Will my body really tell me BEFORE I overdo it?

Listen to your body & don't over do it, good advice but I've heard several post where it sounded like people didn't realize they had over done it until it was too late.
What things will cause you to overdo it? Can I take too many short walks?
What were you doing when you overdid it & did your body warn you & you just ignored it or did you not know that you were over doing it until it was too late?

Hi Stacy,

Listening to your body is good advice; however, the first couple of weeks, you can't really even rely on your body to tell you when you've overdone it, especially since it takes a couple of weeks for all of the anesthesia and pain meds to leave your system.

I found that my body lied to me - it would tell me that I was feeling better than I thought, then smack me down when I was least expecting it.

The best advice it to only do half of what you feel up to doing. That way, you're pretty safe. And check out the Allowed, Not Allowed list in the Pre-Op articles. It can give you a great idea of what you should and shouldn't be doing.

s,

Lisa

I remember being so surprised that the overdoing it came without a warning sign. We went on a quick grocery store run to pick up meds about 5 days post surgery and I made around the store with no problem, but almost found myself needing a nap on the bench outside the store. I never actually thought I was overdoing anything until my body forced me to quit.

Two weeks later I thought I could handle a movie and lunch out. Made it through the movie, but was so tired and in pain, had to skip the lunch.

Since each of us is so different in our healing, it would be impossible to tell you what things will be on your personal "avoid me" list, but from my personal experience, what caused me the most problems were:

• Anything with a crowd (I moved in hinky ways trying to avoid being jostled)
• Pushing a shopping cart even for a minute or two
• Too many changes from sitting to standing
• Planning events for two days in a row (I did ok with an activity day followed by a rest day
• Anything that involved sitting on a hard chair for too long

Good luck on your surgery tomorrow. I'll look forward to seeing you around the post-op boards in a few days.

I think I'm probably pretty lucky that I had a previous laparascopic surgery, because I KNOW this one is affecting more organs and taking out bigger ones. SOOO....I'm planning based on what became overdoing THEN. I would start something and just run out of go-juice midway through....and be so frustrated with myself because I wasn't able to keep up with my expectations. Ladies, I truly think that if you plan to be in a weakened state and in need of help and pampering, you'll be OK. THEN....should you recover faster than your expectations, you'll be pleased. The other way around was maddening for me.

Also, I'm making sure there is adequate rest time following even the simplest activity, and counting on my grown kids for a lot more than I could before, because they were all younger and less responsible than they are now. I joked that each of them played a small role in the current condition of my uterus, etc, while they were tenants of said uterus. Helping me is ensuring that the buildging stays around once the aliens are evicted, LOL.


Grace & peace,

Terry

Well said - Amountainwoman - I second that!

This is what my dr. told me. Walking is a must! Absolutely no lifting of anything, even carton of milk, and no pushing. I was walking a little less than a mile 1 week post-op. He told me that tired was ok. He said that that would prob be my biggest complaint is that I tired very easily. He said that walking should not , in most cases, cause any problems. It stretches the internal stitches enough where they don't get tight and cause alot of tugging. I truly believe him, I did exactly what he said. I am feeling great, am on my second week back to work(part time) and am feeling stronger every day. But.....am still not lifting anything heavy, or pushing anything. My dr. gave me a list of what I could add to my activities every week. Good Luck to you