I had a hysterectomy. It’s still a little surreal, to be honest. I’m going to share a bit about my experience in getting to the point of a hysterectomy, as well as my experience with the surgery itself, and my recovery thus far. Please note that this is not medical advice, and should not be considered such. I am not a doctor, and am not diagnosing or treating here. I am simply sharing my experience and what has worked for me.
The pain continued to worsen, but not horrifically. Enough that I was worried that it could be something scary, though. I found a new OBGYN (I wasn’t a fan of my old one, which is why I didn’t go to her with my uterus woes. I hemorrhaged a month or two after having my daughter, and her office didn’t care. Wouldn’t see me. Told me to set up an appointment for six weeks out. I already wasn’t a fan, but that sealed it for me), and she is incredible. She immediately scheduled an ultrasound, one that looked at my uterus. Sure enough, my uterus was notably enlarged. She told me that it was probably adenomyosis (basically endometriosis, but rather than embedding outside of the uterus, the endometrial tissue embeds into the uterine wall), but that the only way to diagnose with certainty is to do surgery to take a sample. Since my pain, at that point, wasn’t horrific, I opted to not do that. She told me that typically hormone birth control pills are prescribed for adenomyosis. I declined. I think, in general, hormonal birth control is horrible. Messing with hormones is likely why so many women have so many health issues, but also, when I was on birth control pills, I bled nonstop. Nonstop. It was awful. And I tried several different kinds. I had horrible side effects with the paragard, as well. I’ve also spent MANY years working to balance my hormones and have my body work as effectively and normally as possible. So, there wasn’t a chance in the world that I’d risk all of that to “try” birth control pills.
I had my surgery. It was a much shorter surgery than she expected, as there wound up being no endometriosis. It was a laparoscopic robot assist vaginal hysterectomy, also removing my cervix and fallopian tubes, but leaving my ovaries. My uterus was more than double the size it should have been, and was “boggy,” or squishy. My uterus was sent in for testing, and thankfully no cancer or anything else scary was found. After surgery I went to a recovery room. Laparoscopic hysterectomies are outpatient surgery, so I sat in a chair with the most glorious hospital gown that hooks to a tube and heats the entire gown, while I waited for my husband to arrive. To my happy surprise (surprise mostly because I was drugged and forgot that my dad was coming), my dad walked in with my husband. I can’t even tell you how happy I was to see them!
Recovery has been a bit of a trip. My doctor did a great job of getting the gas out, and I walked a decent amount the first couple of days after surgery, so I wound up not really having any gas pain. When I had my appendectomy five months ago, the gas pain was unbearable in my shoulders, and lasted a solid two weeks. I am so grateful that I didn’t deal with that this time around. That said, I’d convinced myself the recovery would be about the same. It’s not. It’s not the same at all.
I knew I’d be swollen and bloated, but I didn’t expect to feel so fragile and like my insides could just fall out at any moment. I absolutely hate having anything touch my abdomen, so a compression belt wasn’t even on my radar. Except…the feeling didn’t go away. After 3 days of feeling like that, I ordered a compression belt. It was a game changer. I can’t even believe what a difference it makes. My swelling went down dramatically using it for just one day. And it helps SO much with pain/soreness. I thought it might help a little with the swelling and help me feel more secure, I wasn’t expecting the dramatic results with the swelling, and definitely wasn’t expecting it to alleviate pain the way it does. I wear it all night every night, but only wear it for a few hours at a time during the day. When I get sore, I put it on and it helps immediately. (photo is 1 week post op)
As is typically the case, this is quite long winded. But the moral of the story here is that adenomyosis is pretty brutal. My hysterectomy went very well. My recovery is very, very slow, but going well. And GET A COMPRESSION BELT IF YOU’RE HAVING A HYSTERECTOMY. Yes, I just yelled that. But the compression belt is magical and you need it and your life will be so much better with it, trust me. Now, I try to patiently wait while I recover. It will be nice to get some energy back, hopefully sometimes very soon. For now, I’ll respect my body’s limitations and spend my days resting and healing.
