Last Sunday, August 5th marked 10 months post-op from my hysterectomy. I am getting ever closer to my 1 year and I can’t wait. To me, that’s a real hurdle to overcome and I feel like it’s the turning point I’ve been waiting for. Still, ten months is good and I’m doing really well.
Scars
As you can see, my scars continue to heal and fade. They’ve lost all the dark purple color to them and are now more the slightly pinkish-white color of a newly healed scar. The larger scar on my left (photo right) is the biggest of my four incisions and even that is looking really good. My belly button looks mostly normal again with the only real scar being the little bump right below the navel. The other scar on my right (photo left) is the assistant’s entry point and is smaller in scale since it was just a secondary incision. All the work was done via the larger scar on my left-hand side. (The fourth scar is a tiny, pinprick one lower down where a light was inserted but it’s too tiny to show.)
Pain
Most days, I have absolutely no lingering pain at all. It’s very nice. I still notice there is a small tendency to get a deep ache when I overdo things or strain in certain ways. My abdominal muscles still have a little less strength and tolerance than pre-surgery. I can feel fine and then just the slightest overexertion in a very specific way and BAM, it will ache. In the day-to-day, it really doesn’t come up very much, but it’s definitely still possible to overdo it. I hope that it will continue to heal as I reach my year and beyond and I can eventually not have any lingering concerns.
Belly Button
Thankfully, my belly button’s weird pain and sensitivity has also FINALLY gone almost completely away. I still get some small twinges of annoyance randomly, but nowhere near with the frequency of before. I can generally wear any pants I want now without worry of it setting off the irritation of my navel. I was afraid it would be sensitive and painful forever but it just looks like that year for full healing really is the truth. As I get closer to my year, I can tell things are truly getting back to “normal” including this.
Medical Bills
Today I have been paying the bills and I’m down to very little on three key ones left.
- Lab – I made a $20 payment to my labs which leaves only $15.38 left on that. There were originally two bills and one’s been paid off and the other will be paid off next month. Yay!
- Care Credit – I made a $40 payment today on that leaving only $40 in balance. That gets paid off next month too!
- Gyno – I made another $50 payment today to my doc. My balance is down to $200. I really wanted to get him paid back by the year of my surgery (October 5th) but I just don’t have the funds to do it. I’ve been doing $50/month though steadily so that gets it paid off by the end of the year. I feel bad it’s taking so long to repay him since he was awesome and did such an great job, but I’m doing the best I can to be regular and steady with my payments.
There are other bills too of course (many, many of them) but these three are the key ones I’m working so hard to get paid off. Once they’re paid off, that frees up about $100/month to go towards other bills. I will be so happy when the bulk of this is behind me and I can get back to some level of stability, you know? It’s been a long road and there’s a lot more distance to travel still.
10 months
But, all-in-all, at the 10 month mark, I’m doing well. I can see continued improvement in how I look, how I feel and I can tell I’m definitely inching ever closer to being healed. It’s a nice thing for sure. And it definitely shows that the full year information is very true. It’s hard to fathom on the surface that it takes a year – especially when looking at my tiny scars! – but when you realize the impact of major organ removal and the massive internal damage done in the process, it doesn’t seem so hard to understand. Everyday it gets just a little bit better.
I’m looking forward to October. 🙂
Great update. I can tell you that my navel “pain” was essentially gone at one-year. However, it was many years that I would randomly get a stab. It felt like a wire was attached to the back of my navel and someone yanked it hard. Just beware.
Hello,
I am happy to hear that you are making a full recovery. I just learned that a very good friend of mine was told she needs a hysterectomy. She is 45 yo and has never had any children. I know we don’t know each other, but how did the procedure effect you? I am worried about her future and her health. Is there any advice that I can pass on?
Thank you,
Kevin
Hey Kevin,
The best thing I can recommend is that she really listens to her doctor and takes her surgery and recovery seriously. (Like, when they say not to lift ANYTHING for 6 weeks, take that literally.) It’s major surgery and anytime you start removing organs, there are potential risks. I found it very helpful to join a group called Hyster Sisters – http://www.hystersisters.com/vb2/ – because it was a community of women who had been through it and who were going through it at the same time. I found so much information and support there. Being able to share and ask questions was really such a comfort.
Having surgery like this can definitely cause a range of emotions and many women experience grief and loss. That’s perfectly normal. Being there for your friend both physically and emotionally will be a help.
All the best to you both.
I was reading your post above, did you realize something was wrong because of the pain in your belly button or was there some other reason that led you to believe something wasn’t right?
If you mean how I found out I needed surgery? I was in massive abdominal pain for two days. So bad I couldn’t even stand up, so I went to the ER. Many tests later, that’s when I found out my uterus was literally full of tumors.
If you’re asking about belly button issues, it’s related to the fact that I had laparoscopic surgery. They use your belly button as the opening to put the camera in. When they do that, you get some pain and irritation for months as it heals since the nerves need to re-attach. The sensitivity and minor belly button pain will happen for any type of laparoscopic surgery since they always go in through the navel.