The Differences of the experience is crazy

I had a TVH cycto/rectocyle repair and sling on July 22nd. Have been reading through this site for about a month. I cannot believe the differences in everyones experience regarding hysterectomies. Some doctors say "you will be great in two weeks" some say six. Some women come home miserable some say they feel great. You can feel great for two weeks but then never know if you will have some kind of complication. Some women have tons of support some have none and yet on here no matter what the situation you are in you can find some kind of comfort. I was afraid of this procedure. Anything out of the ordinary is scary especially when it is medical. I know there are those women who think everything is wonderful and great and I have read stories on here that were way worse than mine but I don't think anyone could ever really be prepared for this event. This morning I read a women with 7 children asking if she would need help. My goodness any time a doctor is going to cut out your body parts it is a major thing and yet we as women think we can do it all because we are so used to doing it all. I am a single mom of 5 not much support outside of my 3 teenage daughters . Both my doctors said everything went great . I did ok in the hospital the staff was caring and competant. I have given birth 5 times vaginally with no pain meds. I also have had chronic constipation my whole life. The first two bowel movements I had were absolutely identical to giving birth. For the last two days have not been near as bad but painful. I have been doing everything to make this better. I need to get to the natural food store because I was told that the best thing to take is Senna and Magnesium. I never saw that suggessted but we have a great health food store. My two year old has been gone for my recovery time so far and although I desperately miss her I cannot imagine her being here. Yesterday I made the huge mistake of cleaning and suffered terribly last night and today. So many people that don't know about hysterectomy think you should recover so fast but I can tell that it is going to take a while and I am afraid of it all. I am sure that I will get through it and will be much stronger for it. Any woman who has to go through a hysterectomy of any kind is amazing. The hormone issues the physical recovery the emotional issues of it. Women are amazing. With all that we have to go through and we still take the time to support each other. Thank you soooooo much to everyone on here. I hope you all find strength through your experience. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.

Coffeecrazed -

Well stated.

I have several people stating that a C-Section and this procedure is so common you wont notice the difference. I bounced right back after my C-Section. My best friend just had a C-Section a week prior to my TAH and she is up and going and almost back to normal. I am thinking 6 weeks isnt even enough, I dont see myself being 100% for a while and that is frustrating me.

My husband put it perfectly today - (and this is coming from a guy)

Women are physically composed to give birth in which your body is made up to be able to recover and take care of an infant.

Women however are not physically composed to have their organs removed therefore there is no way a women is expected to bounce right back after having this much trama done to a body.

Hang in there you can only do one day at a time - your body is going to heal on its own timeline - there is nothing you can do to speed it up HOWEVER there is a lot you can do to slow it down. Dont overdo it!

I have chronic digestive problems as well unfortunately the Senna has not worked on me however it is worth a try. The only thing I noticed that has helped me although I know most people hate it is the bowel prep Magnesium Solfide (sp?) you find in the drug store (it comes in flavors but dont be fooled it does not taste good - if you put in fridge it is more tolerable). It will give you the runs however it does not hurt as much as the alternative.

Best wishes.

I think you hit the nail on the head, OP. Women do, do it all and even when people know better, they still expect a lot of us.

Really, six weeks is an inordinate amount of time to recover from anything medical anymore isn't it? Even then, spending time taking care of yourself for said recovery period doesn't mean you turn on like a switch as soon as the doctor says you can.

Chipmunk has it right...you can't do much to speed it up, but follow the rules to a T, but not doing so can slow you WAY down.

And people make the most interesting comments. Last week, when I was saying I still was sore and tired at the end of the day, a woman commented I must not be getting enough exercise! I told her no, I'm walking a half hour every morning and that my understanding is it takes six months to a year for complete recovery from a TAH. But I am feeling good--and I attribute that to following directions and not trying to do too much too soon. MJ

One of the more difficult "life lessons" of this whole hysterectomy ordeal, for me, is to learn to listen to myself, not other people. Well meanings notwithstanding, some people can say some pretty insensitive things, even when they think they are being "helpful". And, it doesn't help when I compare my progress with another person's progress. So, I have to work at remembering that every BODY is different, every SURGERY is different, and even if I did bounce back after a C-section (what choice did I have....I had a newborn baby to take care of!!!) it is OK that my body is taking its own sweet time (actually, not so sweet) healing. Deep breath.

Be kind. Mindy

This is a good post. Everyone is so different. Some people heal fast, some slow. It is important to have support from family & friends and to follow doctors orders. Yes, too I have had people mention how they were out shopping in 2 weeks etc and that this will be like a summer vacation.

I don't think that will happen for me even though I had a 1st good week. This 2nd week now I am very very sore and came down with a UTI so on meds for that along with pain killers. It takes time and I am going to take all my 6 weeks off from work!

Happy healing to all!!

Yeah I think th etext book time 6-8 weeks is very odd and started a thread about it. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT. I think we should have more time to heal properly.

I've also seen a couple ladies talk about how CSection is way different than this...someone's hubby made a good analysis of that. Something like how we are built to give birth and spring back to take care of a baby, but having actual parts taken out and things reattached, cut off, cut out, sewn back up is WAY different. I had all vag. births so I can't say from experience, but from what I've read here, that's not the same at all.

I did actually have someone comment to me that I'd be fine cause they were up and running a week after CSection. I thought then that was a stupid analysis but I was polite. My sister's doctor wanted her to not even start dealing with Endo, and give her a hyst as a preventive measure since me and my mom both have had it by mid 30's. Her hubby drives truck and has no vacation yet at his new job. He told her she'd be up and doing just fine within a week. She has three kids 8 and under...I told her the other day, he is INSANE. No way she could run a house and three kids in ONE WEEK! The baby is not even two yet!

I think all you ladies ROCK!!!
I think we women are the dominant gender to what we can deal with on top of our emotions
I am two weeks post op and I actually feel great but that only happened in the last two days. Its amazing what can happen so fast. I had a c-section 19 years ago and it was more painful to me than my TAH, which I find extremely odd. I thank God that this is less painful but still find it odd. The only time my c-section didn't hurt me was when I was holding my daughter, so I think there is a lot to be said about the 'mother' part of us.
I think we were made to be strong and face everything.
I love being a girl!!!