Much better recovery than expected!

I had a TAH, keeping ovaries and cervix, which was the last resort after nearly bleeding to death with a fibroid.

I have felt much better after the op than I expected! I started laps of the ward on the day after the op and two weeks afterwards was walking about 2 miles a day.

My advice for the immediate post op period would be to start eating some high fibre snacks as soon as you start eating after the op. I didn't need to use stool softeners because I have a high fibre veggie diet but even then there was some some discomfort in the early days. I hate to think what it would have been like to be constipated!

And the wind/gaswind was more painful than the scar area at one point! Fortunately the nurse gave me some peppermint water which, together with walking, soon sorted it. So some peppermint tea bags might be a useful thing to take into the hospital.

Swelly belly is the weirdest thing and mine is still going strong five weeks after the surgery. I'm glad that I'd read about it on this site otherwise I would be quite alarmed.

Overall, there was much less pain than I expected and I was able to normal stuff (other than driving, lifting etc) from the end of the first week. It's good to have time to walk and sleep when you need to ... so I think the 4-6 weeks convalescence is going to be the right amount of time for me. Even though i am still recovering I have plenty of energy and am starting to get a sense of the 'new woman' that everyone promises I'll become.