To Those of Us WIth Hysterectomies

[donnadb40]

I am scheduled to have a hyster in June and am debating vaginal vs abdominal so I would like to hear some of your stories about which you chose, your recovery time, and your overall experience with the method that you had. Thanks in advance!!!!!!

[Kirs10]

I had a vaginal hyst in 2003 and it wasn't too bad of a recovery. I was down about the same ab\mount of time as a hysrodistention. Of course you can't do any heavy lefting and i had to stay out of work for 6 weeks.
Have you heard about the new laproscopic hyster where the recovery time half the time of a vaginal or abdominal hyster?
Hope this is helpful.

[leelee88]

I have never had a Hysto, But have been considering it, due to I have cervial dysplasia and Endo.. My GYN is very compassionate when it comes to my IC. But I also suffer from PFD..My GYN said when and If I do decide to have this done that she would not even consider doing it vaginal just because she has seen this way was harder on most of her IC patients.. But Like I said I have not had it done so I am only going on the information my GYN has given me..

[donnadb40]

Thanks for that info Rhonda! That is exactly the kind of input that I am looking for! See, now I know that a vaginal hysto COULD make the IC worse.... Keep the responses coming everyone! Thanks!

[ICNDonna]

Mine was abdominal. I had an incision from belly button to pelvic bone. My step daughters had bikini incisions and theirs healed much quicker. I ended up with adhesions and had to have a second surgery so I have parallel scars.

Both surgeries were in the 70's so a lot of progress has been made since then. I had my gall bladder removed via lap surgery and it was much, much easier.

Donna

[dg2901]

I had a vaginal hysterectomy along with anterior and posterior repairs 5 years ago. This was done thinking that prolapse was the cause of my bladder pain (i had sought out a URO and had tests done, then was sent to my GYN when nothing was found). It didnt help the bladder pain, and now I have vaginal issues (pain/heaviness/falling out feeling upon exertion) that I did not have prior to the surgery. I also developed painful adhesions that were removed 8 months post-hyst, along with placement of a urethral sling as my urethra started to prolapse.
Would I do it again?--no! Would I recommend a hysterectomy to anyone (barring cancer)?--no!
My recommendations would be to do your homework..seek out at least 2, if not 3 different opinions. Once its done, its done..theres no turning back.

Good luck to you regardless of your decision.
Diana

[ngazerro]

I had my down through the abdominal at the age of 24. It was a small incision on my bikini line. It took weeks to recover. When they cut you it alway takes longer to heal. I did not have a choice. My doctor said he could not do it through the vaginal. At 37, I ended up having my ovaries out through lipo. That was not bad unitl I grew a mass there a couple months later and they had to cut me from my bellybutton all the way down to my "thing" to remove the mass. Now I have scars the cross.:cussing:

If they can do it through the vaginal, I would have had it done that way. I hear you recover much faster.

Good Luck

[GriffsMommy]

I just had an abdominal hysterctomy on April 3rd so I'm still in a good amount of pain. I wasn't able to have the vaginal hysterectomy because from what I read that is only an option for patients who have had a vaginal delivery which I did not.

They went through the same incision that they used for my c-section. Even if I had been eligible for a vaginial hysterectomy I don't think they would have wanted to do it that way because I have so many problems they would have wanted as much access as possible to everything. Good thing they did since my bladder was adhered to my uterus.

I can say I am having a lot of insicion pain but because of the IC and everything else my dr's told me to expect a more painful recovery for the first two weeks than a normal hysterectomy patient would have.

Since I haven't had a vaginal hysterctomy I can't speak about it but I would say that if your dr is aware of all of your problems and is suggesting one over the other there may be a reason why. If you're not comfortable with that dr's recommendation then get a second or a third opinion to make sure you are getting the surgery that will best suite your health problems.

[bigred]

I had a partial hysdo done as a bikini cut at 32 and I had the ovaries and tubes removed at 52 with an abdominal incisionl. My sister had a vaginal and was back on her feet much quicker than I was.

[lisabar36]

Hi, I am 6 weeks post op, I had abdominal, bikini line incision, it healed up really nice, I was not a candidate for vaginal because of my PFD. My gyn said she would never put me through that, it would cause so much more pain. I had everything removed and she also suggested that. The only thing I can say is, my bladder pain after surgery was the worst bladder pain I ever felt in my life. I did not have the epidural which is what the anesthesiologit wanted, he knew that I had IC and he really wanted me to have it so I would not feel my bladder right away, he said then 48 hours later when they took it out, I would feel it but it would not be as bad as it would be immediately after surgery, but my GYN wanted the on q pump which is a pump that numbs the incision and then you feel everything else except the incision. I could not have both and she argued with the anesthesiologist and he knows more about IC then she does because he said I would be in alot of pain with my bladder and I was! Its done and over with for me now, if I had to do it again, I would have the epidural no doubt in my mind, my IC doc even told me to have the epidural. Recovery is going ok, I had 2 UTI's since my surgery so I have some set backs, I had some swelling, I just now am starting to be able to do more, I still cannot be on my feet all day because I get incision pain but it has been much better lately then it was, so my progression now is pretty good. I will be at 7 weeks Thursday. I still swell and they told me 3 to 6 months for the swelling. Also on the hystersisters.com website there is a ton of info. I found out I am not alone with all the swelling, and it is normal. I was told because of IC and PFD I would have a longer recovery and thats true. Because just now at 7 weeks can I start to do more and my incision still hurts some. More so at the end of the day. I could handle the incision pain I had, it was the bladder pain that really affected me post op. It took a good month for it to calm down and now I have another UTI so its been throbbing again but it did improve in about a month. Hope this helps. :) Lisa

[ngazerro]

Griiffsmother had mentioned that if you had a vaginal delivery , they could do the hyst through the vagina, but that not always the cause. I had three vaginal deliverys and they still had to go through my ab. I guess it is different for everyone.

[Katrina]

I didn't have a choice I had to have abdominal but if I could have I would have chosen vaginal.
That surgery was the biggest set backs and problems for my IC that I have experienced since diagnosis. Recocering from the surgery was one thing. The problems of my IC and PFD that worsened greatly took much longer to fully go back to norm.

I am sure either way be prepared that your body may very well be more acidic for a time and you may need more calcium to help with that.



I know vaginal pain sucks big time. I have vaginal atrophy from low estrogen and that is painful enough at times but I still think that I would choose the least amount of scar tissue and dammage to the surrounding area as possible and that comes from vaginal.

:grouphug: Good luck with your choice, with your surgery, and sorry that this is something you need to go through!

If no one has said so or even if they have...hystersister.com great resource that you should defiantly check out!

[GriffsMommy]

I'm not saying that you can have a vaginal hysto if you had vaginal births but you don't have the option of having a vaginal hysto if you did not have a vaginal birth from what I read. Since I had a c-section I didn't have a choice to do the vaginal but it seemed that both my specialist and surgeon both said abdominal right off the bat. I had the bikini incision and they just went through my c-section scar.
I like Lisa was told to have an epidural for post-op pain. I did get it but it still wasn't enough and they were giving me IV morphine that first night in addition to the epidural. I had mine taken out the next morning because I really wanted my foley taken out, which they did and then put me on a pca pump with diludid that I could administer myself the meds every 8 minutes. I wish I would have left the epidural and foley in longer because though I didn't have the horrible bladder pain that Lisa did I was unable to pee and the night after surgery they had to put the foley back in because I just couldn't go on my own. Thank god when they took out the foley on Saturday morning I was able to pee on my own then.
I'm actually very surprised that I don't have more bladder pain than I do because I thought that would be a huge problem for me. Maybe because my bladder was adhered to my uterus and it is now free that's why I have less bladder pain. Whatever the reason, I'm not complaining about that, lol.

[BrittanysDance]

I had my first child via c-section and my last 2 vaginal births. I had a hysterectomy at the age of 30 that was a Lap Vaginal Assted Hysterectomy and that was having IC and PFD, both severe. I was put under a general anesthesia and they dialated my cervix to get everything out (almost like a delivery I guess you could call it). Then they took everything else out that way as well. I too had my bladder stuck to my uterus and the doc actually ruptured my bladder with the laser while trying to remove it from my uterus, so that added some additional healing time for me. But also all my internal organs were adhered to my abdominal wall, so they had to unstick everything and put in a mesh lining.

All in all - my downtime from surgery was still about 6 weeks due to the ruptured bladder and having to tack it and whatnot, however I would MUCH rather have had a Lap with Vaginal assist than to be cut open from hip bone to hip bone again.

I've never heard of not being able to have a vaginal asst hysterectomy unless you've had a vaginal birth :confused: prior to. Interesting....

[mary124]

I had a lap. Vaginal Assisted Hyster. about 8 years ago. Recovery time; I was back at work working part time at 4 weeks; fulltime at 6. I remember the first day that I was at home I had no pain whatsoever that I jumped out of bed and did something and when I got there I stopped (in the kitchen) and said to myself "oh I just had major surgery I can't do that!!)
I also had a C-section and then a vaginal delivery....

[charmedx3]

I had mine abdominal healing time was 6 weeks. A friend just had a hysterectomy hers was vaginal her recovery was quicker.
Consider having the cervix out also. I didn't back in nov 04 ended up with prolapse cervix had surgery in july 07--that was worse then my hysterectomy. Good Luck!

[sandberg4]

I had the bikini incision. The doc said it couldn't be done vaginal because I also wanted my bladder tacked up. I actually do not remember any pain from the incision, my bladder acted up for a couple weeks but they say it is normal when you have this surgery.
I don't know if you are having your ovaries removed but I would definately research the pros and cons. My doc said anyone over 45 they remove the ovaries, and then after I had it done, all the research on hormone replacement came out.
Good luck
Anne