Recovery time for hysterectomy?

[Lovemusic82]

Finally got the go ahead for hysterectomy (key hole and leaving ovaries behind). I am 41, fit and healthy other than obviously needing a hysterectomy. I am a carer to a disabled adult (my dd) and am obviously worried about her care more than mine. I have been told I will only be in hospital for one night meaning I will be back home caring for dd the day after, hopefully with some help in place.

How long before I can do simple things like cook dinner?

How long before I can drive? (Luckily I drive an automatic)

How long for full recovery?

Please give me your stories of recovery, good or bad 😬

total hysterectomy, recovered really well. I was cooking and loading the dishwasher two days after surgery. Not through choice!

The best tip I saw pre surgery was to walk each day for 5 minutes and to add an extra 5 mins to your daily walk each week. So week one walk 5 mins each day, week two walk 10 mins each day etc etc so by week 6 you are walking 30 mins each day. You can lose muscle tone really quickly if you do nothing and it’s harder to recover if your muscles have gone weak.
Do pelvic your floor exercises. I’ve been doing them religiously for years anyway but did them straight from getting back to the ward.
Do any physio exercises you are shown. I wasn’t shown any so googled and got some off YouTube I think.
Morphine makes you constipated so get some dulcoease in. The last thing you want to be doing is straining.
I stopped cocodamol as soon as I got home as that causes constipation.
I stopped all painkillers pretty quickly really. I’m not going to lie, it does hurt for a few days BUT I was amazed at how quickly it became less painful. I think I had stopped paracetamol even after a week. If I twisted it would make me remember I had had surgery & should take things a bit more carefully, but it was all very manageable.
Driving, I can’t honestly remember but I felt fine really quickly.
I was back in work after 6 weeks off.
If your DD needs lots of personal care I don’t think it would be doable, but I had a young teen so I only had to feed them.
Are you able to batch cook a load of food now and freeze so you mainly just have to make sandwiches and then defrost and reheat meals?

I hope all goes well and you have a speedy recovery.

2 weeks vaginal
4-6 total abdominal

I had radical abdominal - was home after 2 days and able to be up and about but you can't lift anything heavy (not even your kettle). I'm also a single parent carer for a disabled daughter.
Our social worker jiggled our support hours and I had lots of help from friends.
My surgeon said 6 weeks for driving - it's in case you have to emergency stop.
I would start making provisional plans in case you can't resume normal life as quickly as you hope

Total by robotic laparoscopy here.

I stayed in for one night.

Pain wasn't horrendous, paracetamol covered it for the first few days, but toilet was hard.

I was on my feet and cooking as soon as I got home, I second the PP who said try and do some gentle walking each day.

I could drive after about a week and was back at work after 2.

Hope it all goes well for you.

Thank you. I’m really worried about struggling to rest (I have ADHD and sitting still and resting is hard), I normally walk to a hour or 2 each day and I’m hoping to be back to doing that after 6 weeks.

I do get respite care for DD but not over night so I am hoping to have some extra hours. If it’s done during trim time dd will be at college which will make things easier. She does need some personal care, help with bathing and hair washing but I am hoping by the time I have surgery she will be capable of doing most things by herself or to a standard that will get us through a couple weeks. I will be preparing meals to freeze. Luckily my mum has just retired so will be able to help out a little bit for the first week and will sleep here with dd whilst I’m in hospital.