How much time is enough time to stay home after hysterectomy?

Hi I had a TAH 4 weeks ago. My doctor said maybe I can go back at 8 weeks. I'm a server and have to spend hours on my feet and left heavy trays . I've had no complications and feel so much better than before surgery already but my advice to you is to take all the time you can get !!!! Even if you feel fine there are things that you can't do. Your insides need a good while to heal. I heard so many people say that the more they just rested and took it easy for as long as the doc says had better recoveries. Don't try to rush yourself to do things to soon. I was up walking for hours by day 8 and my doc got worried and had to do internal to make sure I was ok and that was only walking . She said not to even vacuum yet :/ just be careful and listen to your body... Hope your recovery goes well.

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Originally Posted by ewills79 Hi everyone! My name is Erika, I'm 34, I have 1 son, and I just had a total abdominal hysterectomy on Friday, April 4th. I had been dealing with periods that would last anywhere between a month to 2 months which was not helping my anemia. I tried the birth control pills which helped for a while, but began having breakthrough bleeding. My doctor then suggested I try Mirena - (which left me in absolute hell the first 2 months after placement). After about 7 months with Mirena and a month and a half of a nonstop heavy period, I decided to have the hysterectomy. I have to be honest and say I did not do any research prior to my procedure because I decided to just go in blind and let everything be a horrible surprise. (That and I was too afraid to read about the pain) I went in at 129lbs Friday morning and home at 136lbs looking like I gave birth. All I can say is that when I woke up I was crying, shaking and in absolute pain. Needless to say Friday is a blur because I spent the entire day pressing that awesome little button every 15 minutes AND getting small doses of morphine in my IV when it just wasn't enough. I woke up on Saturday and got right out of bed AS SOON as the nurses took everything off. I was released on Sunday and woke up Monday feeling OK. I didn't have much pain and I was SO OPTIMISTIC! Its Thursday now and I am in so much pain and I am not quite sure how the heck I feel right now. The huge belly and the Frankenstein staples on top of the pain has me confused. I took one week off from work thinking I would be OK to return to work next week. Due to my lack research and opting on ignorance I have serious doubts. I am going to the doctor tomorrow to remove the staples so I will ask my doctor what his thoughts are. I have Motrin and Vicodin to manage this pain, but I have chosen to only take the Motrin which was helping, but not so much anymore. For some reason I feel really sad today. I don't know if I want to cry or if I'm just gloomy. Is this normal? I am so self conscious about how I look and I am wondering if going back to work next week is a good idea. How much time are you lovely ladies taking off from work? What did your doctors tell you? Oddly, I feel a little better typing this out - no one around me seems to really understand what I am feeling.

I am surprised your did not tell you it would be a longer recovery than 2 weeks. My Dr told me she would start at the tlh vs the tah if I had the tlh I would be placed 6weeks, if I had tah I would e placed 8weeks. I was lucky it turned out i had tlh with 6cut slits because of some additional tissue they had to cut before getting to uterus. All I can say is I'm still recovering day by day and cannot comprehend when i hear that recovery could be any less than 4weeks let alone 2 weeks with the various mental and physical pain involved both being major surgery. I hope you can take a longer leave speak with your doc, and take care many of us understand and feel your pain/worries. Much appreciation for this site and feedback everyone provides.

I too have an office job. I'm up and down a lot depending what my staff need.
Was told 6-8 weeks.

Hello everyone!
I had my staples removed on Friday and spent a good chuck of time in the ER yesterday because I had a gooey open hole in my incision. I got some steristrips placed on it and I was sent on my way. I feel ok - the pain is getting better. I have not taken any pain meds today. It is getting ITCHY but I keep my hands away from there. My biggest issue seems to be insomnia accompanied with nightmares when I finally do get to fall asleep. My doctor had the nurse call in a RX for Ambien to help me get some sleep but had not been called in when I stopped by on my way home. I had my mom run over to pick up my pills yesterday thinking they would definitely be there - READY TO LAUGH???? They hand the bag over to my mom, she pays the $41 co-pay and send her off. I open the bag so that I could read the medicine excited about the awesome sleep I was going to get last night. To my surprise, I pulled out a package of BIRTH CONTROL PILLS!!!!!! I laughed so hard it hurt (literally)! Needless to say, they had to refund my money and I will not be getting any sleep until tomorrow when I give my doctor's office a call. BOO!
Aside from that, I ordered those Post Op panties from the company directly. As with my bag of pills I was EXCITED when FedEx dropped them off, BUT I am going to end up picking up some spanx. That silicone section in the panty is supposed to go directly on the incision to apply pressure and support. Now, I do not know where the incision will be once the swelling goes down but that silicone section goes across my hoo hoo and the top of the strip is directly under the incision. Ummmmmmmmmmmmm???? Did your incision go down when the hanging belling started to go down??