Was your surgery open or lap?

Just curious, because it seems like the great majority of posts I read, the persons surgery was done laparoscopically. I had open RNY 5 years ago with a 13 in*****ision due to previous surgery scar tissue. Now, on 8/28 I'm having a revision RNY (long story!), also open.

I sooooo wish I could get this done via lap.! The pain from muscle, skin, etc. being cut 13 inches is truly BAD......that's my biggest fear right now is going through that level of pain again!

So, how many of you had open and how many lap?

Thanks for any answers, inquiring minds want to know lol!

open in 2005, 4.5 inch scar that was mostly removed with my tummy tuck  I just had lap surgery on my stomach 3 weeks ago, the gas sucks.  Good luck.

Why does this one have to be open?

My wife had hers last November and it was laparoscopic and I had mine this past Feb also laparoscopic.  

She had had c-sections prior to surgery though no other surgeries and the surgeon did clean up some scar tissue from those, but she had no other issues.  I had never had any abdominal surgery and had no issues.

I was walking that night, took no pain meds after the first night and have had no issues, so I can see why you would hope to have it done laproscopically.  

It is likely that it has to be open BECAUSE the first one was open and the adhesions from that one may prevent lap surgery this time around.  I had that issue with an exploratory surgery 5 years after my open RNY, and even my gallbladder surgery was lap with one incision that was 2 inches long because of scar tissue.

Lora

I was laproscopic using the divinci robot!  I have minimal scarring and fairly easy recovery have had no issues with adhesions or stoma problems thus far.  I read that the divinci reduces issues with scarring and reduces risk of the stoma needeing to be dialated (what this is called is escaping me but its an outpatient easy fix)  I may not have had any issues anyway so you never really know!

I had it done lap in 2008. 

Mine was lap

Open, at least 12 in scar from just below bra line to inside belly button. Surgeon decided open, said it was faster and safer. He only does select Lap surgeries and the wait is much longer.

Mine was open 7 years ago.  My surgeon generally preferred open and if you had any known conditions where it might cause her to have to start lap and then switch to open, she would just start open to begin with.

My original incision was about the size of yours, but unless you gave regained a lot of weight in your midsection, it will be a smaller incision (and therefore somewhat less painful) this time around.  My tummy tuck incisions, for example, which was the same midline incision, was less than half the length of my RNY incision because my belly no longer stuck out!

i know that having had one open surgery often necessitates later surgeries also being open because of scar tissue, but sometimes there are other surgeons who are far more comfortable with lap surgeries with scar tissue and might be willing to do it lap.  If you have multiple surgeons in your area who can do the revisions, it might be worth it to at least have a consultation with another surgeon.  I know that here we have a couple of surgeons that RARELY have to resort to an open surgery even after a previous open procedure.

Lora

I had Laproscopic. During my initial seminar the surgeon said he doesn't do open surgery even for revisions. I guess it's what your Surgeon feels comfortable with. You could get a second opinion at another surgeon. I had several other abdominal surgeries (not WLS) before this one, and while the doc said he had to remove some scar tissue it wasn't a problem.