Welcome, Woodstock99.  I don't see why you cannot express a preference; however, it may be useful to get your opthamologist involved to express a medical opinion.  If that specialist doesn't see a problem, you can reassess or simply tell your surgeon that you want an open surgery.  I believe that is called a "laparotomy," and that anything with "-scopic" in it is meant to convey a less invasive operation.  There were studies published in the last two years that concluded that robotic did not offer any greater benefit overall.  However, I suspect that the younger generation of surgeons is probably more experienced in robotic than open.  You might want to ask your doctor what her surgical history/experience is, to settle your mind.  I had an open surgery (never given a choice) and recovered very easily.  But I think the type of incision is important, though.  The ob/gyn who did my hysterectomy chose an incision that prevented me from getting sentinel node dissection.

Best wishes to you as you approach this surgery; it is important to get settled in your mind what is going to happen and have confidence in your practitioner.  Oldbeauty

I think in laparoscopic, the surgeon makes tiny incisions and inserts camera and small instruments and operates using those (with his own hands).

In robotic, the surgeon will direct a robot from a console to operate. It's supposed to be more exact than laparoscopic because a robot's instruments can rotate a full 360 degrees and are more flexible than a surgeon's hands/wrist. 

I don't know what I had of the two, but I did see the big machine/robot on my left side before I fell asleep. It was a bit scary to see.

I don't think any of these two take longer than the open surgery, but I might be wrong. My scans had told my oncologist/surgeon that the uterus was small and that there were no other masses anywhere else that they could see, so laparoscopic and robotic were the main choices.

I agree you should voice your concerns about your eyes and involve your eye doctor. Technology and science advance every year and we should take advantage of it as much as we can.

I was 63 when I had robotic surgery after I was found to have UPSC. I was in the hospital overnight and went home the next day. I had  small scars on my abdomen and my recovery was very fast. I had laparoscopic surgery a few years before that to remove my gallbladder and that was a fast recovery too. I have small scars from it too. My husband jokes I look like I was in a knife fight with my small scars from both surgeries. A friend had open surgery because of her ovarian cancer and her recovery was a lot longer than mine. Checking with your eye doctor is a good suggestion. I was very happy I had robotic surgery. 

woodstock99 said:

For those who did robitic,

For those who did robitic, are any of you over 65 if you don;t mind my asking?  Thanks.  

57 when I had my surgery, two years ago.

No real issues post surgery. I also had my surgery at Mayo, Rochester, and I would expect that if it were not a safe procedure they would not have used it. I can only speak for myself, but after having two C-sections with a much younger body, I was so happy that this was offered to me because abdominal surgery takes a while to recover from. They did warn me that I might have to have open surgery if things were not right for the robotic approach. Any surgery is a major event so it is normal to be concerned and try to ease your mind at their approach. Ask questions until you are satisfied with the answers. Good luck to you!

Denise