LAVH - Procrastination And Complications - Hystersisters Hysterectomy Article

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LAVH - Procrastination And Complications

LAVH - Procrastination And Complications

From the Vaginal Hysterectomy Stories Articles List

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Options to Hysterectomy
Pre-Op Hysterectomy
Post-Op Hysterectomy
Hormone and Menopause
Intimacy after Hysterectomy
Fitness after Hysterectomy
GYN Cancer
Hysterectomy Stories
Ask A Doctor

I had large fibroids that my gynecologist was “watching”. We monitored them with periodic ultrasounds, but did not do much since I did not have any other fibroid symptoms. Approximately 2 years ago, my Doctor recommended a hysterectomy indicating my uterus was enlarged as if I were carrying a 14 week old fetus. She said it was no longer possible to examine my uterus. I asked for alternative treatments because even if I was 99.9% sure I would not have any children I was not prepared to not be able to have them. I was also terrified of having surgery as I had never had surgery before. I elected to try a series of Lupron injections to shrink the fibroids. I understood that I might experience menopausal symptoms and that there was a 50% chance that the fibroids would grow back even larger. But it bought me time. The injections worked but unfortunately I also experienced radical hot flashes and they eventually grew back and increased in size. In August, my Doctor indicated that it was elective surgery at this time but one of two things were going to happen. They would either stop growing when I went into menopause or they would grow and start to involve other organs and require emergency surgery. I’m 45 and not currently working so it made sense to take care of this now. My sister offered to fly out to take care of me and we scheduled surgery for November 1st. This gave me 5 weeks to prepare. But, how does one prepare when they are terrified? I started out with preparing a will, an advance healthcare directive, and a medical power of attorney. Then I found “The Worried Woman’s Guide to Hysterectomy”. List of ways I benefited from this guide.

• It helped me understand what I was dealing with and to redirect my energies to preparing myself for this.
• It inspired me to hit the gym daily focusing on building up my abdominal muscles. I lost 7 lbs in 5 weeks.
• I invested $12 in a Spirometer purchased from a medical supply company on the internet and practiced my breathing daily prior to the surgery.
• I was introduced to the concept of gas pain vs incision pain. I was prepared for both and started to learn to manage the both with medication.
• It inspired me to cook and freeze meals for myself
• Gave me some guidelines for setting up my recovery room downstairs
• Made me focus on being proactive about my health. I started to catch a cold a week before surgery. I called my Doctor and got a Z-Pack of Antibiotics and started to rest and drink liquids.
• Great suggestions on what to pack,
Best recommendations:
Tummy Pillow
Neck Pillow
Soft fuzzy robe
Lip balm
Things I didn’t need while there:
Hot and Cold Pack (loving it now but did not need it there)
PJ’s (couldn’t wear my own had too many tubes)
My Own Food (I’ve been home 3 days and am not yet eating solids)

My Experience

Pre-Op
My regular OB/GYN had a family emergency and asked if I would mind if her partner handled my surgery. I met with my new OB/GYN liked her and agreed to go forward. The day before surgery we met again, signed forms, discussed possible complications and decisions. I understood that they were going to attempt to do the surgery vaginally but that there was a possibility that they would have to make an incision. She asked me to pick up some Magnesium Citrate to clean out my system and suggested I take it as soon as I get home. I then walked next door to the hospital and went through pre-admission and tests. Blood, Urine, EKG, Chest X-Ray. Unfortunately the check Xray took 3 HOURS! to complete. I was upset as I had errands to run, had to pick my sister up at the airport and knew that the Magnesium Citrate would have me tied to the bathroom. I ended up getting out of there at 5pm running a few errands, taking the Magnesium Citrate, and ordering a car to pick up my sister. By the time my sister arrived at the house at 11pm, my system was substantially clean.

My sister and I woke-up at 4am to walk the dog before heading to the hospital for 5:30 am admission for my 7:30 am surgery. It was there that I found out that I have very small veins that are deep in my skin. After 3 attempts they got my IV started. They kept adding blankets to my bed because each progressive room was colder than the one before. Outside the operating room I put on my surgical cap, went to the rest room one last time, visited briefly with my Doctor and anesthesiologist. The last thing I remember is them sitting me up for my epidural shot while they started general anesthesia.

Post –Op 12:30pm
I remember hearing someone talking about taking “her” to ICU because she was so cold before opening my eyes. There were two nurses adding blankets, taking my temperature telling me I was only 94 degrees and had to raise my temperature because I was in the operating room for so long. They gave me my glasses and explained that I had a tube in my nose because that’s what they do for these types of surgeries. (I have a vague recollection of a subsequent conversation where one told the other that it wasn’t her place to say what happened). I had a catheter, heart monitor, oxygen clip on my finger, leg pumps, nose tube and an IV which included an antibiotic. I was wheeled into my room at 2pm and remember a bit more fussing and someone telling me to breath deep every hour. I tried to do a series of deep breaths every time I heard the leg pumps kick into action. I wasn’t in any pain and was focused on making sure I didn’t feel any. I was told that I should not feel a thing down below for 18 to 24 hours after the epidural. As a precaution I asked for my pain killer at 18 hours. I was not awake for longer than 15 minutes at a time and struggled to keep my eyes open when my sister came to visit me. I asked her to leave me to sleep after about 45 minutes. The only thing I focused on was the clock. I did not have the energy to figure out how to turn the light off in my room so I passed in and out of consciousness all night with it on.

Complications
At 6pm my Doctor came in and woke me up. She explained that they had some complications and had accidentally punctured my bowel when they went in with the laperscope. She said the repair took longer than the intended surgery and was grateful that I had followed her directions and cleaned out my bowel. She said that this had never happened to either of the surgeeons before and they hope it never happened again. She said my recovery time overall would be quick because it was still vaginal, but that I would have to be in the hospital longer because they needed to be very careful about restarting my stomach. The nose tube went down my throat to my stomach and was there to pump everything out of my stomach. I was not allowed any ice chips or liquids. My “meals” were limited to the IV and a little wet sponge that I would use to wet my lips and tongue. My surgery was Tuesday at 7:30am they did not have me up and walking until 5pm on Wednesday due to the amount of anesthesia in my system and all my connecting tubes. They removed my catheter but still had me hooked up to the nose tube, leg pumps, and IV. My OB/GYN came to visit Wednesday at 6pm. She told me I could remove the tube as soon as I was able to burp. I told her I had been burping. She indicated that that was very good and gave me a choice between ice chips and nose tube removal in a few hours or immediate nose tube removal. I elected ice chips because I had been dreaming about a cold glass of water all night. At 9pm the tube was removed and so were the leg pumps. I was able to get up go to the bathroom on my own, I immediately passed gas and had a very small bowel movement on my next trip. I felt human again and could talk! I was very excited and ready to start drinking liquids and working my way up to food. Unfortunately my OB/GYN and Surgeon were playing Good Cop / Bad Cop with me. My Surgeon came in on Thursday morning to visit he immediately observed that the tube had been removed. I lit up with a smile and proudly announced that I had also passed gas and had a 2 BM’s. He frowned and asked who said I could remove the tube. I told him that my OB / GYN had and asked him when I could start eating. He indicated that perhaps I could start drinking water the next day. Yipes! I was bummed and made no secret of it. He backed down and agreed to give me water that afternoon to see how I tolerated it. I immediately received a cup of ice water and was told to take it slow for a few hours to see what happens. Then a food tray arrived. I ignored it. Around 5pm my nurse came in to check on my and asked why I had not eaten. I reminded her that she told me to wait a few hours after the water and that things were not the proper temperature now. She started to heat things up and encouraged me to consume them. It tasted pretty bad and I was inclined to just leave it. My nurses frowns and my sisters warnings that they were going to tell the Doctors that I wasn’t able to eat inspired me to finish my salty luke warm broth and watermelon jello. (yum) Each day was better than the one before and on Friday they unhooked the IV and I was able to walk around freely doing laps around the floor, clean up my room, make lists of things for people to bring me to do. My OB/GYN came in at 2:30 and told me I was doing very well, almost too well and that she would be sending me home as long as I could tolerate liquid food (anything you don’t have to chew) She brought me some custard watched me consume it and then started to write my release. At 6pm I was on my way home.

Pain Killers
I had my choice of two one was an anti-inflammatory that started with a T and ended with an L. The other was Morphine. I started with the T on Tuesday night and was switched over to Morphine on Wednesday. This had me sleeping a lot and also appeared to be giving me a headache. My OB/GYN explained that Morphine put everything to sleep and that we wanted to get everything working so that I should try to stick with the T. This is what I ended up doing and it moved things along. I was awake longer and my system seemed to kick in as the Morphine left my system and I started walking. By Friday I was having sharp pains in my side and asking for more and more pain killer when the nurse questioned whether it was just the gas. I thought it was gas but didn’t understand since my bowels were moving and I was burping and passing gas. She told me I needed to walk more. So I started to do a lap around the floor every time I went to the bathroom. This is when I figured out I was on the Oncology floor, which freaked me out a little but I do understand that they are doing a biopsy.

Home At Last
Swelly Belly - 5 days post-op I had some visitors and suddenly became extremely uncomfortable. When I went to the restroom I noted my stomach had enlarged and was extremely bloated. I didn’t think it was gas since we had just finished walking the dogs at the park. Subsequently read some stories on the hyster-sister website (Perhaps I walked too much at the park we were there about 40 minutes)
Diet - On a liquid diet, graduated up to food 6 days post-op. Everything tastes great.
Cravings - I kept my ovaries and don’t usually eat sweets, but I have had the strangest cravings. It was hot-fudge sundaes on Sunday and Pecan Sandy Cookies on Monday.
Unusual Discharge – 1 week post-op. Woke up at 3:30 this morning and had some very unusual discharge that was pretty heavy. It was earthtone in color and had some cottage cheese texture. Paged my Dr. who believes it is something that was deep inside me and finally dislodged because I’ve been walking. (I did not have any discharge post-op) I Feel good otherwise. Little worried but will take it easy today and keep a close watch.
Driving – My doctor is indicating I can drive. I have an interview scheduled for Friday 10 days post-op but have decided to rely on friends for transportation as a precaution.

I want to thank Sheila for writing this guide and starting the forum and thank everyone else for their helpful postings. It was been a tremendous resource for me.

Sincerely,
TBird818
Surgery Date November 1, 2005

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Steven McCarus, M.D. 400 Celebration Place Suite310 Celebration FL 34747 4073034190	Melanie Bone, M.D. 5301 S. Congress Ave. Atlantis FL 33462 561-548-8600	Dennis Utley, M.D. 820 N. Chelan P.O. Box 489 Wenatchee WA 98802 509-663-8711
Iris Orbuch, M.D. 202 Spring Street 2nd Floor New York NY 10012 212-343-3040	Gretchen Makai, M.D. 4735 Ogletown Stanton Rd MAP II, Ste 2103 Christiana Care Health System Newark DE 19713 302-623-4410	John Dulemba, M.D. 3321 Unicorn Lake Blvd #121 Denton TX 76210 940-387-6248
Michele Cowling, M.D. 303 Nicollet Blvd Burnsville MN 55337 952.460.4000	Christina Ellis, M.D. 600 E. Marshall St. Ste. 205 West Chester PA 19380 610-903-6200	Liza M. Colimon, M.D. 21 W. Columbia St Suite 101 Winnie Palmer Hospital Orlando FL 32806 321-841-6060

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