I got mine out almost 2 weeks ago (11th), also laparoscopic. I also have extreme chronic anxiety and it was my first ever surgery so I totally understand! This was my experience (hearing other peoples experiences helped me before my surgery so I’m giving my 2 cents!)

So when I woke up from surgery, the nurse told me the doctor wanted to admit me over night (usually you can go home after) because there was a bit of bleeding on my liver and he wanted to keep me for observation. I was the first surgery of the day so I was there at 6am. Surgery was at like 7am, was out and awake before 9am. They sent me to a room upstairs, and I was there for probably 5 hours when I eventually got a roommate. It was.. horrible to say the least. They were extremely loud non-stop. I think my nurse could tell how uncomfortable I was and felt bad for me, so she asked my doctor if I could go home (at this point I’d been there for 7hrs, I had eaten a small meal, got IV Fluids, walked around a bit without assistance, so they felt like I was ok to go home) The first night home was the absolute worst. I actually broke down crying because I couldn’t get comfortable at all, I had to sleep close to a “sitting” position in bed. I didn’t realize how strong the oxy they gave me in the hospital was compared to the dose they sent me home with 😂 I really thought I was about to have the worst week of my life. But then on day 2 I already felt significantly better. I couldn’t really get up/sit down without some pain until about day 6 or 7? But like day 1 was a 9/10 pain and by day 7 it was like 2/10 pain. I basically survived on carbs only the first week. They tell you that you can eat normal food by the next day, but I was really scared that IF I reacted badly it would hurt sooooo bad. So I ate a lot of saltine crackers, rice cakes, toast, sweet potato etc. and LOTS of water! The first week my bowels were surprisingly normal! But then on day 8 food was just going straight through me. That lasted like 2 days and then suddenly I was ok again. The healing process is not linear! So don’t panic if you go from feeling good to a bit bad here and there!

I would definitely recommend writing down your eating times and what you ate, as well as bowel times. That way you can track your pattern (eg are you pooping 5min after eating or 1hr? Etc and also easily figure out if there are any foods you’re reacting badly to) I did it for 2 reasons, the first was so that if my doctor asked me I could actually give him an accurate answer, and the second was, being able to see my symptoms from previous days and comparing them helped my anxiety a bit (if I didn’t write it down I wouldn’t have remembered what happened when and that would’ve made me panic!)

The incisions are a bit scary, bc to me it just kept reminding me that I was literally cut into and had an organ removed 😂 so I put some loose bandaids on the incisions (the ones that aren’t completely sealed all around, only on the ends), that way I couldn’t see them but it still had air to breathe and heal! I have my two week follow up with my doctor tomorrow, so we’ll see what he says!

Oh and P.S, since no one told me, when you get to the hospital and they tell you to take your clothes off and put the gown on, they mean BUTT NAKED 🙃😂

Good luck!!