new here with lots of questions

Hi,
I posted this in the New Here message board and then realized that this might be a better place to get some answers. any help out there would be appreciated.

I am scheduled to have at total adominal hyster July 21st. I have done a lot of research on the web, brochures and have asked many question of my primary doc and my gyn doc. But there are still things that I am unsure of and I think the only way to get real insight is from women that have gone thru what I am about to.

I have extremely heavy and long periods, along with weeks of PMS, terrible cramps, vomiting, headaches, backaches, enemia,etc. I have about 10 "normal" days a month. I had a polyp in my uterus that needed to be removed and decided to try thermal ablation to help with the period troubles. The polyp was removed, but they could not do the thermal ablation due to the size and shape of my uterus. Thus, the hyster. I have opted to have my ovaries removed due the risk of cancer in my family. I was told that the best option for me was to have abdominal surgery versus vaginal because of the issues with my uterus.

Will someone that has gone thur this type of hyster please tell me your personal experience? How long was your surgery? How long were you in the hospital? Did you bleed? If so, how heavily? Much pain? I have heard that gas is a real problem - yes?How was your first week at home? How long before you were able to drive? How was sex for you after your surgery compared to before? Anything else you feel like sharing would be great.

My other pressing issue is HRT - I really don't know what I should do. My doc said that she would start me on estrogen while I was in the hospital to help eleviate the on-slaught of memopause systems. I am uncertain if I want to continue or even start with estrogen. I know that there are natural supplements out there, but haven't had a chance to do a lot of research yet. Again, any of your personal experiences and input is welcome.

So, sorry for the long first message - I guess I had more to ask and say than I thought. Thanks so much for your help and sharing. Good luck to each of you out there!

I had my TAH abdominally 3 weeks ago tomorrow. I'm therefore not far enough along in recovery to answer some of your questions, but I'll do my best with the ones I can answer.

My surgery was 2 hours long and included removal of uterus and removal of endo and adhesions

I was in the castle 72 hours....in Monday morning, out Thursday morning

I had not one drop of vaginal bleeding post-op. I have had a few spots of brownish discharge this week, but nothing to even require a panty liner.

How was the pain? WELL in a word....awful. But keep in mind that my story is very different than many women here. Leading up to surgery I was on narcotics to control endo pain, and so I was pretty dependent on the pain meds. The first couple of days in the castle were ok, because I was on a morphine PCA. However, I used far more morphine than a "normal" patient would, and therefore my oxygen levels and respirations were pretty low. Once the morphine was discontinued, I did not have adequate pain control as I was sent home with tylenol 3. One word of advice. If your pain is not adequately controlled, SPEAK UP!

The gas pain is bad. There's no getting around it. Walk as much as possible, drink tons of water, and have Gas-X at home to help. Once the gas starts moving, you'll feel much better.

My first week home was ok. My mom was with me daily to look after me and help me out. I mostly slept and walked around the house, and drank lots of liquids. I had one major emotional meltdown, but other than that I was fine.

Driving....haven't done that yet....my incision still hurts too much for a seatbelt.

Sex....well I'll let you know in a few more weeks.

Sending you s, and I'm glad you found us. You'll find all the support you need from the wonderful women here.

Love
Northlights

How long was your surgery? My surgery was 2-1/2 hours, but I had a TAH/BSO with very large ovarian cysts, severe endometriosis and adhesions.

How long were you in the hospital? I was in the hospital from a thursday and left the following monday afternoon.

Did you bleed? If so, how heavily? I bled for a few weeks after I came home from the hospital but it was light pink.

Much pain? I have heard that gas is a real problem - yes?I had pretty strong abdominal pain. I was in recovery for several hours because they could not get the pain under control. My family told me about this afterwards; I actually remember about 2 minutes of my time in recovery. While in the hospital I had an IV pain killer and also a pump that if the pain got strong, I could press a button and get more pain killers. I had pain for the first few weeks I was home. I started out on vicodin, switched to tylenol with codeine because the vicodin gave me severe gas pains and eventually went to extra strength tylenol. The gas pains at times were really severe. You need to walk as much as you can, drink lots of water, and also taking prunes and a daily stool softener helped me a lot. Also gas-x pills were helpful when the gas was severe.

How was your first week at home? The first week I made sure I had my DH with me. Having an abdominal hyst made it difficult getting in and out of bed the first few days. Also, I didnt want to take the stairs initially so he brought food and drinks upstairs for me and picked up my prescriptins etc..

How long before you were able to drive? I could drive at around 4-6 weeks when I was up to it. I chose to wait til 6 weeks.

How was sex for you after your surgery compared to before? Sex is good after surgery but initially due to low estrogen I was dry. My doctor recommended a lubricant called astroglide which has worked great.

My other pressing issue is HRT - I really don't know what I should do. I didnt think I would go on estrogen but I have. Surgical menopause I am told can be up to 10 times worse than natural menopause. Since I am relatively thin, my doctor felt surgical menopause was going to "hit me like a ton of bricks". So I went on the vdot patch. Started out at a relatively low dose of .5, upped it to .75 and am now on .1. Being low on estrogen can cause a lot of issues like insomnia, hot flashes, short term memory loss, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, night sweats etc...
As long as you are vigilant about getting regular checkups with your doctor, I think going on the lowest dose of HRT that you need for the shortest period of time, is in my opinion, the way to go.

I had the TAH and BSO, which means EVERYTHING is gone, and I am thrilled with the results so far!

To answer your questions in some detail: I am a very large woman and had huge uterus and ovaries, so it was a large incision, some thirteen inches vertically, twenty staples and two really cool support suture thingies that were a huge help. My blood loss in surgery was 1500 ml, which is within normal limits. I had no bleeding afterwards.

Counting the day of my surgery, I spent four days, three nights in the hospital. Because I have other health problems, two of the three nights were in ICU for observation. My care was excellent from start to finish, except for a night nurse during my one night on the regular unit who was obnoxious to my roommate and that was very upsetting to me. That made me determined to get out the next day no matter what it took LOL......And a wonderful RN and social worker made it happen *grin*.

My first week at home I was very dependent on the good help I had. My hubby and I have a fabulous friend for a housemate who nursed and cared for me around the clock and never left my side. I got a hospital bed in the living room, and she slept on the sofa. I had good pain medication, though, so I kept the pain under great control.

Gas and constipation weren't too bad, but I got medication for both as part of my discharge plan and took them religiously. Much to my great joy and surprise, I was actually able to take care of bathroom ablutions better even in the first week home than before the surgery. That's how huge my cysts and colony of aliens (aka fibroids) were! UGH. I could reach places I hadn't been able to reach for months.....

I was required to wait a full eight weeks before I could resume normal driving, but I did drive a little bit starting at about six weeks. However, this is longer than usual and was due to the surgeon being super cautious about my healing. My other health problems could have interfered with normal healing, but it turned out they did not.

Sex life has improved a LOT Everything functions just fine so far, and no more PAIN from stuff in the way!!

HRT is a non issue for me due to the other health stuff (I can't take the risk of increased clotting danger). So far it hasn't been bad, mild hot flashes and moodiness is all....NOTHING compared to the misery of PMS.

I really had a picture perfect surgery and recovery thus far and I sooooo happy I went through with it.

Dear Elizabethn,

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences thus far. I have been doing okay with this - as a matter of fact looking forward to not having my periods and everything that I have been putting up with for years. But, as the time gets closer to the surgery date - my nerves are getting a little more high strung. I have had other major surgery (open heart surgery 20 years ago) in the past, but this is a little different as I will be dealing with the post-op stuff, hormone issues, sex issues and God knows what else.

I am sure that I will do just fine, just want to be as prepared as possible.

I wish you continued good recovery from your surgery - my prayers are with you.

Sending you