TLH - A B.C. girl's experience

Hi All,
I wasn't able to find too much info on TLH and what occurred so here is my story. Hopefully it will help some ladies out there who are having the same type of surgery.

On 09/29/11 I had a TLH leaving the ovaries but taking the tubes. The doctor said the cervix should go to ensure that I didn't have any further bleeding issues. During the examination she said that I had little chance of prolapse but would try to do the entire surgery laproscopically to decrease the likelihood even further.

Even though I wasn't terribly nervous up to the date (I was actually anxious to get this all behind me) I cried on the way to the hospital because I was scared that I might die and leave my family and also worried about the pain afterwards (I had appendix surgery six years prior and it was a long recovery). Remember: Logic has nothing to do with emotions at this point.

There was no requirement for bowel preps or enemas - just nothing to eat from midnight the night before. I reported to Day Surgery at 10:15 am and an IV was started. I was required to drink an ounce of a nasty drink (to help with nausea after the surgery) and given a shot in the stomach (to reduce the chance of blood clots). I went into surgery at 12:30 pm.

I woke up in the recovery room but kept falling back asleep after only a few minutes. The doctor told me the ovaries were very healthy and all went very well - I only had three incisions (one in the belly button, and one on each side). The operation took about 90 minutes. The trip to my room made me sick to my stomach but since it was empty I just had dry heaves. I settled in and because I wasn't in too much pain (about a 4) I chose not to have the morphine IV but rather to just take a couple of Tylenols and a Volteran (plus a Gravol pill!). I went for a short walk and this made me throw up (but I felt better afterwards). I was pretty dopey for the next few hours and would fall asleep almost mid-sentence when talking to my husband.

By 10:30pm the anesthetic has worn off and I was wide awake and reading magazines. I had to have another shot in the stomach (yuck) and found out I had a tube coming out of one of the incisions with a bubble "thingee" attached that was draining blood. This wasn't painful but a bit gross to look at. The nurse pinned it to my gown so it was easier to get around. This was drained three times. I also had these massaging thigh high wraps around my legs that helped with circulation. Every time I had to go to the bathroom (I was drinking a lot of juice and water because I felt completely dehydrated), I had to buzz the nurse to unplug my legs and IV so I could get up. Because I only had the very small incisions, I was lucky that I didn't have the cuts in my abdomen muscles that would have made getting up more difficult. There was some bleeding but not a great deal. They give you mesh underwear and a pad to help with this.

When I went to the bathroom for the first couple of times, the nurse measured how much urine came out and did a bladder scan. The doctor had ordered an in/out catheter if I had a reading of 300 in my bladder after using the bathroom. I had 371. However, the nurse said that because I was progressing so well I could wait another hour and try again to see if it came out without using the catheter. Believe me, when I went in the bathroom I sat there and wiggled forward and backwards to help and managed to get a total of 350 out on my own (I did NOT want a catheter). This was a trick I learned when I was pregnant and had to pee all the time - the doctor told me that if you lean forward you can often push a little more out. Thank heavens this worked.

The next day at 7:30 am the doctor-on-call came by and said that I could go home that day. After another shot in the stomach, and the removal of the tube I was on my way home by 11:30am. Having the tube out was unpleasant but not very painful - it felt like a worm being pulled out from under your skin (super yuck).

I was very lucky and did not experience the gas pains in my shoulders or chest from the gas they pump in nor did I get a very swelly belly (perhaps the drain helped with this but I don't know for sure). I am a little puffy but can wear my yoga pants with the waistband rolled down. I also didn't need larger size underwear. I had bought Gas X but the nurse said not to use it as it would slow down my bowels getting back to work properly.

I did not fill the prescription for the strong painkillers as the Tylenol and Volteran seem to work just fine for me. The only real pain is just prior to a BM. These gas pains are harsh but they do pass within a short period of time. The first time, I just concentrated on breathing through my nose and out of my mouth until I was able to go. I just trusted my body to do what it needed to do and it did. All the extra fiber I ate also helped a lot. I eat bran cereal with every meal to help ease things.

This is day 4 and I feel better each day. I am careful not to lift anything heavy and to rest a lot but my incisions are now uncovered and exposed to the air. They don't look too bad at all. There is a little bit of discharge still (but very little) and this is my warning not too push to hard. I still feel swollen inside and sometimes feel pressure (especially after I eat or before a BM). I don't have very much bruising on my stomach - ironically, the bruising from the IV is 100 times worse!

I hope this answers some of the questions and addresses some of the fears for others that I had prior to surgery. Being a B.C./Cdn girl, sometimes they do things a bit differently here.

Hugs to everyone!