:eek: I’m scared and very nervous about my upcoming surgery!
And of course, my new OTTB is now going great. I had a great ride today, just in time for 6-8 weeks off.:no:
I would love to know the good, bad & the ugly. I have yet to have anyone close to me provide anything of use. As far as recuperation info, I’m at a loss. My pony will have to live without me for awhile.
I would love any advice or insight.
No advice, just good luck. Oh and happy valentines day <grin>
Recuperation will depend on all they do and what they find once in there.
Don’t worry, they do several of those every day and are very used to all and how to take care of you and what to tell you to do afterwards.
Can’t say beforehand what you may have to do, so they don’t, but in general terms.
It will be all over before you know it and you will be back to riding quickly.
All I can say is be careful about overdoing it when trying to come back.
You will feel great, try to do a little, then crash. Rinse, repeat.
I overdid at 5 weeks. Doctor said yes to walking and trotting and no cantering (his daughter rode so he knew how committed horse folks are to riding). So I went on a hunter pace figuring galloping and jumping was not cantering.
It set me back weeks.
Do not over do it. As a rider you should have a lot of fitness that will carry you through.
I wish I had mine done 10 years before I actually did. I got up and showered the morning after my surgery. Drip drip drip of morphine is your friend. All my “lady parts” were removed. I had a bikini incision which took awhile to fade.
SLEEP IN AN EASY CHAIR-a recliner if you have one. It will be verrry difficult to get out of bed, and rather painful for awhile.
It will hurt to pee for a long time-not the burning sensation we all know and love, but pain in your lower abdomen. The surgeon said that was due to the bladder having to settle back into place. :-0
I didn’t have horses then so can’t comment on that.
But believe me, it was such a relief not to have to worry about that monthly appearance. It took me a year to realize I didn’t have to go down the feminine needs isle in Wally World.
Good luck, and it’s not as bad as you might think!
Do you trust your doctor? Then don’t worry. I had a hysterectomy plus some reconstructive work (due to prolapse issues) and was forbidden from riding or lifting > 5 pounds for three months. I won’t say it was fun, but it really wasn’t painful, and recuperation was easy. I took four weeks off work, but five or six would have been better.
It did take several months to get back to “normal” physically. It was a huge improvement in my life – wish I had done it sooner. My horse didn’t care. He enjoyed his winter vacation and didn’t forget anything.
Are you sure you need a hysterectomy or would an ablation do? If you really need the hysterectomy because of a chronically painful problem ( e.g., uncontrollable endometriosis, huge and painful fibroids), you might find you feel better really fast.
[QUOTE=LarkspurCO;6134149]
Do you trust your doctor? Then don’t worry. I had a hysterectomy plus some reconstructive work (due to prolapse issues) and was forbidden from riding or lifting > 5 pounds for three months. I won’t say it was fun, but it really wasn’t painful, and recuperation was easy. I took four weeks off work, but five or six would have been better.
It did take several months to get back to “normal” physically. It was a huge improvement in my life – wish I had done it sooner. My horse didn’t care. He enjoyed his winter vacation and didn’t forget anything.:)[/QUOTE]
Something like this is what I had, plus I had a large mass in the pelvic cavity that may have been malignant, that was not.
It was some misplaced intestines they had to rearrange and sew back in place, so it was fairly involved.
The surgeon expected a 45 minute operation, ended up being over 2 hours.
I was supposed to stay in the hospital five days, they let me go home after three and never needed any pain medication at all, although they had installed a pain pump.
At home, I also didn’t need any pain medication.
I had stitches “down there” and those had to be taken off a few days later.
Ask about a local anesthetic cream to help with that burning.
You can’t really go by how others do, it depends on what all they do and how you respond to what they have to do, for what they told me.
I had a wonderful surgeon, that did a marvelous job, could not have been any better.
There may be a restriction on lifting for several months, but riding is not lifting, you may be able to ride sooner, although you may not feel like riding for a while.
They have some new robot assisted ways to do those surgeries today that are much faster and easier on you than when a doctor has to do it all manually.
This!
Mine was done laparoscopically. Was in the hospital just over night. Went back to work (desk job) after two weeks (I felt good enough after a week but two weeks was the soonest the doctor would allow).
Silly me thought I was all better. Still had lifting restrictions (until six weeks) and quickly learned that not following those restrictions was very painful.
As others have said it depends on what they do and how they do it. Because of 3 C sections i had a bunch of adhesions and my bladder was firmly stuck to my uterus. They ripped a large hole in it peeling them apart:eek: (better than a small hole they don’t notice).
The surgery took 3 hours.
I woke up in recovery with 2 nurses pinning me down…apparently I had been trying to get up and go to the bathroom despite the foley. They sent me home after 3 days with the catheter and baggie and Mr P left for Singapore the following day.
I was out of work 8 weeks and should have been out longer or asked my doctor to tell my employer that I could not/should not work 60 hours a week.
It was 4 months before I felt better but 2 months after that I did a 6 day trail ride in Ireland.
Mine was just done laproscopically. I was back to work in 3 weeks, mucked after 2, rode at 3 weeks. It just feels like you have done about 1,000 situps after surgery. They shoot some air in you to move stuff around during surgery and that hurts, but just take the pain pills and take Senokot S because pain killers bind you up. That recipe works great. Sitting trot will stress your stomach, but no worries - just save some painkillers for after that. In three weeks you are golden. I was running again at 4 weeks. It’s longer if they have to cut you, but we horse people never wait as long as they want, right? Don’t sweat it.
I had mine 5 years ago.
As everyone is saying…It depend on the surgery and how they do it…
Also Do not overdo…Allow yourself to heal properly.
They send me home I recall the day after and I spent most of my time in the couch or the bed for the first 3 weeks.
Back in the saddle 8 weeks later.
The biggest issue I had was loosing my abdos for quite a long time after the surgery.
Good luck !
What MJHCO said
Finally had my complete hysterectomy over a dozen years ago (after 2 decades of endometriosis and a boatload of assorted surgeries/procedures). It was a great relief & I never looked back.
Hope it went well for you. Just do take it easy and use your recovery time to, umm, recover. ;). If you had a big incision, you’ll eventually have to devote some effort to getting those lower abs back in shape.
Oh, once you can focus enough, it’s a great chance to hit the instructional books/videos 'til you can mount up again. Good luck!
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