8 Months Post Op - LOOONNNGGGG Update On My Experience
Hello hysterectomy fam 😄
I posted here last year just before my hysterectomy to get some advice and quell my fears of open abdominal surgery. Well, here I am exactly 8 months later so I wanted to provide an update for you all. Spoiler alert - I am doing incredibly well!
For those of you who are worried, I promise you most of you won't have the crazy situation I experienced with my surgery, and I still turned out just fine and healthy!
For those who gave me pre and post op tips....they were SOLID GOLD! Definitely start using a stool softener a week before your surgery, and throughout recovery. I had absolutely NO stomach or bowel issues due to this. I was worried that wiping would be an issue because you have to twist a little bit to reach the butt, but honestly the HARDEST part was literally just the standing up and sitting down on the toilet. Once I was on the toilet, no issues whatsoever.
So - for those who are looking at a hysterectomy in their future, here is what I went through so I hope it helps!
I had an abdominal hysterectomy, they took out the uterus, cervix, and fallopian tubes. But I kept my ovaries. My surgery took about 3 and a half hours and I was cut across my bikini line. Unfortunately, he had to cut literally as wide as my body would allow because my fibroid was so big. He said it was actually still really hard to get out because of the size....even though I was cut pretty much hip bone to hip bone. I am just thankful he did not have to cut vertically up to my belly button!
After getting out of surgery I was REALLY out of it for like 6 hours. Also, I apparently have a very poor reaction to the anti-nausea drug Zofran. So for the first 6 hours post-surgery I was throwing up every 2 hours when they would re-up the Zofran. It was some of the worst pain in my life. I was still groggy and out of it and every little muscle contraction in my stomach was just the worst. They finally got approval to give me a different anti nausea that they inject right into your muscle. That helped tremendously, but by that point I had already thrown up 4-5 times so I was just sore and achy and worried about popping stitches (did not pop any, thank goodness!).
I was very surprised to find out that I would be released the next morning. So like 15 hours after I got out of surgery. Personally I think I should have stayed one more night, but oh well. I had absolutely 0 bleeding, which I don't think is common, so definitely stock up on pads and stuff for your at-home recovery.
Driving home was very hard, even though my husband drove like a little old granny. Those 20 minutes felt like hours. But I did eventually get home and got myself upstairs to bed. Oof. That was rough and took me a LOOONNNGGG time to finally make it to our room. Recovery was pretty basic, though, and I was surprised at just how accurate my gyn was. I HATED it, but after a few days of bed rest I started walking up and down the hall a couple times a day. My body felt so off and I was weak, but I did it. And it was honestly really good for me and my body. When they tell you to get up and move, definitely do it! You do not want blood clots in your legs!
Also a tip I got from this subreddit last time I posted - ask your doctor if you can fill your prescription for pain meds (if you are getting any) BEFORE your surgery. My doc was very willing to do that and I am so glad I didn't have to take a detour to the pharmacy to get my medicine. It was already waiting for me at my sink when I got home. I did not end up taking it though, but that is a personal thing. Heavy drugs do pretty much nothing for me so I was stuck with advil and ibuprofin. They did the job, but I would have loved, just once, to be able to take medical grade pain killers and they actually work. 😞
At around the 3 week mark, while I was still sore and slow, I could move like a normal person! Get up and down from the bed, going up and down the stairs (albeit carefully). Driving short distances to the grocery store. Unfortunately, that same week (the 3 week mark) I ended up hospitalized because my incision had gotten infected. I did all the at home care they said, I carefully washed every day, made sure to keep it dry, didn't carry heavy things or stretch or anything. But still, it happens I guess. *Shrug* This infection and my resulting 5-day hospital stay was the most traumatizing of this whole event and I would guess the majority of you won't ever have to deal with it so count your lucky stars!
*Trigger warning - blood and some scary stuff. You do not have to read this paragraph if you don't want! It's details about my infection and resulting hospital stay*
So I thought something was wrong with my incision. It felt puffy all of a sudden and looked kind of swollen. I was freaking out so my husband came home to take me to the urgent care where they took one look at me and said yeahhhh go to the ER. So I did. And I did at the perfect time because by the time they got me into the ER room to do the testing, my incision had started draining blood. And not just like a little bit. It was soaking down my legs and into my socks. I was leaving pools of it around when I had to walk from the bed to the toilet. I was terrified. I could *feel* it when a new wave of whatever grossness would come out. I was shaking and freaking out in the ER because they were so busy I barely saw a doctor for 1 or 2 minutes at a time. They didn't seem worried at all about the massive amount of blood draining out of me but no one could take the time to really talk me down or anything so I am just freaking out the whole time. Was in the ER from about 6PM to 2AM. They did take me in for a scan and confirmed I had a big old infection under my incision and that I had to go back to the hospital to get it drained. So a 2AM ambulance trip right back to my hospital.
*Trigger end*
So I ended up back in the hospital and I was there for FIVE DAYS!!!! That is 5x longer than my stay for the actual surgery itself! They pumped me full of all sorts of antibiotics and fluids. But everything ended up being so poorly run - 1) they hadn't been able to do their own scans of my infection until day 2; 2) They confirmed it would need to be drained, but then I didn't get in for the draining procedure until DAY FOUR!!!!! 3) By then, it had mostly drained itself!!! There was nothing left and they cancelled the procedure. Turns out the fluids and antibiotics did all the work. The hospital schedule, I guess, is for one doc of each type to cover the floor in 12 hour shifts. So every 12 hours, I met a new doctor, who had to be brought up to speed on my situation, and then by the time they needed to order something for me or plan another scan, their shift was up and it was a new doctor and I had to start from scratch. I think this is what led to such delays on the scanning and ordering the draining procedure.
Not to mention, if I had any questions, no one knew who to go to. The doctor kept changing and I guess the floor I was on didn't typically do Gyn-post op so all the nurses and case workers and staff never had an answer to my questions or concerns. It was always "I don't know who to go for that." And the few that took pity and went to look for answers....well lets just say I never ended up with answers. They'd leave and then their shift would be up and I wouldn't see them again. SIGH! I eventually called my actual gynecologist - whose office, thankfully, shared a parking lot with the hospital. He did come to visit and stop by and was so upset to hear at how poorly I had been managed that week. I think he went to make a complaint but by that time it was day 4 and I knew I would be leaving on day 5.
And while all this was happening, I was actually healing! Like by the end of that hospital stay I could have danced and skipped across the floor. I was bending no problem, going to the bathroom alone, walking around mostly just bored out of my mind haha. I was SHOCKED at how normal I felt at that point. I was positive when my Gyno said I would be at 80% by the 3 week mark that he was wrong. But man, he was not. I was definitely at 80% at the 3 week mark.
So after 5 days being rehospitalized, I was released to come home. Thank god I had stocked up on pads ahead of time (even though I didn't have any vaginal bleeding) because apparently, pads make wonderful super absorbent packing against an incision. I was still draining a little at that time, but it was nothing like that first day when I was in the ER. A week later (so a full month after my surgery) everything seemed to be back to normal! I was healing really well, the infection was gone, I was moving like normal, I could finally sleep on my side again. Overall, I ended up quite healthy and am honestly living my best life now. My body just feels sooo much better.
Some tips from my time recovering though:
-If you have long hair, this will be the bane of your existence. I used so much of my upper body to move myself around, get in and out of bed, etc. If my hair wasn't up in a bun on my head, it would just get in the way!! Stuck to my neck or in my armpit. Caught between my back and the pillow so turning ended up tugging on it. I also had my surgery in summer and omg I was SOOO HOTTTTT. Felt like there was no relief!
-DON'T HAVE YOUR FUNNY FRIEND TAKE CARE OF YOU! Coughing, sneezing and laughing are all SO painful those first few weeks. Thank god I didn't cough, but I had a sneeze or two. And my husband, who is the funniest person on the planet, had to literally leave me alone for hours at a time because he was making me laugh. So painful omg. Even with the tummy pillow that I pressed against my incision, it felt like my soul left my body every time I needed to laugh or sneeze. ugh. Would not recommend.
- The prep items I found the MOST USEFUL during my recover: dulcolax stool softener, stepstool to get into and out of bed, hysterectomy pillows for my belly (I also had one for the seat belt in the car. Game changer!), pregnancy pillow so I could sleep on my back but still lean slightly, very very soft pants (dresses and big shirts didn't quite do it for me, I felt ALOT better having something tight around my belly like my undies and a binder, THEN wearing big soft pants over that).
- Definitely move around!! I didn't have the gas issue many have because I did not do laparoscopic, but just in general I found my body got stronger the days I moved around. I imagine it would be extra helpful with the gas buildup, too.
- Take the extra time off if you can. I took 2 weeks off - the first week my surgery was on Wednesday so really, post surgery, I only took a week and a half. The Monday I returned back to work after those 2 weeks was the day I ended up in the ER. I ended up having to take that week off ANYWAYS but I probably should have just booked it all off. Without getting an infection, I would have been totally fine but the fatigue was still pretty strong during the 3rd week even though everything else felt fine.
- For those keeping their ovaries: be prepared for very strange hormonal periods those first few months after surgery. For me, I still had my symptoms (cramps, fatigue, being extra emotional, etc) but they were at like 25% power. Very mild in comparison to the before times. BUT what I did not expect was that it all hit like AT ONCE. Before my surgery, my symptoms would slowly ramp up until period week and then slowly fade away. But I think because there's not really any reproductive system left, when I hit my hormonal cycle, it all just happened right then and there. Like the hormones had nowhere to go but directly into my system instead of cycling through whatever organ they normally would. Also, all my symptoms reduced significantly except being overly emotional. Before surgery, I could feel myself being just a little extra during my period. Things made me cry a bit more, my husband saying a one off comment would hurt my feelings more, etc. But it wasn't really overwhelming and I noticed immediately when I was getting emotional. Post surgery though - OMGGGG I am SOOO emotional during my period. Every little thing makes me cry, I just want to crawl into bed and watch romance movies until I sob, like really wild in comparison to how I used to be. After the first 3-4 months that extremeness diminished but even at 8 months post-op it still feels higher than it had been last year. Much more manageable now that I know what to expect and how it feels, but man it was really offputting those first few months. So just beware!
Wow okay so that was a novel and a half. I have lots more thoughts and advice but I think this is solid. DMs and comments always open if you have questions. Always happy to help 😄 Hope this was helpful for some of you! Good luck to those of you beginning or mid-way in your journey. YOU GOT THIS!!!
EDIT: I THOUGHT OF ONE CRITICAL PIECE OF ADVICE I FORGOT!! Get yourself a set of underwear a size larger than you are. You will be swollen and bloated for a long time (many weeks) and I honestly had to make an emergency amazon order for a couple sets of super large undies and pjs because what I had was just too tight. Don't be like me lol