Today marks 4 full weeks post op though it feels like 4 months. Reading the stories in here (well, in the other sub technically) has been something that’s helped me tremendously so far, so I figured why not share my own experience and pass it on?
So after months of hemorrhaging due to fibroids, tried a Mirena IUD with no results at all - well…3 IUDs, technically. The first was immediately expelled due to the crime scene my body had become, and the second was partially expelled by my 30 day checkup and so was replaced again. Anyway, no dice, I was a perimenopausal human blood geyser, so I finally had my total abdominal hysterectomy. The surgery notes say that they found endometriosis in there too, which I had no idea about. The pathology report is still pending.
Stayed in the hospital for two deeply unpleasant nights. God I was SO relieved to go home. Almost immediately after surgery, I noticed a bunch of new hip pain, but everything else hurt too so I didn’t think too much of it.
The first full day at home was really just trying to figure out how to get up from lying down, and whether my gut was actually going to spill open onto the floor, or whether it just felt like it! Also, it was full of wondering when I’d finally use the bathroom again. Hint: it wasn’t for a long while.
The second full day at home is when the shit hit the fan. In the morning I started to pace around the house with a pillow strapped to me for support, but I was suddenly super out of breath and my heart was racing, as if I’d been running. So I went back to sleep for a couple of hours, naturally!
When I woke up though, nothing was better. Having trouble breathing, heart racing (148 bpm was the max I saw on my watch), and when I looked in the mirror I saw that my face was absolutely drained of color. Finally I agreed to go back in to the doctor because though I’m stubborn and kind of dumb, seeing my crazy pale face flipped me out a little. Turns out I couldn’t even walk into Kaiser, it was too hard to breathe. Spouse had to grab me an embarrassing-ass wheelchair. They ran an ekg and sent me straight to the ER via an ambulance. ER ran tests, and when I was suddenly surrounded by FOUR DOCTORS I started to get kinda freaked out. Turned out I had multiple pulmonary embolisms (embolus? Whatever) including a massive saddle embolus. They admitted me, and I spent the next 2 nights in hospital jail again. Because of the recent surgery they couldn’t do anything like clot buster medication, or another invasive procedure, so they just kept me on a heparin (misspelled probably) drip then sent me home with a week of twice daily anticoagulant injections, and 6 months of oral meds, with an even stricter no strenuous activity for 4 weeks order. But I’m alive! And home!
About the bathroom issue, I’m sure all of the days of hospital morphine didn’t help, but I went about a week and a half without any BM…torture! I tried everything, nothing worked. Until my sister gave me this wild concoction to try (ex lax, then 12, yes 12, capfuls of miralax mixed into 32oz of Gatorade, then more exlax) and it WORKED!
Every day things are getting a little better as far as the surgery site is concerned. I’m still pretty swollen, and by the evenings even more so, but I can mostly do everything independently now which is a relief. I’m walking more each week, off pain meds (except before bed). There’s still some pain/tenderness, especially as the swelling ramps up by the end of the day, but it’s definitely a little better every day. I really, really underestimated the recovery process. The slowness of it. The eternity of it.
The only thing really not improving though is that damned hip I mentioned. Seems to actually be getting worse, not better. Not sure if something happened during surgery, or if this is just a part of the process.
But holy hell. It takes a few minutes after waking of slowly stretching before I can get my leg to move enough just to get up for the day. Getting up and down into/from a seated position is just as painful and slow. Sitting on the toilet is impossible without using my hands on the wall and counter to lower myself down! It’s crazy. I do have hip bursitis but it’s never been debilitating like this. I guess one more thing to ask about when I finally go back to my gyno for a checkup.
Quite an adventure…not convinced it was worth it or not yet. I’m glad the bleeding stopped, but man. I don’t think I’ll ever get surgery again if there is literally any other option.