I had had huge fibroids that caused lots of menstrual mayhem over the last 9 or 10 years. I had stubbornly held onto the notion that by not having a hysterectomy, not only would I avoid having to be off work for 8 weeks, but, I would also avoid going into early menopause.
My doctor finally convinced me this past 2 months, after abnormal cervical and uterine lining cells showed up on the pap smear, then the colposcopy, then the hysteroscopy. I did some reading, and found hyster sisters, and decided that getting a hysterectomy would be better than getting either cervical or uterine cancer. My sister just had a radical mastectomy, and said that taking progesterone, my other option, and having an annual biopsy, was not a good thing to do, as her cancer doctor had told her that her breast tumor was caused by the use of progesterone.
Plus, in the intervening years, I've become self-employed, and moved my office home, so I don't have to worry too much about being off completely for the full 8 weeks. Being a financial advisor, I just didn't want to take that much time off, and be out of touch with what was happening to my clients' accounts.
Well, the surgery went better than I could have imagined! The anesthetist gave me a spinal block, with light general anesthesia and a nausea patch behind my left ear. I did fine. I was terrified going in for the hysteroscopy about a month earlier, and my blood pressure had spiked as they set me up in the surgery theatre, so for the hysterectomy, they gave me some relaxing meds before taking me into the surgery room, and my blood pressure didn't spike out of fear.
The day of surgery, I had a friend who came and sat with me, who had all the phone numbers of my kids (all out of state) and siblings and friends that she needed to notify when I came out of surgery. My family was so grateful for the good news, as was I, since I was incapable of doing anything but sleeping. She sat in my room all day, and kept a watch over me as I slept and the hospital staff came in and out, and several visitors stopped by. The hospital nursing staff was great. They checked vitals and turned me over and gave me pain meds and I was never really in much pain at all.
Day 2, I got the catheter out, got the packing out of my vagina, got out of bed, sat in a chair, ate breakfast and lunch, took a sitz bath, and walked the halls. Later that day, I got out. I found out that my health insurance only covered 1 day for VAH, so I needed t o get out before midnight of day 2. This has just changed recently, and caught my doctor and I by surprise, so check ahead of time with your health insurance company.
For the ability to get out so quickly, and feel so good, I would highly recommend the vaginal hysterectomy. I am sore and tired, and not nearly as energetic as normal yet, but at the end of week 1, I am hopeful that I will continue to recover ahead of schedule as long as I don't overdo it. I had been fearful of not being able to go upstairs in my house, but because my abdomen was not cut or pulled apart, I have been able to go upstairs every day since arriving home.
I am looking forward to being able to ride or drive in a car again, since I live alone. But, yesterday, a friend picked me up to go out to eat for another friend's birthday. I will have to say that being in a car this soon was not very comfortable. The dinner lasted a lot longer than I thought it would, so I was grateful to get home after 3 hours - and needed pain meds and rest. I also can't wait to get back to my daily workouts, but know that I will have to work up to it slowly. I am content taking small walks and using the stairs in my home til I can once again exercise.
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