LAVH; nothing to fear - Hystersisters Hysterectomy Article

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LAVH; nothing to fear

LAVH; nothing to fear

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Hi to all the HS's reading this!

This is my story about how I came to have an LAVH; I'm 4 weeks post-op now.

On my 11th birthday, I got a "special present" - a visit from Aunt Flo. I didn't care much for her at all...I was the first one in my class to get my period, and I always seemed to be walking around with something tied around my waist due to an accident. Pain was with me constantly for the first 3 days when I had my period..and by the time I was in grade 7, I was on meds for my painful cramps and always missed the first 2 days of school.

Things went along - I just assumed this was normal for me; pap tests and internals always came back as endo and cysts.

I got married, had 3 beautiful daughters..and then in the winter months of 2009-2010, I started feeling tired..periods became more heavy, lasted longer, bigger clots...and more frequently, I was having those moments where you go to stand up or get out of bed and all you feel is "gushhhhh".

By spring of 2010, I was falling asleep at the snap of my fingers..and then one night coming home from work, I dozed off. That scared me to the point where I said "time to see a Dr..why am I SO TIRED?"..never put tired and periods
together.

so, he examined me, sent me for blood tests, called me back and we had a chat about my period. He then read off the results of my blood test and I was very low hemoglobin..and he basically told me "we need to find a way to stop the bleeding or you bleed to death"..and a hysterectomy was the answer.

It took a year for me to see a gynecologist, and in that time, my hemoglobin became 1/2 of where it should be, I was weak, dizzy, tired, fatigued, couldn't sleep, couldn't eat. I was sent for an ultrasound and it showed a large fibroid and an enlarged uterus..the fibroid was so large that it was pushing my uterus out and to the side of where it should be.

Many shots of depo and Lupron later, I finally had my LAVH.

2 small incisions and the rest done vaginally; surgery took about 2 hours. And I woke up in recovery, very drowsy but on a 1-10 on the pain scale, I only really got to a 5 or 6.

I had a little bit of nausea, and I did wake up with a catheter - not as bad as I feared and a roll of packing in me.

I had a one night stay in the castle, the next morning, a slight bout with nausea, they removed the catheter (never felt a thing), and removed the packing (that was uncomfortable) and then the IV was out.

Dr. sent me home with instructions to follow for 6 weeks.

I did have abdominal cramping..not going to lie..but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I did have a small infection at week 2; plus a lack of BM for 6 days, caused severe pain - that was the worst week...but as for the rest of the time, ya, cramping..and my body will tell me when I've done too much...but I don't regret it.

I do have night sweats, but realized it was the painkillers.

I also have a hard time sleeping..but never was really a good sleeper.

This site has been a wonderful source of info for me; I'm glad it was referred to me by a friend. I spend countless hours on here, reading at the beginning..and now, that I'm on the "other side", I'm trying my best to give back and help those that come after me.

I do not regret having the surgery; I'm left with 2 ovaries - and I don't know what menopause will be like but that is something I will take care of when it happens.

For those of you going into your surgery; good luck and best wishes to you! Have faith in your surgeon.

For those of you post op reading this; hopefully you had a good experience and are healing well.

Take care and God Bless!
xo

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