This is my first post. I've wanted to give a quick overview of my story hoping that it might help someone going through this experience.
I went in for a laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy (LSH) -- keep my cervix and ovaries on August 14th, 2008. I had been feeling like a was growing an alien baby for about a year and half after my GYN did an internal sonogram and confirmed that I had many fibroids. I had always had heavy bleeding, but I had a strange feeling that I really had some strange things growing in strange places in my abdomen.
It turned out that during what should have been simple surgery with minimal recovery time, the doc found that I had strange things going on with my giant uterus (extra peninsulas) and he found that one of my fibroids had stretched my bladder over itself. This would explain why I had to pee every half hour.
The doc ended up nicking my bladder while trying to free the fibroid and then, of course, had to open me up with a bikini incision to fix my nicked bladder. I woke up honkerblonked off and with a 6-8 week recovery period ahead of me.
I just wanted to post to let some others know what might be "normal" as you go along.
I had to wear a catheter for 10 days. These are what they distribute in hell and the day it was removed was one of the best days of my life!! If you have a catheter, be sure to get a "leg bag" so you can walk around easily with it. Make sure, however that you do NOT let the bag fall down your leg, or you will be in great discomfort! Do NOT shimmy your way out of bed with the catheter tube or you MIGHT twist the top of it a couple of times inside your bladder!! I have done both of these things. Not fun. I became sore at the place where the catheter went in towards the end of the 10 days. Taking the catheter out was scary to think about but not hard (and I am a wimp.) Be sure you drink plenty of water so the liquid keeps running through the tube regularly.
I was quite active, a runner, before surgery and the hardest part was the anger I had afterwards because I had not only the little scars from the laparascopic part of the surgery, but the bikini scar. So now I had a face on my abdomen. The anger didn't really stem from that, but from the unexpected way the surgery went and the fact that it hurt too much to cry shortly after the surgery. The crying had to be done later, however. If you have crying to do you will do it sooner or later.
Here are some things that were "normal" for me:
1. I was a complete emotional basket case for the first two weeks after surgery. I had panic attacks every night for the first week -- this, I believe had to do with low blood sugar. If you are a small person who has to eat every two hours like I do, I would suggest you eat a small meal before going to bed and keep some fruit juice next to your bed in case you crash in the middle of the night and panic.
I also could handle NOTHING negative or I would go completely ballistic and start crying. I was afraid I was going insane.
I had crying jags several times a week and this was a good thing. Just let yourself cry when you need to. If you don't cry, I'm sure this is normal for you.
2. On the topic of insane -- I forgot my cell phone number at one point and could not remember how to write this symbol: "&" and thought I was going crazy. This type of thing gets better rapidly. Don't worry about it. You will be dumb as a rock for a little while, though. It goes away eventually.
3. I tried to do too much consistently. I had been an extremely active and independent person previously. At about the three week mark I went out and insanely tried to trim the garden for over an hour. I could do nothing for a day and a half after this. And when I say do nothing, I mean I felt like a dead person. This will happen to you, so learn from it. Don't do anything that takes more than a half hour at a time. I actually painted my whole front porch floor during my recovery, but I did it after four weeks and I lay on my side and only for 1/2 hour periods.
4. Don't even think about your abs until after 6 weeks. Your abdominal wall will not be ready and you can injure yourself. You will not lose as much as you think in that department.
5. Walk a little every day and buy a cheap pedometer to chart your progress. This really helps psychologically. I could only walk half a block the first week, but by gosh, that was something!
You will have to begin all over again as a runner if you are out 6-8 weeks. It is not a happy thing, but that's what I found. I am now able to run my full 3 mile course, but I have to stop 4 or 5 times to walk for a minute at 12.5 weeks. It is also making my scar a bit sore, but I think I"m ok.
6. Realize that as you are able to do more you will -- if you are at all like me. This guaranteed for me that I was exhausted all the time for 10 weeks! I was constantly on an upward arc with using up all my energy and I did nearly every day. You have x amount of energy in one day and you have to choose what to use it on. You might consider having one up day and one down day. Or your body will probably establish this for you! I had to start a brand new extremely challenging job at 6.5 weeks when I went back to work. I was completely exhausted every night and my Saturdays I felt like death all day. Sundays were okay, though.
7. Sleeping after surgery was a nightmare for several weeks for me. I had this weird thing with my head that has only recently stopped. I can't even really describe it, except as a certain pressure inside my head or something. When my head felt that way, I couldn't concentrate and I felt really really weird. When I got this feeling at night I would feel like I was falling and I would start to have a panic attack. This feeling would happen for several hours a day during my early recovery. I called it "my head has gone away" because that's what it felt like. After a while it switched to my getting dizzy when I got tired (probably 8 weeks down the road). It was a relief when the dizzy substituted for the other feeling, cause at least I could function. I also could not read for a number of weeks. I couldn't concentrate. I had a hard time on the computer, too.
8. I was able to function pretty normally at 7 weeks, although very tired at work, but it took until 12 weeks before I really began to feel like my old self. Don't lose heart, just keep counting the weeks and know that every day you are getting stronger even if you feel really tired today.
Don't know exactly what other advice to give.
Hope you have a very strong friend or husband at the hospital with you. I was an emotional wreck in the hospital, because I wasn't supposed to be there. Was only there 36 hours. I couldn't do the morphine at the hospital cause it nauseated me, so I took 800 mg Motrin every 6 hours. It worked for me. Never took any stronger pain reliever.
Staples came out rapidly after surgery. My incision has healed very nicely. I started putting vitamin e on it after it was completely closed.
I have numbness on part of my scar that I don't ever expect to go away. It is weird but not bad.
Ate shredded wheat when I got home and never had trouble with my bowels.
Make your surgeon give you in internal ultrasound right before surgery instead of going in blind like mine did. Now I know why I had lumps down in my lower abdomen.
Here is my last piece of advice -- watch where you put your shoes before surgery. I didn't put mine inside the bag that held my clothes and someone stole my brand new pair of Crocs when they didn't make the trip to the hospital with me in the ambulance.
Hope this helps someone who is recovering. Keep your chin up. I'm so glad I listened to my gut and did this. The doctor said that I would have had a much more complicated surgery had I waited.
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