Recovering from a Hysterectomy

I had one and maily no lifting or walking up stairs is what I was told. The pain is not to bad but I have a high tolerance for pain. This is the time to show your family how to pull togther in a time of need. They are all old enough to help. I actually went back to work in two weeks.

Hi J.,
I have 2 friends that had a Laproscopic hysterectomy. I found out from both of them that the Dr's said it was a 2 week recovery-for them it was NOT TRUE!! Neither one of them truly felt like "themselves" for about 4-6 weeks. I think after the first week you could probably handle the kids by yourself, but from what they have said, it sounds like you might want to make sure your mom is available for at least the first full week. On a good note, they both found the post-op pain to be much less than they expected.
Good Luck!
M.

I had a hysterectomy 2 months after my third child was born. All I can say is take all the help you can get at first. You will be sore, not really in pain, more like cramping. I did not have a lot of bleeding, just some minor spotting. As far as emotions, that's a different story. I was very upset and even went through a slight depression knowing that I could never become pregnant again. Just make sure that you have a good support system and don't hold your feelings inside. It has been 1 1/2 yrs since my surgery, and now I have no regrets. I have 3 beautiful little boys who are 5,3,& 1, and I am so grateful to be blessed with them. There is one plus side to having a hysterectomy, NO MORE PERIODS!!!!

I had a vaginal hysto a few years back. I was so exhausted...my mom helped by picking up my youngest and taking him to day care. You are gonna need lots of sleep. The pain wasn't too bad, a few days. The tiredness was the worse, my Dr. told me that I may feel run down as long as a year. You just need to make sure you lots of sleep.

The biggest recomendation I would have it to make meals ahead of surgery, so they can be reheated, (everyone still has to eat even you - unless your lucky and your husband cooks) becuase the exhaustion form the surgery is the worst part. I was so exhausted from my surgery for 4-5 days after I got home. The pain wasn't unbearable. Mine compared to recovery from normal childbirth (no c-section). I had some spotting while in the hospital and that was it. I would also recommend not picking up the kiddos, no matter how much you want to. I made that mistake, my son (4 years old) fell asleep in the living room, husband was asleep, so I thought I could do it, I almost screamed. I was resting for a couple days after. I was out walking and moving around pretty good in about 2 weeks. Overall it was not a bad recovery from a major surgery. Just listen to the doctors instructions.

J., I had to have a hysterectomy when my youngest was just 6 months old. I have to tell you, it was quite painful and I did take the pain meds for a few days (I hate pain meds!!) but within a few days I was able to get up and around. I had it on a Tuesday and that Saturday we went to an amusement park and I was able to walk around - I took it easy but I got around fine.
Good luck and God Bless!

Hi J., Don't be scared if you have a good Dr. you will do great. I was not prepred for the pain when i woke up, but they have a morphine pump you ounch as soon as you feel it. The best thing that happened to me was getting out of bed so soon and peeing. So get the cathter out. After that first pin with the pump, i got by on pi;;s. In fact i went home the next morning. You will feel bloated and a little sore, most le bloated, drink alot, it keeps you up and down. But when you takwe yur pain mecicine, get your rest and sleep. I will pray for you. Like i said if you have a good dr. that have it downpat any ore. My dr. couldn't believe i wanted to check myself out in lest than 24 hours. Now mind you i did get a hospital bed and hubby waited on me, i milked it. I went to a confirmation party for my nephew in 4 days, hen wet ome and pooped out. Do not over do.I had little if no blood that i can remember. If you are having problems ,like pms, bleeding, cramps ect you will be thrilled with results. If you are single then you need to stay in hospital or neeed friend or family to help you because you feel weak. You willdo great sweetie, leave it in the lord's hands, and dont be afraid to ask for help fro any body. My prayers are with you. In a month you will be so glad you are not having period and cramping, ect, God Bles you, johnnii

J.: I am a older than you, I can tell, for I had a hysterectomy 25 years ago. Really, I got along very well. You are young and will probably not have any trouble.(I had three children at home at the time - ages 6, 4 1). But the one thing I would like you to know is that you need to "take it easy" as much as possible for about 6 weeks. It just sorta saps the strength out of you if you do to much. I had the surgery one day and went home the next. I really felt great so decided to vaccum a little. IN abut 5 minutes, I thought I would drop to the floor if I didn't lay down. So rest as much as you can. Do a little chore and then rest a while and you will do fine. If your Mom can help a little, that would be great. Tell your husband to plan to "bring" in meals for about a week and that will help you not to stress out over cooking. Also your children can help a lot. Tell them you need their help and they will step right in. After about 6 weeks, you will find yourself going strong again. God bless you and your family.

Chris P.

Hey J.,

I had an abdominal hysterectomy on Jan. 31. (I had 2 c-sections and an appendectomy which would not allow me to have a laparoscopic procedure.) I spent 2 days in the hospital and was driving 5 days after being discharged. You should be much quicker as you will not have a 6 inch incision on your belly. As far as bleeding, there is just a little brown discharge that can easily be taken care of with a panty shield. This lasted about 7 days. Pain was controlled initially with percocet. This is narcotic so you cannot drive with it. A few days home I was able to stop that and I then took motrin with great success. If you are going to have both of your ovaries removed, ask about hormone replacement to start immediately. They put a patch on me in the OR even before I woke up. Once I was able to eat, I started hormone pills because my skin is sensitive and reacts to the adhesive on the patch. Since on the hormones every day, I have no mood swings and feel great. I love not having a period, bloating, tiredness, mood swings, etc. Good luck to you. You should do fine.

Hi J.,

I had a hysterectomy in June 2007, my kids are 2 and 5. I had to have a "cut" (instead of laproscopic) and had both the uterus and ovaries removed. Honestly, for me, I didn't have what I would consider excess pain. When I first woke up from the surgery, I had cramps, but it felt like really bad period cramps and the pain relief I was given took care of it. Once I left the hospital, I was given pain meds, but I hardly used any of the strong stuff.

After I was home, I was fortunate to have people from church who would take my kids for a few hours so I could rest. I think I probably had people take them for about 2 weeks (plus my mother in law was here for a few days and my husband took some time off work). All in all, I had some sort of help for about 4 weeks. I would suggest lining up some friends to bring meals to you 2-3 times a week for 2 weeks, then you will probably feel like you can do things for yourself. My experience was that I bounced back pretty quickly and never needed constant care.

If you don't live in a place where you have a lot of friends/family, make sure you stock your fridge with easy meals (frozen dinners) so you don't have to worry about wearing yourself out fixing meals. Delegate some of your household chores to your kids. They should be able to understand that you need some help and that they need to do their part.

I had my surgery because I was finished having kids and there is a history of ovarian cancer in my family. I feel like the decision to have a hysterectomy was the right one, but I did have a bit of mourning, knowing I couldn't ever have kids again. I didn't want any more kids, but the whole idea that I couldn't have them was kind of hard.

I was a little frightened of the surgery and started crying right before I went into the operating room. The doctor and nurses I had were really great. When the anesthesiologist saw that I was crying, he was very understanding and assured me that the medication they were going to give me would help me relax - which they did.

Since the surgery, I think I feel better. Even though I wasn't having any problems before my surgery, my emotions seemed to be more even after the surgery. I am currently on hormone replacement (Vivelle patches)which work fine for me. I will probably quit taking the hormones in a few months, then go through early menopause - I'm 45 (going through menopause surely will be a whole different story)!

Be sure to write down all your questions to ask your doctor prior to your surgery and make sure he/she answers them in a way that make sense to you. I had a lot of questions about weight, mood, sex, etc.

I hope this information is helpful and doesn't sound too "bossy". I know you will be fine. There are also websites you can find online that can offer support. I read just a couple of those, but I think it's rare that women with young kids have hysterectomies. One website I visited talked about how you could use your recovery time to relax and write that novel you always wanted! Yeh, whatever...not with a 2 and 5 year old crawling all over me! :)

If you attend church, you should ask people to pray for you (you don't have to give them all the gory details). I asked the pastors at my church to pray for me, but just told them I was having some surgery I was nervous about. I never felt the need to tell them specifically what type of surgery. Anyway, I know that having people pray for me, really helped.

Good Luck!

L.

Do you know about Essential Oils of the Bible? They are theraputic and very helpful.

Well I haven't had a laperscopic husterectomy but I have had laperscopic surgery before. My advice would be to get as much help as possible the first few days atleast. I just remember it was hard to walk upright it seemed like I was walking hunched forward for about a week or so because my stomach was pretty sore, plus recovering from any type of surgery drains your energy. I wish you the best of luck.

Try this wonderful website!!

http://www.hystersisters.com/

I just had the same procedure 8 weeks ago and I am as good as new. The pain's only bad for about one week. Just stay in bed as much as you can. Pick up each of your kids and hug them before the operation, because after it you can't lift anything or you'll be right back in the hospital. I'm up to lifting 20 lbs. now. I can't even tell a difference in my body. I feel fine. They left my ovaries in so I don't have a period anymore, but I'm not going into menapause yet either. It's a major operation, so you have to put your health first, instead of your children's wants and desires, because you have to take care of yourself now so you can take care of them later.
Before my operation I practiced with the children by calling the home phone from my cell phone so they could practice taking care of me. I'd ask them to bring me a glass of water or my slippers, etc. You're kids will surprise you. They will take care of you if you tell them what you need.
The pain's not bad because they give you pain medicine. I had a urine bag, and that really didn't even hurt, and it was temporary. So as long as you lay around and sit around and let others take care of yu for a while for a change, you'll really be okay. Don't worry so much. Also, if you're on the hospital ward with all the new babies, the nurses like to take care of you more than the others because this operation is much easier to take care of. And don't forget, you can call room service in the hospitals now and eat good food and grape juice!
I was nervous too, but really you'll be fine. It's amazing what doctor's can do!
Good Luck!
P.

Follow ALL directions from the doctor to the letter, particularly not doing stairs or lifting. The lifting part will be hard for you to avoid! If someone can come and stay with you the first couple of weeks it would really help. You'll FEEL like you can do a lot right away, but you can really do some damage if you don't follow orders. You don't say whether you're having a complete or a partial; partials don't take as long for recovery. My advice, too, would be to get on some kind of hormone replacement right away. Even keeping my ovaries I still have to take birth control pills because I started getting terrible migraines after surgery. Also, my skin started aging at a really rapid rate about 6 mo. after the surgery, and the hormones seem to help (I also started using Olay Regenerist Serum at night... can't say enough good things about THAT stuff!). I'm SO glad I had it done because having no periods and pain is well worth any and all sacrifices. Just take care of yourself. It's going to be hard with so many little ones. I'd talk to them before the surgery and tell them that it's going to take a long time for you to heal and you're really going to need their help; and it's going to LOOK like Mommy is all better but she's not going to be able to do what she usually does for awhile and will need to sleep a lot more for awhile too. Good luck!

I had a laproscopic hysterectomy last September. There was some pain associated with it immediately after the surgery and soreness for at least a week - particularly when I had to have a bowel movement. I took the pain pills prescribed for about a week - then took ibuprophen. I think the thing you are going to need to be the most religious about in your recovery is following the limits on the weight you can lift. It is very important because of how you heal inside - you don't want to have to go back to have your bladder tied back up, etc. later. I think all of your children are old enough to help you in that area. They can help you load the washing machine and fold and put away the clothes - help set the table and load the dishwasher. Another thing I noticed was more discomfort when I stood for a long period of time. Maybe Dad will have to do the cooking for the first couple of weeks - or at least the majority of it. Grocery shopping is another thing he or your mom should probably take over for a couple of weeks.

Get pleantly of rest - I was surprised at how much I wanted to sleep - took a nap in the a.m. and the afternoon, too. Maybe you mom could stay part of the day or take you 4-year old with her part of the day for several days - so you can get that type of rest.

I think you will do fine - it is not a difficult surgery - I had an earlier surgery many years ago with a bikini line incision and that was much, much,much worse - no comparison!
If I were you, put your fear aside and be grateful this technique is available to you - at your age, you'll breeze through it!

Not alot that I remember from having mine a few years ago. I do know that you will need all the help that you can get cause one of the restrictions that you will be given is that you can't lift over 5 lbs. just like if you had a c-section. I was sore for a bit but was able to get up and move around some there was a little bleeding almost like one last period for me. As for emotions I'm sure it varies from one to the next it will also depend on if they keep your ovaries in or not mine were kept in so not too much emotional stuff on my end.

Hi there I had a the same laproscopic hysterectomy done 8 years ago when I was 22. At the time I had a 9 month old, 4 year old and a 5 year old. My husband wasn't able to take off much either. My parents helped a little but it really was not that bad at all. I have compared to others the recovery being somewhat like the recovery of the birth of a baby. A few days and I was much better still sore but not bed ridden for sure. I don't remember having much bleeding at all when I came home. But that was 8 years ago :) But I really don't think I did. I will tell you that essentially what they are doing is throwing you into menopause so you will have all those emotions. It wasn't fun for a while....I will be honest with you. Until we got my hormones adjusted it was very interesting to say the least....night sweats, hot flashes, lack of sex drive, exhaustion. I don't know how old you are but if you are still younger, I had to finally get some testosterone in addition to my estrogen and that helped drastically. If you have any more questions please feel free to ask them. I will tell you all and I will not be offended so do not be afraid to ask something. I will tell you though that now looking back, and I don't know what your problems are, it was the best thing I ever did. I had severe endometriosis and was having to take a percocet every day to get out of bed. It was nto good I was in so much pain. Are they doing a complete and taking your ovaries too?

Here is my email if you would like to contact me with any questions now or even later after the surgery: ____@____.com Luck and I hope this helps, S.