Any advice to help shorten the healing time?

hey 99---great post...I'm printing that one out, I think there are a lot of gems in there. Sounds like perhaps you need to change your screen name to 100percentsure!

Don't compare yourself to others. We all are recovering at different paces. This way you wont rush your healing and end up setting back your recovery. Rest, rest, rest! I've noticed moving does help even though it hurts stick with it. For those of you who have a LAVH BSO like me get an inflatable donut. It helps take the pressure off of your pelvic area when sitting. It truly has helped me and I am 22 days post-op today and still am using it. Best of luck see you on the otherside.

I'd never had a major before my TAH, and I decided I was just going to experience it and the recovery and not try to make it anything. This is a process that requires patience. I rested quite a bit for six weeks, but after a week, I was also working on my computer part-time, and it went fine. When I was tired, I took a nap. Sometimes more than one nap a day. I enjoyed taking slow walks around my neighborhood. I got to read some books I would not normally have time for. I got to clean out a bunch of old files in my office and did some other little chores around the house that didn't require any lifting. It was actually a pretty nice time! Your life is going to be there when you're ready to get back to it. You might actually find that you enjoyed taking the time off to heal.

I agree that staying in shape prior to surgery will help you on the road to recovery. I tried to go to the Y 3 to 4 times a week alernating cardo and a body sculpting class (which was a lot of cardio w/ reasonable hand weights). I am not "buff" by any stretch of the imagination; but, my legs and abs were fairly strong and it helped me with getting up and moving around right after my surgery. Even now it is very easy for me to get up from a sitting position and in and out of bed. I walked around the house at first and started taking short walks in my neighborhood after after the first week. I've been grocery shopping with my DH - just for the walking part - he does all the lifting, pushing of the cart, etc. I sorted the laundry last weekend - had my DH and DS hand me clothes and I tossed them in the appropriate piles (can't have them messing up the laundry). They took care of getting them washed, dried, folded and put away. I cooked dinner on my 10th day of recovery but made sure my DH handled the heavy pots/pans. It was an easy meal that required very little physical effort but it got me moving around and feeling like I accomplished something.

I think that everyone's level of activity is going to be different. You do have to remind yourself that you did have major surgery and even if you don't feel bad, you need to pace yourself so as to avoid injury.

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TAH, 3/25/08 for multiple and large fibroids (uterus size of 24 wk pregnancy) and severe cervical dysplasia, kept ovaries