Recovery from a unilateral oophorectomy

@smiles444

Your pain may be a remnant of having your ovary removed. That would make sense since you just had surgery there. When i had my ovary out i had some pain for a few days and then I felt better. I didn't have the complication of a part of my bowel being stuck to the abdominal wall but I had a large chocolate cyst on my ovary and many adhesions caused by endometriosis. The doctor released the worst of these.

I know it's tempting to assume it was the surgery but coincidences do happen so I have to ask if you've had your appendix out yet. My appendix was actually an unusual presentation, as many of my complaints are. I had pain on the lower right side on and off for years. It was never severe, double over, vomiting and diarrhea like my son had kind of pain, when he had appendicitis. The night before I was supposed to have laparoscopic Nissan fundoplication surgery I started having lower right side pain that was pretty bad. I also, at the same time, was doubled over with upper left side pain.

Sounds kinda weird, right? Well not wanting to take any chances, with surgery coming up in the morning, I decided to go to the closest emergency room. It hurt! When i got there and explained the situation they called my surgeon and he asked that they transfer me to the hospital I was to have surgery at. They did an ultrasound and discovered i had "sludge" in my gallbladder but that pain resolved all of a sudden, as happens with gallbladder disease sometimes, as we were doing the ultrasound and by the time my doctor got there and ordered some lab tests my liver panel was only mildly elevated so we decided to look into it further in a nonemergency situation. My gallbladder could wait. They also checked my appendix. My white count was up, I had a fever, the ultrasound was inconclusive and my x-rays showed a huge impaction in the ascending colon. I was pretty constipated.

Under the circumstances, they decided to admit me, deal with the inpaction and constipation and reassess me in the morning for surgery. By morning, after a long night of Go-lytly and trips to the bathroom, the pain was worse, my fever was higher and we decided against the Nissan for now. In the meantime he told me that he wasn't convinced I had appendicitis. We tossed around exploratory surgery and he told me that 85% of the time exploratory surgery for pain yielded no answers. In spite of that we decided to do the exploratory surgery, I think to humor the patient who "knew something was wrong!"

To make a long story short I woke up 7 hours later to a room full of doctors. My doctor began: "your surgery took a little longer than we thought". He explained that he could usually remove an infected appendix, which mine was, in about 45 minutes laparoscopically, my surgery had taken 5 hours and several interns had been called in to observe. It seems he had many layers of adhesions to to go thru trying and failing to find my ovary, which had been removed but he didn't know that, and looking for my appendix. When he finally got to it, it was very long, inflamed and wound around my colon, right where the impaction had been. It appeared the appendix had caused some ischemia of the colon interfering with motility and causing the impaction. He said that in 20 years as a surgeon he had never seen evidence of chronic appendicitis, until my surgery. He didn't think it was a real diagnosis until now. We agreed that because I didn't appears not to have had acute symptoms until the night before, we missed it and it got better on it's own.

Now, this probably isn't what's wrong with you. I hate telling scare stories based on my crazy experiences. Hopefully you're just taking a bit longer to heal but it's worth checking out if you still have an appendix.

Hope you feel better soon.

Hi, @smiles444 - since you are still having this pain from your Nov. 27 oophorectomy and you thought you would be almost recovered by now, I imagine that would be disheartening.

I'd like to invite into this conversation some members who have talked about oophorectomy to get their thoughts on this pain you are having 5 weeks out from the surgery, like @oleander @goebels @pa58 @scoobydo2017 @iyew. @baxtersmom and @hopeful33250 may also have some input for you.

You mentioned speaking to a nurse at the doctor's office and that she does not seem concerned. Was this the surgeon or your general practitioner? Since you are still feeling concerned about this, perhaps you could also speak to the other to weigh in on this? Is anything providing some relief from this pain?

I take ibuprofen and tylenol but they don't have any real effect. The nurse is from the doctor's office (the one who performed the surgery). I am supposed to see the doctor on the 14th. At that point, maybe I will be better than I am now. In the meantime, I am making a list of symptoms and keeping a journal of symptoms for the next week. I think the frustrating thing is not knowing whether this part of the normal healing process or not. If there is a problem, I want to nip it in the bud as soon as possible. I don't chronic pain that goes on for years.

Hi,
I still have my appendix. That is interesting, I will have to bring this up to my doctor.

Lower right pain after laproscopic surgery

A little over a year ago i had laproscopic surgery to remove my left ovary, two cysts (one on each ovary - but right ovary remains) and both tubes. Everything was removed through the right incision. Took a number of weeks for this side to heal and things were improving. But now I have increased pain (dull ache) on right side. I also have back pain (had this before surgery) so do not know if the two issues are connected or if this has something to do with my surgery. Doctor did a scan just recently of my pelvis to make sure there was no additional cysts on right side, etc. and scan looked good. Can't figure out what is causing the pain and who I should go to next for help.

@colbycat1 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect.

I'm sorry to hear you are having pain and that the cause has not been found yet.

You'll notice that I moved your question to an already existing discussion. I did this so you could connect with members @smiles444 @2011panc @blinken @healthytoday @guss that have already discussed this topic or who may be able to off you support.

May I ask if you have considered going to a teaching or research hospital for a second opinion?

So far I have not. I have had two rounds of PT for my back issue. It was my back issue that brought me to the doctor to begin with. When they did an MRI, they picked up the two cysts which were not giving me any issues at all and turned out to be benign. I think after this next round of PT (which I am sure will improve nothing!) I will ask my regular doctor what is next step. I'm not really sure which kind of doctor I need to see now - an internist? Gynocologist?

I'm curious how you are now. I have been suffering after an oophorectomy and wondering if it could be adhesions.

I have this same issue except I had 4 ovarian torsions on both ends of a 13cm benign cystadeoma on my right ovary. They took the ovary left the tubes and other ovary and tube and where my ovary used to be is this intense dull ache (kind of like cramping) that I thought was associated with my period but it's all the time.
The only thing I could think of is remnants for your case and mine. Maybe a cyst was just forming again or not caught on the scan... make sure to keep advocating for yourself because docs tend to not believe women even female doctors! If you find out what the pain is drop a reply so we can know. I'll do the same. I'm about 3 months post op.

Hi all! I am scheduled for a right ovary removal and several small fibroid removal in mid sept. They are not causing much discomfort at all. I barely even feel them except a few days a month when I feel something slight. I really feel like I should wait because I’m reading horror stories and I don’t know if the surgery would be justified if it makes pain where there is none. Any advice for me? They found a 3cm cyst on my right ovary. And a 6 cm on my left that they were going to leave alone. I really don’t know if my doctor understands how much I do not want to go into surgical menopause.