My TVH story

Hello sisters! I'm new here and just wanted to share my story. I had my last baby in 2008 and since then I have had trouble with prolapse and ovary pain. I finally talked to my OBGYN about my issues and he said if I was done having babies the vaginal hysterectomy would be my best option. I went for it. I hope I don't regret it later. It does kind of sadden me a little that it's so final and I don't have the option to have more kids later. Although, since about a year after having my last baby I have fetch sure that I'm done having kids. Before having my last, I was unsure whether I wanted more so the dr recommended not doing the tubal after birth. I never expected that "sure I'm done" feeling to hit me so hard but it did. Anyway, it is a little sad that my womb which I carried all 4 of my babies in is now not a part of my body.

So, with all the pain I've dealt with I decided to go ahead and do the TVH. I get to keep my ovaries, which is good but I'm a little worried about that because of the pain I have from my ovaries. I'm hoping it will all work itself out.

I went in on May 30,2012 and it was expected that I would go home the next morning. I arrived at the hospital at 7:30 and I was in surgery by 9. I got my relax medicine and I don't remember getting my "put out" medication. I woke up in the recovery room and was taken to my room where I had to switch beds. I was in a lot of pain and I tried to tell the nurse. Finally she understood and informed me that I had a button that I could push every 10 minutes for morphine. Instantly, I knew the morphine was the problem. I had kidney stones a few years ago and the pain was so severe that I was throwing up. They gave me morphine for the pain but it did absolutely nothing. It didn't even touch the pain. So, from that experience I knew morphine wouldn't help me. So, I tried to explain that, to the best of my ability, but I think she had a hard time believing that morphine wouldn't help with pain. Finally, my husband was able to talk the nurse into calling my dr and explaining to him the situation. I laid there for 5 hours in severe pain before I finally got demerol, which did help. They also finally gave me toradol which helped the most. After getting the right meds in me, I slept pretty good. I got my catheter out at 6 the next morning and the nurse put the tray on the toilet to measure my pee. I want for several walks to try to wake things up and get my bladder going. I tried several times to pee but I couldn't get more than 100ml out at a time. It's like my brain was trying to tell my bladder to work but it just wouldn't work. When my Dr's nurse came in that morning earlier, she told me that if I couldn't pee on my own that I would need to get and in & out cath. As my bladder continued to fill up I started to be in more pain. I remembered what the nurse had told me so I called down to the nurse's station and told her I was in a lot of pain and that I thought my bladder was getting pretty full. Keep in mind that this is the same nurse that made me wait in pain for 5 hours the day before to change my pain medicine. Only today she had an intern with her for the day. She said she would have to call my dr to see what
he wanted to do. She and the intern came back a while later and said she was going to scan my bladder. They left to go get the machine and came back about 15 minutes later. They got everything ready and went to turn the machine on and the battery was dead. She left for another 15 minutes to get batteries. Finally she scanned my bladder and said I had 500+ ml in my bladder and they would have to do the in & out cath. The only thing worse than her being so slow at getting me some pain relief was that she slowly shoes the intern how to do everything. So, I'm laying there in pain while the intern is learning how to do a cath. Finally the pee is being drained. As they are draining my bladder, I was pressing down on my bladder gently to make sure it drained good. I used my pain as a guide and if I hurt too bad I stopped pressing. At the end of draining, the nurse said, "well, it looks like the scanner lied to us because we just drained 850+ ml". I was so mad because I was hurting so bad and they were taking their time while my bladder was constantly filling up. Hours later and more attempts to pee by myself, I was in pain again and I knew my bladder was getting full. I called the nurse to my room to scan my bladder. She finally came and it scanned at about 275 ml. She said they don't like to do the quick cath until it's over 300 ml. My husband had to leave but at least the nurse had scanned me and we knew it wouldn't be long before she would do the quick cath, or so we thought. So my husband left to go to work. About 1 1/2 hours later, I texted him and told him I was hurting so bad and all I could do was lay there and crystal. The pain medication button every 10 minutes was not helping with that kind of pain. After crying for a few minutes, I decided to go try to pee on my own again. I did it! I peed 200 ml which was the most ever on my own. I was still hurting though. Finally the nurse and intern came in and said they had to wait for the dr to give her orders as to what to do. Tell dr told her to re-cath me until the next morning. When they did, they drained 550 ml, so I had about 750 ml before I peed on my own. My husband had called the dr after I had texted him earlier and told the dr what was going on. While the nurse and intern were doing the catheter, the dr came to my room. He talked to them out in the hall and they were not my nurses the next day. Everything was great from that point forward. I got the catheter out the next morning at six and I started peeing good on my own! I got to go home around 12. I have had problems with gas and my bottom hurts pretty bad. I had a mesh piece put under my bladder, the dr repaired a rectocele and he also tightened me up down there:-).

So right now I'm pretty sore in my pelvic area and I've been having a lot of pain from gas. It feels like I have gas trapped at the bottom of my rectum. It hurts to try and push it out and when it does come out it feels like a large, hard stool. After reading on here, I am now taking gas x so I hope that helps. Also, I am taking stool softener once a day and I haven't had a bm yet. I was thinking about taking some milk of Magnesia if I haven't had a bm in another day or two.

I apologize for any errors in my writing. Thanks for reading!