Met with my doctor today for my first post hysterectomy appointment. I last saw him a week ago when I he checked on me in the hospital and cleared me for discharge. Everything is going fine, he took a look at my belly and laughed at me for my linty incisions. I told him I didn’t know if I was allowed to scrub\/pick at it or not so I just left it. He said if I would have let him use tape like a normal<\/i> person I wouldn’t have this problem. And I said, yeah, well soorrry<\/i> for my tape allergy! LOL He and I have a pretty good rapport after all these months so he’ll joke with me about things like that.<\/p>\n
He tried peeling some of the glue off – he said it’s literally just super glue – but it’s not really coming off right now. He said by next week it should be easier to pick off and that I can pick at it and try to remove it anytime now. The incisions themselves are healing up nicely despite having to use glue.<\/p>\n
I told him I was having problems balancing out the need for easy BM versus having diarrhea and he suggested stopping the stool softeners and just going a fiber route instead. So I might give that a try. I also told him about Tuesday’s episode and asked if there was any chance of damage and he said if I had damaged myself, I’d know it by now. So that’s a relief.<\/p>\n
Everything went “perfect” he said in surgery – flawless and exactly textbook. No problems whatsoever. I also confirmed that I did keep BOTH ovaries which was good. I asked him how would I know when they start producing hormones again and he said to expect milder versions of period symptoms such as a little bit of breast tenderness. I asked if there was any risk of them not<\/i> working because I had read that can happen and he said no, I will be fine, everything went so perfectly that it’s all good.<\/p>\n
I mentioned too that I’ve been having headache problems the past three days and asked if that could be from the painkillers (narcotics) and\/or hormone flux starting up and he said it could be either or both. He also said he wouldn’t be surprised if my ovaries are already starting to function again. I knew that I would most likely have problems until I balance back out coming off the total hormone withdrawal from the Lupron back to being Au Natural again. He asked if I’ve had any more hot flashes or anything and I said no. He said they’re probably starting up then. Good!<\/p>\n
I can drive in another couple weeks, basically when I’m off meds, feel well enough too and just when common sense says I’m well enough along to do so safely. He joked with me and said when I lose the pillow, I’ll be able to. (I use a pillow for comfort on my stomach right now. It helps to have a little bit of support plus in the car you need a buffer between you and the seat belt and such.)<\/p>\n
I go back November 17th for my 6-week check and on that one I guess they’ll look internally at how things are progressing. The internal sutures are very slow dissolving apparently and you can shed them over the course of months.<\/p>\n
It takes 6 months to get to 80% healed<\/b>. The external incisions heal LONG before the internal is fully healed. And, it takes a full year to be 100%<\/b>. Even after you are mostly back to your normal life and back to your daily activities, it takes awhile to really fully and completely recover.<\/p>\n
But today, day 8, all is well and I need to just keep taking it easy, rest and heal.<\/p>\n