Saw videos of my surgeries

Yesterday I had my follow-up appointment and as promised, my surgeon showed me the video of my recent surgery. It was pretty cool, less surprising than I might have thought (guess the medical shows are accurate enough, in that overall, looked like I'd have expected). It was weird when she pointed out organs -- the bowels were clear to me, but what was my uterus, ovary, stomach, etc was not clear (and the perspective was weird, at one point my ovary looked twice as big as my uterus).

I could see the bands of omentum that she cut, and those were bigger than I'd visualized, so it was helpful to see.

Then she asked if I wanted to see my first surgery, and she showed me highlights of getting my colon out -- that one had a lot more action, although it was a bit lower quality video as it was a few years ago.

At Mass General, they routinely take videos of all the lapro surgeries, so I presume that's standard at other teaching hospitals too (for open surgeries, the surgeon has to wear a camera on his/her head, so that's not routine). She said the secure internet system is new, and before it wasn't so easy to just get them on her office computer. In any case, thought I'd mention.... if you're interested, this may be something that's available to you that you didn't know about.... I found it reassuring that these videos exist, so that if I should need another surgery the surgeon can review them (my surgeon is moving, sigh....)

I did get pics of my large intestine after surgery -- really helped me be clear that I'd made the right decision; the colon just looked so diseased that it was hard to believe that a new diet or stress reduction trick (or even miracle drug) would have mattered.... the entire transverse part was shriveled and narrow.... surgeon says they call that dead.... parts of it were black (although I think that was probably from the surgery itself)

I am doing much better, thanks. Still tired from the ileus/hospitalization, but pretty much recovered from surgery (she said I could swim, take baths, and lift stuff....).

I do fear that the surgery didn't really get at the reason for the blockages, though..... I always have a lump behind my stoma w the obstructions, and the bands she cut were higher up.... but it's good to know I'm clean inside now.... will just have to wait and see. I'm still being pretty cautious w/food (well, sometimes I get terrified that it's not going to go through.... but so far, no problems....)