TAH The Good and the Bad... 2 weeks post-op

Well, first with the bad because the good is so good that it's going to take a while to type it all out.

2 weeks post and it's been very slow going. I was a runner before this, 5k a day. Now it hurts to walk at a slow, make that VERY slow pace. I find myself going crazy I can't lay in bed all day. I knew recovery was going to be a long process but I'm just so house stuck. Also, I have a surgical hemotoba. If you don't know what that is or never had one, let me tell you it will scare the (bleep) out of you! It looked like I was bleeding out of my incision. In Canada (Thank the Lord,) our health care is free but poor to be blunt. I rushed myseld to the hospital because I literally thought my incision split open. 5 hours later ... yep 5 HOURS... I was finally seen by a Dr who mumbled something to me, threw a handful of gauze at me and told me to call the surgeon who did my surgery (duh! why didn't I think of that... oh yeah, I THOUGHT it was an emergency... ) an hour after that, my surgeon explained everything to me including the fact that it was old blood coming out that was left over under the skin from surgery and I wasn't "actively" bleeding... phew! Still... scary.

The Good:

This HYSTERECTOMY SAVED MY LIFE! I'm not being over-dramatic. I have, no HAD PMDD. For those of you that don't know what this is, I can't explain it, for those of you with it, you KNOW what we are (I was) going through. The rage that lived inside me since I was 13 years old is GONE. Not under there and managable like that one wonderful week a month, but GONE. GONE FOREVER. I remember when I was at the height of my cycle, I had to hide the knives from sight because just seeing one would give me the urge to hurt myself. I seen a knife on the kitchen counter today and I cried because I felt nothing. NOTHING. It was just a knife, nothing more, nothing dark, nothing angry... it was just a knife. You cannot begin to imagine how freeing it is to not have this rage anymore. This unexplainable uncontrollable rage that haunted me an threatened my life and my marriage and everyone around me from the time I first began to ovulate.

It wasn't until I finally had the nerve to tell my Gyno the above story about the knifes that she finally agreed to send me for a mental assessment and after 3 LOOOONG months (it felt long to me) of the psychiatrist viewing me throughout the various stages of my cycle that she agree that this was the BEST option to treat my condition. I am sooo thankful.

My wish is that PMDD was something that was easier to talk about, more common... I know there are more people out there that suffer in the exact same fashion but are too afraid to say anything, too afraid to think that a hysterectomy might be the cure. My hope is that noone has to suffer the way I did and that they too can me free.

It is great to hear that your PMDD is treated. As far as the bad goes, your experience is quite typical. I am a very sporting person and my main concern is loss of fitness. I have just gradually built up my walking. At 2 weeks I was also disappointed how far I could walk and at what pace. I can now walk 4 km including over a significant hill, at almost normal brisk pace. My technique to get here was to walk little and often with plenty of rest in between. Gradually increase the distance, but always keep below a point where you get significant pain. A couple of times, I have almost gone too far, but in general I have made steady progress. I am only 3 weeks ahead of you, so I hope you find this an encouragement.

By the way, I also had a haematoma.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by zany56 It is great to hear that your PMDD is treated. As far as the bad goes, your experience is quite typical. I am a very sporting person and my main concern is loss of fitness. I have just gradually built up my walking. At 2 weeks I was also disappointed how far I could walk and at what pace. I can now walk 4 km including over a significant hill, at almost normal brisk pace.

Ah - Zany! I was a big walker, too, and like you I gradually built up my walking, and can go good distances on the flat.
But I used to do a lot of hill walking pre-op. because it made me fitter, and it was for the benefit of my bone density, being more weight bearing.
But when I tried going for a short hill walk a week ago, the uphill was fine, but after coming down I had a lot of pain in the area of my vaginal cuff, and a tiny bit of spotting - the first since I was in hospital!! That really scared me.
I figured it was something to do with the downhill business jarring my innards. Do you have no problem with that?

Hi Acey. I did find downhill more jarring, but I always go downhill at a fairly slow pace, because my knees don't like it. So far, I have had no problem with my vaginal cuff, but doing something to damage it does worry me as there seem to be a lot of ways to damage it when you read the various posts.