dVH/RALH Please Help - Are These Odd Things I'm Dealing With?

My dVH/BSO was 10/29. I haven't really experienced pain interiorly or at my incision sites but I am experiencing some really odd things & I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced them as well?

1. My wrists look & feel as though someone kicked them with all their might about a dozen times while I was under the anesthetic. They are extremely bruised & HURT! I am literally taking my pain medication solely to relieve the pain in my wrists. There was no IV placed in my wrists ... all the IVs were placed in the tops of my hands. There are no holes anywhere on my wrists but there is a scratch across one of them.

2. On my left forearm there is an area with 2 large blisters. I showed these to the nurses in the hospital who said "oh, that's probably from the tape." Well, I had been taped elsewhere (taping the IVs down for example) but there is no blistering there. If these were blisters from tape, I would think they'd be anywhere the tape had been placed.

3. My incisions look great but next to 2 of the incisions are what I would call small "open wounds" that keep oozing blood but not a lot of blood. I've placed Band-Aids over these thinking they'd heal over but so far they haven't.

4. My pubic hair was shaved but not entirely ... just from the top down to about half way toward my vaginal opening. This seems strange to me since my incisions weren't anywhere near the hairline. The organs were removed through my vagina so if anything I would've thought they might have shaved around there. Anyway, the hair is growing back & it feels like I have a porcupine between my legs (sorry, I don't know how else to put this). It hurts! I know this is common when your hair is growing out but this morning in the shower I noticed my labia are extremely swollen on each side. They aren't painful except for the prickly pain from the hair growing out. Is this just irritation that will calm down after the hair grows more?

Thank you for any help you can give.

Blessings,
Shirlee

(1) I had a moment of panic when they began to "cuff" my wrists to the table before my surgery. It seems many hospitals do this as a preventative measure to prevent any movement while the patient is out. I'd never heard of it and it scared me.... luckily the anesthesiologist and my doc talked to me immediatly when they saw the terror plastered on my face. I had actually forgotten about this until I read your post.... must be something in the meds that leaves the experience a little foggy. If this was done during yours - maybe someone got the cuffs a little too snug. Do you tend to bruise easily?

(2) Not sure about the blisters. A few things come to mind.... bed sores being one of them. Are the blisters in the same area where the blood pressure cuff would have been? If so they could be pressure sores caused by the cuff.

(3) One of my incisions (after my gall bladder removal) did what you are describing. I went into the surgeons office after calling and explaining the issue to him. I was Shocked when he took out a bandaid - gently closed the incision & used the sticky part of the bandaid to hold it closed. 4 or 5 days later the bandaid came off and it was closed up perfectly! You can run it by your doc... but thats what I would do.

(4) Some docs don't do any shave prep before surgery....others do. They may have done this in preparation in case they had to do the hip to hip incision? The puffiniess of the labia is actually something others have discussed on here. I think it has to do with what the lady parts go through during surgery than the irritating hair growth. I'm sure you'll hear a few stories from gals that dealt with this.

Good luck and hopefully your recovery will be smooth sailing

I was shaved in the same way. I also had sore labia-but I think that is due more to the vaginal surgery. Retractors were used to hold back the vaginal walls and these put a lot of pressure on the labia. I had bruising all over the vulva and even a small abrasion on one of the labia minora.

Are the blisters healing? I wouldn't worry about how they got there as long as they are clearing up, though I suspect it could have been pressure from the BP cuff.

Thanks to you both. My belly sores seem to be healing now & the blisters, which were pretty big, are getting smaller each day. The wrists still hurt worse than anything & I am trying to take Extra Strength Tylenol to deal with them during the day & then one of my oxycontins before bed. I do bruise easily but this is ridiculous.

I wish I could find those previous postings about swollen labia. I'm still deailng with that & hate it. VERY uncomfortable. How long does it take for them to return to normal?

Blessings,
Shirlee

Try looking up "monkey" or "angry monkey".... for some reason thats what I remember the gal calling it. We all got a laugh at the way she phrased it. I'll try to find the thread she started

Snow ... I don't know how to look up past postings. Would appreciate a "how to" for doing this.

Blessings,
Shirlee

https://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/sho...t=angry+monkey

Here is the thread... hopefully it will help to answer your questions ...and provide you with a giggle. The writer has a funny sense of humor about the whole thing.

To search - I go into what ever main forum I wish to search in - either pre-surgery or post-surgery... then on the side you will see a little tab that says "seach this forum" ... you enter your word/words into that & should be good to go

Thank you very much Snow!

Blessings,
Shirlee

I had no idea that they restrain your wrists..I am almost 3 weeks post op and still dealing with painful wrists. I thought I was going crazy, I also took pain meds for pain in my wrists!

i have a pain in my one wrist and the dr told me it was probably a vein that burst because that was the hand my IV was in for 4 days... it's still sore at 4 weeks post op!!!

Hope you are feeling better soon!!!