Surgical Menopause & Anxiety 34 yr old, TAH w/BSO

Two nights ago had a really bad night with anxiety.

Yesterday/last night I was fine until I was in bed and trying to sleep then griped with anxiety.

I'm concerned about tonight.

Anxiety at bedtime is my biggest hurdle right now.

The rest of my story is below.

My surgery was on the 23rd. I went in planning LAVH. The Dr. nor I anticipated what came next. She could not do the LAVH due to the amount of Endometriosis I had. She converted to TAH via former c-section scar. She preformed my procedure in a vertical position to limit gas and clean me out from all the Endo. She spent 2 hours separating my uterus from my bladder (they were fully fussed). She spent much of the other 3 hours in surgery cleaning ALL my internal organs. She took out my intestines, kidneys, liver, stomach, bladder (she had to patch thin places in my bladder after separated from my uterus), my appendix was so inflamed she almost had to remove it (it calmed down before she closed me so she left it - not sure if that was the best call yet??) and then she lined my inner cavity with a dissolvable silk like material then placed all my internal organs in dissolvable silk pillowcases to keep them from developing adhesions too early into recovery before returning them to my body cavity.

We anticipated having at least one ovary after surgery but the Dr. felt it best to take both.

I was in surgical menopause by 5pm the day of surgery. It took until 5pm the next day to get my pain under control. They kept giving me pain meds but not NSAIDS. I was in need of anti-inflammatory meds due to the positioning during the procedure.

I stayed in the hospital for 3 days.
I am only 34 years old and am concerned about HRT vs. bio-identical choices.
I am not sleeping well and have extensive bruising but otherwise doing well. I am on HRT right now - until Dr. Appointment on 2/27. I am only on OTC pain control- Tylenol and Ibuprofen.
I am on restrictions for 8 weeks.

My heart goes out to you! It sounds like you went through a lot during the surgery and that your doctor was trying to take care of a lot of things for you. Just be gentle with yourself, let your body heal, take a deep breath and tell yourself that you don't have to figure everything out all at once. I know when I prepared for my surgery... I had so much to take care of in terms of the surgery itself and preparing for my recovery period. I ran out of time trying to figure out the hormone stuff and just went with my doctors rec in the short term. Went for my 2 week post surgery appointment and am healing well. Because I'm almost 50 and had everything removed, I'm on a low post menopausal dosage of estrogen for the immediate future and will continue to educate myself about the various options. There's a forum on here for HRT and women not doing HRT as well that may be helpful. Rest up and be good to yourself!

I was put on a .05 mg estradiol patch the day after surgery but had massive anxiety attacks until my doctor doubled my dose to a .1mg patch the following week. The anxiety attacks immediately disappeared.

There are many bio-identical hormones on the market. They come in all sorts of forms from pills to gels to patches and more. The estradiol patch I'm on is bio-identical (Climara).

When people say 'bio-identical' they are often referring to compounded hormones which must be made up specially at a compounding pharmacy and often insurance doesn't cover them. There are pluses and minuses to using compounded hormones. They use many of the same ingredients as the gels, pills, amd patches but they can be more finely tweaked for each patient. I think people often don't realize that many HRTs made by pharmaceutical companies are also bio-identical. Good luck. I also woke up to find that my remaining ovary had been unexpectedly removed due to complications. It was a bit unsettling and may have contributed to my initial anxiety.

Thanks Sisters

I left the hospital with a patch - not sure what! I was in a crisis when the hospital put it on me! I came home on estradol 2mg daily then removed the patch a week after surgery.

Tonight I had the first breakthrough hot flash. I've not been too moody after the first couple of days but I am anxious at times mostly at bedtime. I lay down and them am griped with unrealistic anxiety feelings.

2mg Estradol sounds like a lot compared to what others have posted - could that be due to my age??? I am a need to know kind of person so as I have gained my vision (anesthesia really affected my vision) I have been able to be on the computer more.

Thanks again
A. Journey