Hysterectomy Support Group

1. If it is an abdominal hysterectomy they do NOT shave your pubic area because the incisional line is above it. If it is a vaginal hysterectomy they will shave it. They do NOT want you to shave it yourself because you could nick yourself and get their surgical site infected even BEFORE they begin. Use scissors and carefully clip the hair if you need to but do NOT shave pre-op. If you need to be shaved, it will be done in OR when you are already sedated UNLESS you have to go in the night before.

2. I just had my surgery 10 days ago. YES they make you do a bowel prep. The entire day before surgery you will be on clear liquids only and by evening you have to do the bowel prep thing over the space of 2 hours. I was having liquid stool up to 15 minutes before being wheeled into OR. That was disturbing but they did not tell me that I pooped myself for which I am grateful that I did not/I was not made aware.

3. As a rule, no one is allowed into the recovery room, worst of all an animal. On occasion if the recovery room isn't too congested with patients they may allow your family to visit you for a few minutes. You are soooo sedated the visit won't matter to you anyhow.

4. I am a Registered Nurse and NO they do not let you change your own dressing. The surgeon typical leaves on the original surgical dressing for 24-48 hours and he is the one who changes that one USING sterile technique. The nurses then do the daily ones thereafter. By the time you go home in about 3 days, you won't have any dressings to change.

5. It may be a BIG problem for you BUT you have to psyche yourself up to just have done what needs to be done. If that is going to be a problem for you, you may need to cancel. Nurses will be caring for you as well as your doctor. The nurses will have to insert a foley catheter into your bladder for you to urinate(done in OR) and 12-24 hours later they will be removing it. They will be checking your dressing and also any vaginal bleeding you may or may not have. BTW, I stopped using a male gynecologist many, many years ago and was a little disturbed that I had to be referred to a gyn-oncological surgeon to do my surgery. MALE!!! What could I do? Nothing! What can you do? You have to realize that you are going to have to trust someone, sometime.

I wouldn't think you are crazy but yes, a doctor may not want to do your care because they may read different meanings into your 5th question.

Btw, even outside of my possible cancer, it was psychologically and physically so hard on me to agree to doing this surgery, why do you seem so eager to have the surgery done at such a young age? .

1. As long as I'm sedated I won't care, will I? Sedatives are good.

2. Meh. Hopefully I can talk to them about how I can't drink that stuff, maybe there's another way to go about it. They switched it for my mom when she started throwing up the stuff.

3. I didn't mean recovery like right after I wake up and I'm too dopey to know up from down. That would disturb my dog anyway, since when I act like that she's supposed to take me home. Which wouldn't be a good idea. I meant like when they tell you that you'll be in the hospital for 2-3 days or whatever.

4. Yeah, I meant at home. :) When my friend came home from a surgery she had to have a nurse change the dressings for like two weeks, but I guess there was some sort of problem in that case?

5. I'm going to be working with my therapist on that one, but I know the surgeon is a female. Can I request female nurses?

I'm eager to have the surgery done because I'm in constant pain, and I bleed near constantly. There isn't any reason they can find for either. I haven't been out of my house for a week between the pain and bleeding. The bleeding is so bad that I'm anemic and dizzy, and the pain is so bad that narcotic pain killers just barely take the edge off. Usually I go through the bleeding thing for a few days every other month or so, the pain is more or less constant. The past few times I've been bleeding so bad that I bleed for weeks.
Hormone based treatments don't work, they make everything worse (they do the same for my grandma and my mom), so I'm out of options. This will solve the problem once and for all. My uterus can't cramp and bleed if it isn't there.

Physically I'm not worried too much about the surgery. I deal with a ton of pain now anyway, so it won't be too big of a change. I've got an awesome immune system and heal really, really fast and almost never get infections (win!).
Psychologically I'm only worried about the aspects of the surgery that will set off my PTSD, not the aspects everyone thinks I should be worried about. As much as it offends pretty much everyone, I hate children and would never consider having one. Always have.
To me, my uterus is a just a useless organ that causes a lot of misery. I'm thrilled to be rid of it.

1. Yeah for anesthesia:-)

2. You can always try to talk to them about your options. Trust me, just looking at the bottle made me nauseaus. I do NOT like swallowing pills, drinking liquids meds much less drinking a laxative BUT had no alternates offered.

3. The service dog being able to come visit in your room is going to be up to the hospital whether they allow animals and also if you are in a private or semi-private room. That is something you would need to go see the hospital admins BEFORE surgery and get their written consent.

4. People may have dressings on for an extended length of time for any number of reasons. They may not have been able to close up the incision due to infection or they may have CHOSEN to allow the incision to close itself due to maybe allergic problems with the sutures, etc. After a typical, non-complicated hysterectomy, your incision will be free of a dressing by 3-4 days postop.

5. Selecting a female doctor is much easier that selecting your nurse. You can ALWAYS request not to be cared for by a male nurse when you are in your regular room. The problem comes in when you are going to OR and RR. Those areas are specialty areas and you will be cared for by whatever gender nurse/s they have scheduled to work that day.

I now understand the apparent eagerness and can identify. I NEVER had any abnormal bleeding. The hellish pain started for me over the summer and progressed. The thought of NEVER feeling that pain again is comforting.

PTSD I can understand also. I have had a few medical mishaps over the years and the thought of going to a hospital invokes such paralyzing fear.

Can I ask you, do you really "HATE children" or is it that you do not want to have any? Reason being, you are so young I can GUARANTEE this doctor is going to question your decision as she is going to think you are still immature and not able to make this decision at this time. If you really do not want any, be able to solidly present your reasons to her and be able to defend your views. If you tell her you "hate children" she more than likely will NOT do surgery on you as she will believe that view is a momentary one which will pass when you find your proverbial prince charming. Just an fyi, after losing a baby a doctor will NOT perform a tubal on a woman due to the fact that they believe it is a decision that would be made at the time of emotional instability. If a woman has one child they will also NOT do a tubal EXCEPT under extreme circumstances BECAUSE again, they will tell you it is a irreversible action that you may later regret. Think long and hard about your reasonings and be able to defend it to your doctor as if you are in a court of law defending yourself against charges. Again, just a medical person's inside understanding of this issue. If you live in the US, doctors are so fearful of lawsuits that this is another reason why they will shy away from doing a hysterectomy on a 22 year old with no children. They fear that you could turn around and sue them and tell the courts that you were NOT competent enough to make that decision based on your age.

Wait, if I can only have clear liquids does that mean no sugar? How would I keep my sugar from dropping without having sugar?

The dog wouldn't be visiting when I'm out of recovery, she'd just be there. My mom would take her outside and occasionally home, and besides that she stays and helps me. I was mixing up recovery and hospital stay. Hospital stay she's allowed, I've had her there before, and legally they don't have a choice (she just isn't allowed in ORs, or Radiology)

If the only place I can't request female nurses is OR/RR, does that matter? Wouldn't I be too doped up to really notice/care anyway?

Yeah, I really do hate kids. I don't like being around them, I don't like dealing with them in anyway, and would never have one of my own. Generally I word it much better than "I hate kids", I've got a whole host of reasons that I don't ever want any, and I'm actually quite good at explaining it when I have to. I've got that angle covered anyway because my psychiatrist is going to give them an eval saying I'm mature enough, competent enough and emotionally sound enough to make the decision. So that should help. Isn't there a waiver or something they can give me saying I won't file a lawsuit against them? I'd so totally sign it.
I don't quite understand the logic behind sueing for that anyway. Lets say I have the surgery and ten years later or something, I change my mind and suddenly want a kid. Why would I sue? If I made a choice, than the consequences of that choice are on me, not the doctor.

Clear liquids: That just simply mean ANY liquid you can see through. No sediments, no pulps, no white. If you can hold up the glass of beverage and see it as clear without any of the mentioned, then it is clear liquid. This includes broth and jello. Yum:-(

Hospital stay: If you have done it already at that facility then you should have no problem.

OR/RR nurses: yes you would be too "doped up" for it to matter BUT if your ptsd involves a male then I assume it would kick in just THINKING that a male would be caring for you that is why I shared that part.

Competence: You sound as if you will do fine IN CASE your doctor tries to sway you from your current position.

Lawsuit: People sue for the darndest thing. That is why malpractice insurance costs are so high for these doctors. The doctors do not know who will sue or why. They are just very cautious and try to stay clear of controversial issues such as removing the child-bearing abilities of a woman who has never borne a child or have borne only one at SUCH a young age.

Ok, in my head I equated clear liquid with water. Apple juice works then to keep my sugar from dropping.

OR/RR: I usually will flip out then, and then again later on. If I'm dopey than I can skip the flipping out then, and when I flip out later I can flip out with my therapist. That should work.

Lawsuit: I'm not going to try to wrap my head around that whole issue. I don't get why not being able to have kids is controversial, I guess because I don't want them. Not to mention, if women my age can decide to have children (which is a lifelong decision), why shouldn't I be able to make a life long decision not to? But, that whole bit of confusion I can just put aside I guess. :P

All the best with your preop appointment when it comes and feel free to keep us updated as to the outcome and the surgery date. Gotta go lay down, been up since 8am.

All the best from me as well.... wow you two have had quite the conversation back and forth so far!! ha ha

I had my surgery 14 weeks ago but Live in Canada and I didn't have to be shaved or have any bowel treatments at all... None whatsoever and could eat and drink regular food up until midnight as well...
Bye for now,
Sharon xx

Well, then I'll hope my doctor does what yours did :) That sounds much easier.