Susan’s Vaginal Hysterectomy

I decided on hysterectomy as my prolapsed cervix and womb was making my life a misery, to be honest I lived with it for 10 years but the last 3 were just awful. I had a prolapse repair 10 years ago and my treatment was so horrendous I just did not want to go through that again, so I kept putting it off. When my cervix was 2 inches outside of my vagina i knew i had to get it sorted. I was terrified but for me there really was no other option, my consultant was lovely and he told me all other things to consider but to be honest they would only have been temporary. And I could feel my bladder was being pulled. Sitting down was not an option unless I waited for things to slide back into place, it really was horrid.

I met with the surgeon and anesthetist on the day of the op, and I can’t praise them enough, they knew I was terrified because of my experience before and they put my mind at ease. The anesthetist was telling me jokes as I fell asleep. I had a general anesthetic as with a spinal you can sometimes feel pulling, and I would rather be out of it anyway. I stayed in 4 nights and the nurses were just so lovely. I had quite a lot of pain the first full day and my lovely nurse tried 1 or 2 things and stayed with me until I was ok again.

I seemed to go ok apart from the dreaded constipation which no amount of fruit and veg would shift so I got some Fibogel and that was really good. I consider myself to still be in recovery as if I overdo things then I get achy down below and the scar from the vaginal wall prolapse 10 years ago aches, no idea why that aches but it does. i don’t need to see my consultant again, he said get back to normal activities slowly. I also saw the physio twice she was checking I was doing my pelvic floor exercises properly, she said 3 months I should start to feel I can do more, 6 months do more but still go easy, but by a year I should be back to normal. My greatest challenge was walking further without feeling my insides were going to drop out. I’m still not doing aerobic type exercise as I’m terrified of getting another prolapse.

I’m doing ok, I have my life back as walking around with bits pulling down is not nice, I stopped going out it was so painful. I am glad I had that op, but I to as I could not go on like that. I just regret I left it for so long.

I don’t really know what to say about giving advice on hysterectomy apart from, talk through your fears with your consultant. Be honest and open with him/her. Make sure you know all the pros and cons. But you have to be the one who decides what is best for you, do not be pushed into something you are not sure about.