Okay ladies, the window is closing for photos of your hindquarters... I'll be going in for the DaVinci procedure in the wee early hours on Thursday morning.
If everything looks good they release you to go home the very next day, but we'll see if I'm in any mood to get online on Friday, as I may be in some discomfort... not from the incisions, but from the gas.
You see, part of the laparoscopic surgery requires that they inflate your abdomen with carbon dioxide gas, to provide more working room... sort of "raising the roof". Most of the gas escapes from the body during/after the surgery but upwards of 10 percent of that gas is absorbed by the body and must be purged.
There is apparently a 72-hour period after the surgery in which the "processing/outgassing" of the CO2 causes pain in the diaphragm, which is mirrored to the shoulders since their nerves share the same "board" going into the spinal column.
It turns out that a colleague from the film industry had this same surgery a year ago, by the same surgeon, and he gave me his thoughts about the healing period and it'll just be annoying, not painful... not very painful anyway.
So get's to taking pictures of your end-bits, or your refrigerators, or your ceiling fans... I'll need something to look at while I'm puttering about the house....
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