2 Weeks

Hello! My name is Melanie and I am new here. I have been a member for a couple of months but haven't posted here or been here in a while.

I had a laproscopic hysterectomy two weeks ago today. I had a horrible time of it. I was on the operating table for five hours. My doctor was trying to keep from cutting me open so I would have a quicker heal time. Which I am glad he did. But my uterus was intertwined with my bladder. I had horrible scar tissue inside from where I had 3 c-sections, 4 DNC, 3 Laproscopic procedures to remove scar tissue, and 1 ablation of the uterus. So he had a nice mess to deal with.

I have had complications from the surgery. I went in on a thursday and got to come home on a Saturday. I came home with a catheter because my bladder filled with blood during the operation and my doctor said it needed more time to heal. So I stayed at home two days. I got a fever Saturday night and by monday I was so miserable. I went in to see him in pain and just sick as a dog. Nausea is a problem for me, constantly. He wanted to put me back in the hospital to run test and make sure I wasn't having complications from the surgery. I was so dehydrated it took them sticking me eight times to get an iv in. They were fixing to put in a central line. He didn't find anything wrong other than my potassium was low low. I mean it was an emergency to get it back up. Whatever that means. I am not sure.
I stayed two days. All test where good other than my potassium. I went back yesterday for a check up and my bladder is still giving me trouble. The pain is horrible. I don't have an urge ever to go pee. I have to make myself or I won't be any. So I guess my question is did anyone else have this issue? And what did you do. My uterus and bladder were intertwined so my Doc thinks my bladder doesn't know how to act now and that it may take a while for it to get back to normal. But this pain I have is horrible. I did the bladder scan to see if it was still retaining urine and it wasn't very much. So i don't know. He gave me valium to take three times a day to relax the muscles thinking that would help. That maybe the muscle is too constricted in my bladder and my uretha to function. So I DON'T KNOW!! If this doesn't work he says there are options. Ladies the catheter isn't an option for me. I don't know how people do that all the time. I wore it for six days and I was crazy. I literally slept so I wouldn't have to think about having it there. And my option is if this doesn't work to learn to catheter myself so my bladder will empty. I know this may sound childish but I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT. It hurts i don't care what anyone says.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And thanks for reading my long post.


Melanie

Hi Melanie I'm so sorry you're having such a rough time of things. It sounds like your surgery was a very risky one because of all the adhesions you had. Unfortunately, the potential for things to go wrong when there are lots of adhesions and limited visibility is very great.

I didn't have the adhesions issue (pre hyst, that is) but did have bladder trouble afterwards. I went home with a Foley for a week. That gave my bladder enough time to rest and the swelling to go down so I could go on my own. Even then, my bladder had to be "re-trained"... my DR had me keep a log of how often I urinated. At first, after the catheter came out, I went about every 15-20 minutes! But gradually the time increased more and more, until eventually I was going every few hours during the day and only getting up once, or sometimes not at all, during the night. I must say, though, that I could not have gotten to that point without having given my bladder the rest it needed by using the catheter.

I know you don't want to hear this, but I really think you might want to consider having the catheter (Foley) put back in for a while. Unfortunately, you just aren't going to be one of the ladies who are back "doing it all" a week or two after surgery. But you really do need to allow your body time to heal. You might also want to consider a referral to a urologist or urogynecologist if the bladder issue isn't resolved fairly soon. Also there are meds they can give you to regulate urges temporarily if that's an issue.

Are they still continuing to follow your potassium level? That is something that needs careful watching. I hope you're being followed very very closely by your DR.

Hang in there! I hope you feel much better soon.

s,
-Linda