18 days post - Worry wart!

Hi everyone!

Sorry I've been MIA since before surgery. My surgery was in Atlanta (I live in VA) so I was quite busy traveling, recovering and then traveling again. I feel like I've been taking it easy, although according to others I may have been bending too much. Although not bending to the floor. Bending to sit up sometimes and things like that. Everything has been uneventful other than some urinary retention (in the first 5 days) and typical constipation. No spotting or pain meds since day 2. Just had a little off-white/yellowish discharge, but no smell, fever, etc.

I have no idea why (maybe reading too much?), I am terrified of this vaginal cuff. In fact, my mom and friend make fun of me because they said I am obsessed with it. Everything I do, I say "Is that ok for my vaginal cuff?" haha I don't have any symptoms that would suggest anything is wrong but after reading things that 'can' happen, I'm terrified.

I'm going through a little spell of constipation again. I can tell it's pushing on the cuff because i can feel the cuff up there when I'm constipated. I've read scary stories about it opening up and the bowels falling through?!? I think those stories also involved blood, of which I have none.

Am I just super paranoid? I'm trying to tell myself the odds of this are not likely, although more research I read found that stitching by laparoscopy/da vinci is risky. I also keep telling myself I haven't overdone it, I've barely done anything. I have picked up my dog from the sofa a couple of times, but they are 7 and 9.5 lbs (read nothing over 10). Bend to sit up which I've cut back on because I'm scared. I haven't bent to the floor. I haven't lifted anything else. The closest to squatting I've gotten is going to the bathroom.

Does anyone have anything to say to make me feel better? LOL I'm assuming at day 18, if nothing has gone wrong, that I should stop worrying so much but this cuff scares me.

Hugs to everyone. Hope you are all hanging in there.

Steph

I was the same with worry. It does get better with time. I also had da vinci in Atlanta. Sending you a private message to see if perhaps we had ours at the same hospital.

Kelly, it looks like your surgery was relatively recent too. How long before the paranoia left you? Mine was actually done laparoscopically (not robot) but maybe we were at the same hospital

Hello! good for you for looking after yourself, but don't worry, if you were damaging yourself you'd probably feel the pain!
Having gone through this I'd say the movements you want to be careful of are lifting, pushing and pulling things with your arms or legs, extended reaching and stretching and any sort of pushing/straining for a bowel movement. That's not to say you can't do any of that, but test each move carefully for comfort before doing it. Listen to your body.
If you can take care with this until you get the all clear from the doc that your stitches are healed. This varies but most people get a check around 6 weeks.
My discharge nurse told me I'd have to go some to pop any stitches, but there are always exceptions to this so I was pretty careful what I did. Even at week 13 I am careful not to lift very heavy things or do sudden twisting movements. I had a TAH so I had more trauma to my abdominals to deal with which has effected my back muscles too.

Hope you continue to heal well and recover quickly! x

I am scared of it too. Believe me when I tell you that I m so careful now my husband is reminding also. I'm only a little over a week so i think this could be critical healing time. I plan on continuing to be as careful as possible. I think problems start when we push ourselves to hard, to fast. it is hard to remember it was major surgery especially if it was Da vinci. The insicisions are so small.

I'm still like this at 6 wks! It's gotten better though. I had a hematoma on the vaginal cuff at 10 days post op and a UTI. I'm still shedding stitches and spotting. My 4 wk post op went well, and my dr said to give my body 12 wks to settle down. I return in December and in January. I also had a bladder suspension and episiotomy revised because its itched-hurt for yrs. That is still open and sitting HURTS!

You are NOT alone but feel this fades w time. Too many hours healing at home have definitely contributed to my worry. Plus the complications and not researching the true recovery time (not 2-4) wks as my surgeon told me originally.

Good luck everyone and stay positive!!

Thanks for the replies. I didnt think i could be alone in my fears. I like the sound of only 2 vaginal cuff tears in 1,500 surgeries as someone else said their doc quoted them!! Did any of you notice an increase in pain when you were constipated? I don't mean pain in your butt (haha), I notice pain in my right side and leg as caused by my ovary pre-op when I'm constipated. I keep worrying the right ovary removal has not helped my pain! But maybe it's just constipation?? It's been two days since I had a BM. I can feel my cuff (almost tight/prickly feeling) when I'm constipated.

Are we out of the woods for tears after the first 12-16 wks? Do tears occur months or yrs later?

Shoot, I wish we were out of the woods at 12-16 days lol. I think at 12-16 weeks, you are safe for tears. Although I hear at that point you can notice new pains and sex can be painful. But I'm no positive.

Steph,

I have really struggled with worry over my vaginal cuff up until about week 9. I had no clue what a vaginal cuff is, or that I had one until I began reading on here. Then worry hit hard.

Thankfully, I have a wonderful and extremely patient gynecologist who is old school. He always was available to alleviate my fears and assure me that all was well. I am utterly embarrassed to admit this, but will for your benefit... I confess that I went in at least every week to be checked vaginally. A couple of weeks I was checked twice. Either I was scared by a certain funky discharge or new pain that would come up. I would call and my doc would tell me to come in and let him take a look. Each time I would go in I would apologize to the front staff, nurses and my doc. He would kindly remind me that he was always there and available to check my cuff; he only hated the fact that I had to drive an hour to see him. I will say that a couple of times I had a yeast infection and bacterial vaginosis - both remedied with meds.

The last time I went in was at eight weeks, and he gave me a big hug and said you're healed. Because of my trepidation he advised waiting til 12 weeks for sex, which I'm going to do.

I have an undiagnosed connective tissue disease and have been poked, prodded, and cut many times in the past. Was on chemo for three years because of it, too, and I admit that nothing I've been through with that compares to the anxiety over that silly vaginal cuff!! Crazy, crazy!

The good news is time does pass. Weeks do go by, and with every passing week you will begin to feel not only better physically, but in your confidence that it's going to be ok. My hubby and I were laughing the other day, because I have finally reached the milestone in my healing where he is thinking more about my vagina than I am

It will get better, and you will get to the point to where you don't feel it at all, even before a bm.

Kelley