Hysterectomy - Hints and tips for post surgery

[SolitudeNotLoneliness]

Hi

I'm going in for a hysterectomy shortly, and wondered if anyone had any useful hints and tips for surgery / post surgery.

I haven't been in hospital overnight since having dc who are now late teens so I'm not familiar with hospitals!

DH has booked the week after work off so I will be having rest forced upon me!

I've seen someone recommend having a pillow for drive home to have on lap so the area isn't aggregated by the seat belt (it is planned to be abdominal)

I've got big high waisted leggings that are loose on me to wear home.

Anything else anyone can share?

Thank you!

@Paq hopefully others will be able to comment but based on my experience I would say that's probably normal . I am feeling a bit better each day but still feel groggy in the mornings , wake with a headache some days and generally need to have a rest after everything I do eg shower , sit in kitchen to eat etc.
I am not massively hungry either but put that down to lack of burning energy.

Starting to feel a bit frustrated that I can't do anything much but I know that is ludicrously impatient!

I’m due to have mine in one week, only had 10 days notice. They hope to do it laparoscopy but who know if it turns out abdo. I am obese so it may be easier to just cut me open! My toilet and bathroom are upstairs, but obviously it will be nicer to lay on the sofa near the doors to the garden. Am I being realistic to think I will be able to climb 1 flight of steps to use the loo?

I have been told mine will happen this Sept/Oct but will find out when I have the pre op this month. I just want it to happen before my ferritin goes too low again (having an iron infusion next week).
I've been told it will be done via keyhole and will have ovaries removed which I am not sure about as there is no ovarian cancer history in my family.

I have a couple of questions I wonder if any of you can help with.
Did all of you have to do the blood clot prevention injections? Does anyone know if you can take tablets instead?
Hmm, I did have another one but can't remember it now...

@OnedayIwillfeelfree i would say yes - once you can face going down the stairs to be down there, you’ll be able to get up them. Pootling about is good. I went home 48h after open hysterectomy and I had to walk up them to go to bed.

@longtompot The injections seem to be non-negotiable but honestly they’re not so bad. I’d have told you before that I wouldn’t be able to, but I managed. They’re all pre-prepared and the needle is tiny - thin and short. Takes a few seconds each time. I set an alarm and when it went off I did it at once, no procrastinating, and that worked for me.

@longtompot, I felt like you. I asked if the district nurse could come in and do them and the nurse I was talking to said no.
She cajoled / bullied me into doing the first one while I was in hospital, so I knew I could do it when I got home.
I was very wary with the first couple and then absolutely fine. I laid down to do mine as a bit of a security blanket as I was worried about feeling a bit faint.
My parents were still alive then and that were astonished that I could jab myself so easily!
The needle is very fine so you only feel a small pinch as it goes in. I used a different side of my stomach each time as it bruised me, but I bruise easily anyway.

Thank you both @LulaK @vipersnest1 I guess I just have memories of my dh doing his Fragmin injections and how difficult he found those. I used to do sub cut injections for my dd for one of her arthritis meds, but I did find that difficult. I'll try not to think about it and just do

Once you feel like you want to look at the garden, you should be fine to manage stairs. I stayed mostly upstairs for the first 3-4 days because I felt like I'd been hit by a truck (full abdominal).

I didn't find it too bad, it was over 20 years ago.

I wasn't nervous so initially declined the premed but when the anaesthetist came to see me she said have it because it helps afterwards, not sure how that works but I did it.

I didn't have any problems with clothes or car seat belt to be honest but I can't remember what I wore.

Do take the painkillers offered, I was high on self administered morphine for a good few hours.

I found getting up and moving around was good, 3 of us had the op the same afternoon, the next day they were refusing to get out of bed, had wheelchairs to the bathroom and hoist for a bath. I walked to the bathroom, with a nurse, and had a shower. I went home the next day and they were still refusing to move.

I was lucky in that I had no sudden menopause symptoms, don't know why as my ovaries were also removed but I think that was a big help and just luck really.

When I got home as soon as I felt well enough I had an office chair in the kitchen, had it as high as possible so I could scoot round the kitchen and start doing normal things quickly (no choice really as 2 kids and disabled husband and you can only live on takeaways for so long)

Rest is important so I found it was a balance of keeping active and getting enough rest.

I found it much easier than the emergency c.section I had a few years before, don't lift anything after hysterectomy versus here's you 9 lb baby get on with it after the c.section.

Good luck, it isn't a fun experience but if you need it done it is worth it and in a few weeks you will feel so much better.

I found the opposite, maybe an EMCS with a GA made a difference? Also being left to care for a 9lb baby that I couldn't lift without a lot of pain, the woman in the next bed was so kind and would often get the baby out and pass them to me.

Grrrrr. Operation now been cancelled because the doctors are on strike. Now been moved to 19 August (which is a Saturday). Funny that, I bet the surgeons will get more money for working on a new Saturday, when they don’t normally have lists, whilst the nursing staff won’t get paid any more.

Now it has been cancelled again, as they are working through the backlog caused by the strike. Kings College Hospital London is a complete disaster. If I was run over by a bus outside, I would ask the ambulance if I could be taken to another hospital. Dreadful place.

My sympathy @OnedayIwillfeelfree I had my myomectomy with Kings and had 3 cancellations.

There's an anaesthetists strike which is having an impact this week.

I would not touch Kings College with a barge pole. Dreadful place. The gynae department is a complete mess. I had a problem, had a biopsy, and got a text from the lab to say I was cancer free, back to your GP. Three weeks later, I got a phone call. Ooh it may be cancer after all. They did a hysteroscopy, got the all clear. Then a month later, ooh we need to do another hysteroscopy. Then got a call out of the blue 4.45 on a Friday, the booking clerk said, you need an urgent MRI on Monday. The dr had ordered it but not had the impetus to call me, to explain why. I was told at the MRI they weren’t permitted to say why it had been requested. A month later I was chasing results of that. After emailing and phoning, I got a call 6 weeks after MRI saying I needed urgent surgery. That has now been cancelled because of the strike. And the new date I had been given has been cancelled again due to a backlog because of the strike. My anxiety levels are through the roof. Thank you ConfusedGin. I am teetotal, have been for years, but I came home and had a vodka after the appt today. Time off work, to see gynaecologist to be told it was cancelled again

I am due to go on holiday mid November, and the further and further this gets put back the likelihood is I won’t recover in time, which is just adding to the stress, as well as the concern as I fully expect to be told that there is a tumour in there, as they are so incompetent that they have likely missed it.

Now they have given me a date for a new operation 2 September. It is now 10 weeks since I had the scan that led to me having a hysterectomy. My anxiety is through the roof. Rang to get an appt with my GP - was offered a phone consultation on 4th Sept, despite me telling the receptionist why I wanted the appt. The NHS is dead.

I had the OP robotically at 2pm on Saturday, was discharged on Sunday at 10am. No painkillers needed. I was hanging out the washing at,lunchtime today. If you have the chance go for robotic surgery.

Glad to hear your op went well @OnedayIwillfeelfree

It's great that your surgery went well and you feel ok, but please be careful - you are very much in early healing, so need to take it easy.

Thank you. I am taking it easy. I am off work for 2 weeks. I have a washing trolley, so pushed my washing to the line. I wouldn’t risk lifting anything.