be taken to the recovery unit after the surgery is done, and here nurses would be monitoring your recovery and even other activities. The bandages must always be clean and dry, there might be slight discomfort where the incision is done so the surgeon may prescribe a pain relieving medicine.
What is the duration till which a patient has to be in hospital?
After appendectomy mostly seven to ten days while after laparoscopy it might only take four or five days.
Are there risks associated with appendectomy?
There are risks associated with nearly every surgery; these are like bleeding risks or risk associated with anesthesia. Doctor may inform you about t6hese risks before the surgery.
Anything to watch out for?
The patient should contact the doctor if:
a. He gets fever.
b. The pain at the incisions gets worse.
c. There is light swelling or redness around incisions.
d. The incision of the patient becomes warm to touch.
After laparoscopy the incisions of the patient should heal at a faster rate, this might leave bit scars but open method would leave bigger scars than laparoscopy.
What is the time to return back to normal work?
Light home activities are mostly recommended after the surgery, normal walking jogging bathing and even other activities are easily done in a few days, and the patient taking narcotic medicine should not drive for a few days.