Interventions that enhance resilience Download complete PDF Resilience – the ability to recover quickly from difficulties. A skill that can be learned by those with chronic illness, including chronic pain. Identify individual character strengths and promote their use in regular and novel ways. Strengths such as hope, kindness, social intelligence, self-control and perspective buffer against the effects of stress, trauma and physical pain. Learn your character strengths www.viacharacter.org/Survey/Account/Register Keeping a Gratitude Diary Every day, write down 3 things for which … Read More

Renee explains the process of removing your pain pump tubes post surgery. After you come out of surgery you will have a ON-Q Pain Pump, contained in a small, black, fanny pack style, bag, clipped around your waist. It has two small tubes that are inserted into the left and right side of your pelvic area. These tubes feed a non-narcotic, local, anesthetic (Marcaine) to help with your post surgery recovery. In the following video she will explain in detail how to remove the pain pump tubes once the pain medication supply has depleted. The medication is housed in a receptacle and is delivered automatically. The receptacle is located inside the black bag and when the receptacle is full, it will look about the size of a softball. After about 5 days the receptacle should be depleted. On day 5 you will need to remove the tubes attached to the pain pump.

If you would like to become a patient at Pacific Endometriosis and Pelvic Surgery, these documents will explain the process, as well as give helpful information for before and after surgery. Register via the Patient Portal Within our website you will see a button that says “Patient Portal”. This is a link to the secure connection to our EMR (Electronic Medical Record), and allows us to have 2 way communication between the practice and our patients.  You will first need … Read More

During your initial visit, we will dive deeper into the details of your symptoms, discuss what’s been done in the past, and do a very detailed physical exam in order to have the best idea possible of what’s causing your pain prior to surgery. If you have pain with bowel movements Dr. Mosbrucker may need to do a rectal ultrasound in order to determine if there is endometriosis within the wall of the distal sigmoid colon or rectum. Most of … Read More

We prefer that most patients do a bowel prep the day before surgery.  This is a kinder, gentler prep that uses Miralax and is much less crampy than older preps such as Go-Lightly. There are several reasons for the bowel prep- first, it allows the colon to collapse and provides better visualization of the pelvis. Secondly, patients tend to have much less constipation and gas pain after surgery, and finally, if endo is found on the colon or if there … Read More

On the day of surgery, you will need to arrive at the hospital 2 hours before the anticipated time of your surgery. It is important to remember that the time of surgery is NOT an exact time unless you are the first case of the day, but it is an estimation based on how things are supposed to go in the patients before you. So, please keep your cellphones close to you that day in case we need to call … Read More

Most patients who undergo excision of endometriosis without a hysterectomy or bowel resection should be able to leave the hospital the day of surgery, however everyone wakes up from anesthesia differently. We try very hard to minimize pain and nausea in the immediate postop period so that you can go home (or to your hotel room), however if we are not able to control these adequately you may need to stay overnight. If you need a hysterectomy or a discoid … Read More

The most important things in the first week after surgery are to keep your stools soft, drink adequate amounts of fluid (at least 64 oz. / day), and eat foods that are easily digested (oatmeal, scrambled eggs, fruit, rice, yogurt, etc) and nothing too greasy or spicy. It is common to be a little nauseated for the first couple days after surgery – this can be from left-over anesthesia effects, pain meds, the surgery itself, or a combination of all … Read More

Chronic pain sometimes takes a long time to go away. Most of our endo patients have had their pain for many years, so it may not go away in a month or 2.  Patients who have robotic excision of endo with or without a presacral neurectomy will usually have pretty significant menstrual cramps the first few months after surgery. In fact, your first period after surgery may be worse than before surgery. Some lucky folks will have immediate pain relief … Read More