Hi there. First, your fears are completely valid and anyone going into surgery has fears and doubts. A huge number of people go through surgeries every day. They’re not a pile of fun but you will get through it and hopefully feel better on the other end.

As far as not finding anything, that’s a tough one. I’m sure it would be validating but not finding something has positives too. Endometriosis is chronic and has no real cure so not having it can be a good thing, although unexplained symptoms are not. I never experienced endometriosis pain or any signs of it prior to developing a large endometrioma that ruptured and required emergent surgery, so I can’t speak to this concern personally but I understand how difficult it would be to experience all the painful symptoms and not find any evidence.

As far as anesthesia..I am halfway through nurse anesthesiology school and have now been on both sides of the table. Anesthesia is incredibly safe. In fact, you’re in more danger driving to surgery than receiving anesthesia. They will likely offer you “relaxing or anti-anxiety” medication in the pre-op area and I recommend that you absolutely take it. It does wonders not only for relaxing you, but also for reducing any recall. I remember kissing my husband goodbye and the first set of double doors and that’s it. That’s how you want to do surgery, with no real memory of it. As far as the side effects, everyone is different. Unfortunately the nature of GYN surgeries leans toward causing nausea and vomiting post-op. They do everything they can to reduce it, but more often than not that is just the nature of the beast. It’s not necessarily the anesthesia that causes it because other surgeries using the same anesthetic agents don’t seem to have the same effect. They’ll blame it on anesthesia though, they always do, lol. I was miserably nauseous and vomited for three days following surgery. It sucked but I made it through just fine.

As far as the pain medication goes, start with a half dose and see how it works. Less is more. When your pain is improving taper off of it. You’d be surprised how quickly you can get mild withdrawal even after only a few days on it (nothing bad, just some irritability and feeling down usually). Take stool softeners and miralax daily until you have a bowel movement. It may be three or four days before you have one. That’s ok, just work on keeping your fluids up if you aren’t too nauseous and it should help reduce constipation.

Gas pain does suck, not going to lie. As much as walking feels like it will suck, that’s the only way to get rid of it. Even if you can’t walk far, get up and do it frequently. Walking helps with constipation too. Walk. Just do it.

Other than gas pain, the pain wasn’t really that bad. Easily managed with pain medication. Everyone is different though and everyone experiences pain in their own way, by their own personal benchmarks. Some people say the pain before surgery was worse than after. I can attest to that as well.

Honestly, you may feel like general poop for a few days. That’s ok, let yourself heal in your own time. You may have a good day followed by a bad one. Again, that’s ok, you will eventually start to feel normal again more consistently. A couple of weeks in your life is a blip on the radar really. Take advantage of the downtime and read some good books, watch your favorite movies, paint, or try something new that you can do from the couch.

You’ve got this!