At what point does life resume at least close to normal?

Hello, I had my surgery on 10/26/11. I came home on 10/28/11 after a horrible stay at the hospital. I am glad to be home. But I am still in pain. Sitting hurts, getting up hurts, going to lay down hurts, I am walking a little better but its just pain all the time. I am still on pain meds which of course constipate you and their is always the chance of addiction because they are opiods and taking ibuprofen in between which adds to the constipation which adds to the pain, its a vicious cycle. I don't know what else to do and am tired of hearing from the nurse's at the doctor's office, "you just had major surgery." . Any one have any suggestions? Shouldn't I feel better at this point? It's going to be 3 wks.

A big one for me to get over the pain was stool softener. I took one in the morning and one at night. I found my body was forgetting to tell me when I had to go to the bathroom and the sudden onset of pain would have me shuffling to the bathroom in pain to then be frustrated to tears that I couldn't have a BM. I used a glycerin suppositor to get things moving - I am mentioning all this because of your reference to the constipation. However, even with bathroom life mostly back to 'normal' I still have pain and give into the fact that is one surgery that takes a LONG time to heal - so frustrating.

What's your day to day schedule like? You are less than 3 weeks post op. Is it possible that you might be trying to do too much? Too much has a different meaning post hysto - getting up too abruptly, walking too far, lifting too many things, reaching too high. If I have a day doing a little too much of things noted above, I am sore for hours. Add in cleaning or some other light duty chore and I could be having a 'feet up' day with pain meds all day the next day.

I was told to look at this like I was in a car accident - its traumatic. A motor vehicle accident victi witll take a year to heal completely and so will we. We are only 40% healed by week 6.

Thanks Janine for your reply. I don't do much I tried cleaning the floor one day and quickly learned that was a no no. The heaviest thing I lift is the Jar from the blender full of water as that is how I fill the dog's water bowl now because bending over is out of the question. I am resting a lot, am not driving or doing groceries or anything of the sort. Hence my frustration. I am taking stool softeners 3 a day and eating high fiber but sometimes go more than a day without going at which point I do use a glycerin suppository. But the 40% really puts things into perspective. Again thank you so much. I will try to continue to try to stay positive. I knew this would be difficult but I didn't realize to what extent.

For now you need to keep on top of your pain by making sure you take your appropriate pain medication on time, it is easier to keep on top of your pain than trying to play catch up. I was still taking pain meds up to 8 weeks after my tah and was gradually able to cut back until I eventually stopped altogether. Also make sure your diet is high in fibre to keep things moving and combine this with a daily metumucil supplement. I too thought my pain would never end, it hurt so much to do normal everyday things like bending, sitting, driving, lifting, sleeping on side/tummy and it honestly took 3~4 months to get back to some sort of normalcy. Hang in there, it will get better just that some of us take a lot longer to heal than others.

Thank you Elly I appreciate your response.

For me, week 3 seemed to be the worst. At around week 5, I started to feel a lot better. By week 6, I was feeling pretty good. Like a switch was flipped.
My heating pad was, and continues to be, and invaluable tool in this whole healing process.
And my morning coffee keeps me a-goin in the potty department...

Good luck hun... there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

dreamysoft

If you haven't checked out the hysterectomy checkpoints you should do it.
you will find that at 3 to 4 weeks many women feel like it is 2 steps forward and 1 step backwards. They are in the upper left on the menu bar.

Another source of support for you is the recovery progress thread for your week of surgery. It is here in the post op forum. Finding others recoverying with you can help you realize you are not alone.

Thank you sooooo much ladies or better yet sisters! Your positive thoughts and suggestions are helping me so much today! I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. Many blessings to you all!!!!!