That achey feeling

I had my TAH on April 12, 2010. A couple weeks ago, I felt terrific. Now here I am 6 weeks in recovery and I have that achey, all over feeling again. I saw my doctor yesterday and she said everything was fine, and that it will be ok in time. Has anyone else had this feeling? I am so anxious to be all well again and am getting a little impatient and depressed about it. I have no energy and just want to lay down and sleep.

Hi (((ilbdpt)))

If it makes you feel any better, this kind of setback can be quite common. The issue of fatigue can come and go for quite some time. I didn't go back to work for seven weeks after my surgery. I only worked a few hours a day and felt completely exhausted by the end of it, and I was not ready to go back at six weeks as I had planned. If you are like many of us, you can likely expect to feel better once you hit about week eight. That is when I started to feel more of an acceleration in my own healing, at any rate. Of course, everyone is different. Best wishes to you!

I'm right there with you.. I had my TAH on May 5, 2010 and my stomach feels like I just did about 1,000,000 crunches... granted I know I overdid it yesterday and I'm only 3 weeks post-op, but I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon and I'm sitting here waiting for the kids to finish their showers so I can put them to bed and go to bed myself.. I'm exhausted. I am not one of those people who can sit around so this recovery thing is killing me..
I talked to my Dr. today and he said everyone is different, but most people take a good 6 months to a year to be back to 100%. He said I'll slowly have more energy and I'll feel great then I'll get hit with a couple of just really tired days.. thats just the way it goes.. I never anticipated how hard this recovery was going to be.. take it easy when your body says to take it easy and try not to get toooooo frustrated.. you will get better..

I, too, have good days and bad days. I thought I was ready to return to my overly stressful job after 6 weeks. Now I wish I had asked my doctor for another week because I'm completely wiped out by the end of the day. It's very frustrating to me because I came home the day after my DH and did 2 loads of laundry, took the dog to the dog park, and made a three course dinner for my boyfriend because I felt so great. Tonight I'm completely exhausted after my 10 hour workday and had microwave popcorn for dinner. I think we just have to be patient and listen to our bodies - they've been through quite an ordeal both physically and emotionally. I have noticed on the days I'm more stressed or tired that I feel more achy. At least I was forewarned by my doctor's nurse that I could feel this way for the first 2 - 3 months.

Just think how great it will be once we get through this phase and back to feeling like our old selves minus the problem that caused us to get a hysterectomy in the first place!

Hi ilbdpt!

I had a "textbook" TAH/BSO with no complications whatsover and was in otherwise perfect health at the time of my surgery.

That said, it took several months for the "stiff and achy" feeling to completely go away.

I was surprised, because I was told in advance of my surgery that it would be a "six week recovery."

When I lamented about this to my family physician at three months post-op he said, "That's just the initial recovery!"

If you are like me, letting time be your friend will pay off in the long run. Hang in there!

s,