Originally posted by: Sust
LEEP was typically more bearable for some women.
The most painful part of the procedure was probably the initial injections of lidocaine into the cervix. This is the way I learned to do it:
If patient is anxious, give some fast acting benzo to relax them first.
In order to get a proper pain block in cervix, they inject lidocaine, bupivicaine, or whatever anesthetic they want to use into the 2,4,7, and 11 'o clock fornices of the cervix. Once the anesthetic kicks in and the entire area is numb, most women dont feel any pain, but the sensation of movement in that area is preserved and I think the mental image that some patients have of what is going on inside makes the pain feel real even though there is a ton of anesthetic blocking pain sensation. I'm not saying the pain isn't there in the mind, but there is a low probability that there were any pain signals being sent from the neurons in the cervix up to the brain when there is that much pain medication locally administered to the area.
Are they going to put you to sleep under general anesthesia/intubation in order to do this procedure because we typically did LEEP on an outpatient basis and no one stayed in the hospital overnight for this.
Again, sorry to hear that you have to go through this procedure, but I think that it's a small price to pay in comparison to other possibilities.
I saw one 30 something mother who had recurrent cervical cancer even after hysterectomy. So what she was going to have done was a
total pelvic exenteration where they basically removed her bladder+urethra, vagina, and a portion of her rectum through an ovular incision from the top of the skin over the vagina to the back skin of the anus. No exaggeration when all of that stuff came out in ONE piece. Afterwards, they took some of her small intestine and fashioned a quasi bladder for her which connected to a tube sticking out of her belly to pee into a bag. They also took the loop of large intestine and put that outlet on the belly also so that she could poop into a bag. Afterwards, the plastic surgeons came in and cut 2 muscles out of her legs and fashioned a new vagina for her out of them. That's the crude summary.
It was an epic 16 hour procedure which could only be endured by a mother who wanted to spend a few more years watching her little girl grow up. After seeing that tragic story and operation, I encourage routine pap smears in age-appropriate women and HPV vaccination to all parents for their pre-pubescent teens.
Good luck and know that your preventive efforts now will pay off later.
