Question about "adhesions and scar tissue"and pushing a grocery cart! (Update!)

As I've mentioned before, this is my 2nd time for this surgery, first time myomectomy, this time a hysterectomy. Both times I have been told the limitations they gave me were for the entire 6 weeks off work and actually when I went back at 6 months, I mentioned a couple of things that I thought I "should" be able to do but caused me pain for days afterwards each time, and my doctor said if it hurts me, to not do it. That was six months post op. I think some doctors are a little more conscientious about the precautions because they're looking at preventing further surgeries & complications. Let's face it, some doctors are better than others (not knocking anyone's doctor), but personally, if I'm going to err, it's going to be on the side of giving my body the time to heal properly. That's just me, everyone is going to do what they feel is best for them of course and everyone heals differently and at a different pace. It's up to each of us to do what's best for us because in the long run, we're the only ones who will suffer the complications, if there are any. I hope all of us heal perfectly - we all deserve it.

As far as the grocery bags/carts, I didn't lift much of anything for at least six or seven weeks. Even after I went back to work, it still hurt me to push a cart but I was very careful. And I made them use lots of bags, pushed the cart to my car and then put the bags ONE AT A TIME (with very little in each one) in my car. Same thing when I got home, I took them into the house one at a time or let my husband unload them for me. Things such as milk, liquid laundry detergent, cases of soft drinks, etc... I let my husband stop by the store to get. It won't hurt the men to help out and if you don't have a husband or significant other, surely a friend or parent will help. Most of it just comes down to thinking ahead and planning what you can and shouldn't do for yourself.

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Originally Posted by sunnydays42 I just wanted to say, that when we are visiting with our doctors and they are giving instructions, it is VERY important to clarify or ask questions to make sure we understand. I just went in for a 5 week post op visit and my doctor released me for all normal activity. When I asked him about lifting, he said, "at your last visit (10 days post op) I gave you a 5# weight limit that I said you could roughly double every week." Well, I THOUGHT at that visit that he told me I would be given that limit at my next visit (today!). So for the past 4 weeks, I have been stressing out about the fact that I lifted too much that next day and have felt guilty every time I have lifted groceries (nothing over 10#), and all the while, I was fine and could have been gradually lifting more! So, I just want to clarify, we are all given different restrictions, but if something seems weird, be SURE to clarify (I thought it was odd that I wasn't even cleared to lift a gallon of milk until 5 weeks, but didn't clarify that!).

My Dr told me no more than 10 pounds until week 6. I not only listened to that, I took it to another 8 weeks.....happy that I did. I have no clue if I would feel the same now had I have lifted, but I can say that I am three years post-op and feel great.

GizmoCat I'm glad you're feeling so great! That's my goal, I've had enough years of feeling like something the cat dragged in because of first my painful periods, the heavy bleeding, the endo I didn't even know I had until my hysterectomy this time, the recurring fibroids and the pain & uncomfortable feeling those alien things bring (I felt like I had an alien growing in me - LOL). That's the weird thing, this THING is growing bigger and bigger in you, causing all kinds of complications, you know it isn't a baby but you feel like you LOOK pregnant (at the time of my first surgery in '98, my 4 year old niece actually patted my stomach and asked in there was a baby in there - I could have DIED because I wasn't married and was already very self-conscious about it. Being slim built it was very obvious that my stomach was getting bigger.)

But on to the lifting thing, I honestly didn't even feel like lifting 10 pounds until just recently (and I'm at 4 months post-op). I just can't even imagine wanting to before 6 weeks, even if I felt "good", I'd want to make sure I kept feeling that way but I guess everybody's different. Honestly I think it was at least 8 weeks before I even attempted to push a shopping cart (and at a very slow pace, I'm sure I drove all the other shoppers crazy, I couldn't go any faster) but I was almost in tears from the pain before I could even get halfway to where my car was parked. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to get myself home that day. After that episode, I waited a few more weeks before trying it again. Isn't it strange how some people seem to feel so good and others have such problems recovering? I'm glad some people feel that well, I just hope they take care of themselves. Sometimes I think feeling worse is actually a good thing because it keeps us from doing more than we should too soon. May we ALL feel great soon (and stay that way)!