LAVH: Upcoming hysterectomy 8/9: Stairs at home

Hi, I live in an apt. Building. My question is there is one flight of stairs to my level here. I'm scheduled to have surgery on 8/9, with an overnight stay in hospital. Will I be able to get up these? It's a decent amount of stairs, 30+.

My partners grandma did offer me to stay at her one level home if I needed as well. I would prefer to be in my own place, but if its something too unreasonable for my body, I may stay at his grandmas.

Hi knitter , this is day 6 post op for me. I have stairs inside my home. I have only gone up and down once ( Yest ). I think the question is this , once you get to your apartment after surgery , will you have any help ? Will you have to go up and down for any reason ? If you just need to go up once to get in , you can take it super slow and prob be ok. But if you're anticipating having to use the stairs regularly , I would take up the offer to stay at grandmas for the first week. : ) it is VERY difficult to anticipate how we are going to feel after the surgery. I hope this helped a little. Best of luck for your surgery and an uneventful recovery !!!

What Lisa B. suggested is what I would suggest as well. You can make it up the stairs if there are hand rails, you go slowly and someone is with you. It will likely be little uncomfortable to go up, but doable. Pause to take a break when you need to. I think it is more uncomfortable to go down. I wouldn't make it a regular occurrence especially for the first week. If you need to navigate the stairs more than once or twice that first week, consider staying at your grandmas.

Best wishes for your upcoming surgery!

Yes, sorry I forgot to mention when I come home, partner will assist. We do have a small dog and partner works third shift (should be fun)

Anywho, I planned with him that will only be going up once....until I felt I could take it.

I was growing more nervous as it is not only the uterus leaving but everything but right ovary.
(Unless they find cancer, then right and lymph nodes too.

I was nervous that I'd bust a stitch where my cervix was trying to raise a leg, lol

Sigh, laughing is getting me through this. But ya, I'll just play it by ear, and be careful. What I also dislike, the stairs are steel and open ( but does have railings)

I live in a condo with lots of stairs. There are eight steps to get in the front door between the parking lot and my unit. There are 13 steps to get upstairs to the bedroom and our bathroom with the shower (half bath downstairs). We have another set of 13 steps to go down to the basement, where our washer and dryer are located. So not counting the steps to get in the door, it's 26 steps to go upstairs and back down. I was a little concerned, but I had no need to worry.

The first couple of trips I had my DH with me. I use the rail all the time to begin with, as I had major knee surgery a few years ago. You may want to try climbing the stairs by placing both feet on each step before going to the next one. I climbed stairs this way for several years after my knee surgery. It's a bit slower, but safer while you gauge your pace.

I hope your dog doesn't like to pull on the leash too much. That would be my concern with all of those steps to contend with. I was pretty worried about stairs too, but I was able to handle them without any issues. Good luck!

My dr told me in my preop before I even had time to ask that doing stairs would be fine as long as I used handrail and didn't carry a bunch of stuff. I have a lot of stairs and went up and down several times a day from the beginning. I didn't find it painful or anything. Just hold on and go as slowly as you need to. I went up and down slowly and carefully until I began to feel a little stronger and more confident.

Ok, thank you that is good to know I should be able to handle it

Our dog usually doesn't pull on her leash much, but I'm going to let dh handle her for the first few days.

I was told I couldn't do the stairs until after 6 weeks. I am no help for you, but wish I knew the answer, I don't want the answer to be yes you have to stay in bed the whole 6 weeks and do nothing :-(

We have 14 stairs from our garage to our main level where our main living/master bdrm are located. Dr told me to take them as I was comfortable. First day home, I took each stair very slowly and carefully. Did not do them again for a couple of days. Even then, I took them one at a time.

Hope this helps!