Laparoscopic Hysterectomy on Friday - Any BTDT?

[Indianamom2]

I'm posting here for traffic, but I am scheduled for a robotic assisted laparoscopic hysterectomy (probably leaving ovaries, that's a game-time call) this Friday. I'm 41 and had an endometrial biopsy come back in November as endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia (basically precancerous) before a sceduled ablation, so that was tabled and a d&c with hysteroscopy and second biopsy was done in December which was also abnormal, but not as bad. I have been on Progesterone therapy since then with a repeat biopsy sceduled for March. Then Covid hit and that got rescheduled for April. I went ahead and kept that appointment and the biopsy came back clean, but the my symptoms are still bad and who knows if the progesterone is masking the precancerous cells or not at this point. Long story short - the uterus and fallopian tubes are going on Friday so long as my Covid test tomorrow is negative.

Has anyone had a laparoscopic hysterectomy before (mine is supposed to be the da vinci robotic system assisted type)? Any words of advice?

[gatorsmom]

My husband used to sell the equipment used for a laparoscopic hysterectomy. He’s attended hundreds of them. As far as the procedure goes, it’s extremely safe and very common. He would say to relax and rest assured because they are easy and so frequently done.

I just wanted to say we will offer a prayer for you that all goes well and you find some relief from the surgery.

[Indianamom2]

My husband used to sell the equipment used for a laparoscopic hysterectomy. He’s attended hundreds of them. As far as the procedure goes, it’s extremely safe and very common. He would say to relax and rest assured because they are easy and so frequently done.

I just wanted to say we will offer a prayer for you that all goes well and you find some relief from the surgery.

I appreciate both the prayers and the unique perspective! From a medical standpoint, the robotic assisted part is both very cool and slightly terrifying!

[dogmom]

I haven’t BTDT personally, but I work in a recovery room (Covid surge ICU for the moment) and have worked with dozens and dozens of these post-op. Here is a range of advice:
1) Going home. I find the Lap Hysterectomies are always scheduled to go home, but that don’t always. Drive us all crazy you operate on a man’s prostate and they stay in, but rip a women’s uterus out and you expect them to go home. In general your odds of getting home are much better for a morning procedure. It’s tough if your case starts in a late afternoon and you don’t get out of the OR until 6 pm to get you ready for home. If you do stay it will be only one night.
2) Nausea is always a problem after anesthesia, more so for women than men. Even more so with gynecological procedures. Please be psychologically prepared for it. You need to keep some fluid down to go home. You can go home nauseous, but not constantly throwing up. If you get motion sickness or have had post-op nausea before tell your anesthesia person. They tend to throw every drug at people with nauseas. Hydration is key when you get home, so stock up on things we will want to drink (flavored water, etc.) and I’m a huge fan of freeze pops to stay hydrated post-op. You should be getting up every 2 hours to pee when awake. It helps keep you moving and keeps you from getting a bladder infection.
3) Plan out your two hang out locations for the first few days. Bed and somewhere else. Make sure there is space by your area that you can have water, a book, phone, etc. Get it set up before Friday.
4) Get the following to have at home: colace, senna and miralax. Preventing constipation is huge and you need to get on that right away. Also have ibuprofen & Tylenol. These will be your go to pain relievers you will take round the clock for the first few days. The stronger drugs will be your rescue pain meds. You doctor will probably prescribe some of it. Hopefully before you have surgery, but if they send you home with the scripts it helps to have stuff already ready. Have a plan to get scripts filled. I like to give my patients a dose of pain meds before they leave to make them comfortably in the car. Your DH can pour you into the bed, then go get the pain meds. Or figure out where the drive through pharmacy is before hand.
5) Practice getting out of bed without using abdominal muscles. Look videos up on YouTube. You basically roll on your side, push up with the top arm while swing legs down. It will help a lot.
6) Assign jobs for the kids which include physically checking on you once an hour while awake to see if you need anything. Drove me crazy after my back surgery my kids would disappear into the basement or their rooms and I would need their help. Luckily they had their phones on them and I resorted to texting them. (There was a lot of “I gave you life, you can get me a freeze pop now, not in 2 hours when your game is done.”)
7) Besides not constantly puking they will want to see you can pee and that you aren’t bleeding too much before they send you home. Any gynecological procedure carries a risk of bleeding. Just happens sometimes when mucking around down there. If it does happen, don’t freak, they know how to deal with it.
8) Like bleeding abdominal surgeries carry a higher risk of clotting, weird that it’s both extremes. So staying hydrated and walking every hour, even for a little, is important to prevent deep vein thrombosis and potentially bad complications.
9) I’ve seen a ride range of pain after this procedure, so it’s going to be hard to predict what your pain will be afterwards. Take the Tylenol & Ibuprofen every 6 hours or whatever they say for the first 2-3 days round the clock. If they prescribe oxycodone take that if needed. The aim is to not get all the pain to go away, but make it so you can move, cough, and not just lie there afraid to move. If you take oxycodone for longer than a couple a days you may get physical symptoms of withdrawal, that’s normal, you did nothing wrong. Some people get it quickly, some don’t. Symptoms including dizziness, lightheaded, nausea, sometimes rebound pain. If you get that cut the pill in half and spread out dosages and wean off. Also a lot of people say “I’m going to just take it at night to sleep” which I get. But, a lot of times people get spacey on these meds and their sleep in not deep with them. So don’t use it to help sleep.
10) Don’t bring much with your to the hospital. You need comfortable clothes to go home in, wear them in. Have a ponytail holder if you have long hair. (Braiding it ahead in a side braid if it is long enough is the best hair option. You can tell someone is a pro when they show up with a side braid, lol.) If you really need glasses to see make sure they come with you to the OR and then to recovery room. Staff will try to lock them up, but you probably won’t get your stuff until you are ready to go home. If you are practically blind like me having your glasses can help decrease your nausea afterwards. Take up you jewelry before hand and leave it at home, including wedding rings. You may need your phone if your DH can’t come in with you to text him. (don’t know what it’s like in your area, we take them down currently in ours because there are no visitors.) bring slip on shoes, you don’t want to bend over.

If I think of anything else I will add it. Good luck!

[urquie]

A wedge pillow is very helpful after that type of surgery.
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B009HHLBKK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[mom2binsd]

As someone who had hemmorid surgery, generic Colace and Miralax works just as good and is a fraction of the cost.

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[dogmom]

As someone who had hemmorid surgery, generic Colace and Miralax works just as good and is a fraction of the cost.

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Oh yes! No reason not to buy whatever is cheapest.

[ChicagoNDMom]

BTDT, send me a DM if you want first hand advice/suggestions...