Laparoscopic Supracervical Hysterectomy - LSH - Anna's Story

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Laparoscopic Supracervical Hysterectomy - LSH - Anna's Story

Laparoscopic Supracervical Hysterectomy - LSH - Anna's Story

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My Story:

I am a 38 yr old mom of 3 girls, had a tubal ligation in 96, D & C's and Thermal Balloon Ablation prior to deciding with my doctor about doing a hysterectomy...to try to control my twice a month painful, heavy, prolonged periods.

I have had profuse painful periods that come twice a month for the past 4 yrs, I did use many different hormonal agents to try to regulate my periods, I had the D & C's all clear, I even tried the Thermal Balloon Ablation this past November to no avail. Called the doctor in Jan and he said "it's time", I agreed.

After researching hysterectomies on this board, and after discussing the different ones that my doctor does, we decided on the laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy. Fortunately for me the hospital that I was to have my hyster at does have that special machine (morcellator) that is need to do the subtotal hysterectomy by laparoscope. Apparently not all hospitals in our area have this as it is an extremely expensive device, but most teaching hospitals (like mine) do have this device.

My doctor told me that he has done "a few" and they all turned out ok, no problems post op. He has two patients a year out and both are doing well. He has 4 that are 6 months out doing well, and he did another one the week before me.

Ok, on to the Surgery day: I was scheduled for 12pm, (this is a long surgery, can be anywhere from 2-4 hrs). I was called at 10am to please come over to the hospital; doctor's prior surgery was cancelled so hubby and me jump in the car for the 15min ride to hospital (ok, I am at this point very scared, and shaky a little, didn't sleep well the night before). I got to the hospital and couldn't find a parking place!! Had hubby drop me at front door, the elevator took forever, so I ran up the two flights of steps. Check into pre-op and boy I never saw anyone move so fast. I signed in. and they took me right to a room to get changed, gave me stockings for my legs, gown and robe. I was taken immediately to another room for blood work (cross & match to be done stat). All my paper work had Fast Track written on it. Still no hubby or mother in law!!

The nurses were moving so fast I was afraid my hubby wouldn't get there before they took me to the OR. Well, nurse takes my temp (it's 99.5, she says "normal, you're dehydrated), tries to take blood flow are very slow again, normal, you're dehydrated. I was told to go wait in chairs. My hubby and mother-in-law were there waiting for me...I was called within 10min to go to anesthesia holding area.

Got to anesthesia holding area...doctor came in right away, as did the anesthesiologist. Talked to doctor...apparently both his surgeries prior to mine that morning were cancelled because the patients had gotten a reaction to Cipro (an antibiotic), so the first thing the doctor asked was what antibiotics I could take, I can only take Cipro, Biaxin and Zithromax, I get anaphylactic shock from all others. Dr was very happy to hear I could take Cipro. The anesthesiologist hooked me up to an IV, and the doctor ordered Cipro in IV right away. We sat there talking for a while longer. Finally I asked the doctor if he was waiting for someone. The anesthesiologist laughed and said, "yeah, he's waiting to see if you react to the Cipro!!", which I didn't. I was given versed to calm me. I don't remember much after that, except having a mask over my face and feeling claustrophobic, so I pushed the mask away, then I hear my doctor say "Anna, take a deep breath and you will be asleep in a minute" and I was!!!

The next thing I remember is waking up in the PACU, my friend who is a nurse was over me. Another nurse was with me too.
Making me very comfortable, I was shaking like a leaf. Not a lot of pain at all. I had morphine in my line, and the doctor came in to talk to me.
Apparently I tried to pull the tube out of my mouth and he had to restrain me. He told me to expect to see a couple of bruises on my right arm (which I saw the next day). The doctor said there was problems with the machines, didn't get started until 1:30pm.I was taken to anesthesia holding at 11:10am.he had seen my husband and told him everything went well, didn't find anything he didn't expect. He kept my ovaries and my cervix. The total surgery took 2hrs.

I was in PACU until about 6pm, waiting for a bed in hospital.
I was given ice chips the morphine made me itch too badly even with the benydryl, so I was switched to Dilaudid, didn't need the benydryl after that, but couldn't get it in a pump to had to call nurse for it. (That was ok during the night). I had ALOT of congestion during the night. Couldn’t smell a thing at all. Also had to call nurses through out the night for my neighbor as she vomited and gagged all night long. So never slept at all. (Just cat naps). Must have fallen asleep at some point, as the woman in the room with me vomited and no one came in to check her so she slept in her vomit for about 2 hrs. The tech came in to check her and practically had a fit that no one changed her. She spent the next 40 minutes cleaning her up and apologizing to me. She said I was lucky that I couldn't smell anything. Well with that. I wanted to go home immediately. I didn't even have my catheter out yet.
Dr's associate came in and asked how my pain was, at that point I started to pass gas, so that was painful and they wouldn't give me anything for it. So that was another reason I wanted to leave.
He checked my lungs and took my cath out immediately; he wanted to get me moving. Took those leg compressors off. He took my IV out. While he was doing all that the nurse came in and thanked him.

He turned to her and said, "She has to get out of bed and start moving." then he told me I could either stay the night or go home later that night, after dinner. Well, I asked for a Motrin (got the 600mgs), and made it to the bathroom. I peed and passed gas, ate my breakfast and my lunch. The nurse wouldn't give me any pain med's for 4 hrs (even though night nurse would do every 3.5, which is about what I needed). By 11 am my day nurse was quite flustered so hubby went for lunch, I repeatedly asked about the Cipro the doctor had ordered for 12 am the night before, finally got it at 8 am.

My roommate was in terrible shape, she gagged and vomited all morning, again I was calling for nurse or someone to clean her up. They finally gave her something to knock her out around 12 pm. At that point I was afraid to stay in the hospital any longer. So I ate my lunch, went pee again; temp was down, and at 2pm after discussing with hubby, requested to be sent home.
Between 11 am and 2 pm I had two ob residents see me twice, they were wonderful, very young, but very good. About 2:30pm doctor's associate comes in again and says what happened? I said I wanted to go home, that I could take better care of my self than they could. He checked my lungs (sounded clear), and my temp was down (good old Motrin). He reluctantly said OK, but he wanted me to call with ANY problems immediately. Which I didn't have until Friday night. So my operation was Wednesday at 1:30pm and I was released about 4 pm Thursday. I was really afraid to stay in hospital another night. Came home Thursday night, ate dinner about 6, fell asleep until about 8 am on Friday, took a couple naps on Friday.

I was given the Dilaudid to take home (weird thing) I could take more mgs and take it every 3-4 hrs at home (more than I could in hospital).

Today is Monday, and I am feeling very normal. Had pain in left incision site over weekend (have a very big bruise there), gas pains diminished by Sat afternoon. Not needing pain med's at all so far today. Had only needed to take 1-2 pain med's Friday through the Sunday. Had some hot flashes Sunday morning. Not sure if that was because I hadn't taken any pain med’s. None since then. But do have my ovaries.

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that the laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy definitely gives you less of a recovery time if you are interested in pursuing keeping your cervix.

Other than the hospital stay, I would choose this again in a minute, but then again I am only 5 days out. But I feel so good I wanted to share my experience now. I will update as needed as the weeks go on. I see my doctor for a check this coming Wednesday.

Anna
LSH 2/13/02

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Find A Doctor Near You

David Mainman, M.D. Desert Bloom Obstetrics & Gynecology 6452 E. Carondelet Drive, Suite A Tucson AZ 85710 520-885-5300	Terry Grogg, M.D. 4461 S Broadway Suite 200 Suite 200 Grove City OH 43123 614-875-0444	Gerald Harkins, M.D. Department of OB-Gyn P.O. Box 850, H-103 Hershey PA 17033 717-531-6447
Sean Kossari, M.D. 14901 Rinaldi Street Suite 320 Mission Hills CA 91345 818-365-1616	Megan Bird, M.D. 364 SE 8th Ave, Suite 205 Hillsboro OR 97202 503-681-4145	Steven McCarus, M.D. 400 Celebration Place Suite310 Celebration FL 34747 4073034190
David Newman, M.D. 10030 Edison Square Drive, Suite 100A Concord NC 28027 704-403-7670	Christopher Stroud, M.D. 11123 Parkivew Plaza Drive Suite 101 Fort Wayne IN 46845 2609695071	Melanie Bone, M.D. 5301 S. Congress Ave. Atlantis FL 33462 561-548-8600

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