Hi All,
I know I haven't been very active on the site lately. It's been a very busy year for me. But I thought I would post about my most recent surgery experience. This past Tuesday I had a full laparoscopic hysterectomy. (Everything was removed.) I do realize this is a very long post. Please skip if so inclined. I won't be offended.
I'm very fortunate in that I have insurance that covers this under gender identity disorder, so I only had to meet my insurance company's requirements to get the surgery covered. In short I needed to be on hormones for a year and have 2 letters of recommendation by psychologists. Again, I'm very lucky as I just met my 1 year on T requirement and have had surgery. I have my top surgery scheduled in just about 10 days from now. I have discussed the timing of my surgeries with both surgeons and both agreed that as long as I had no complications they were ok with the timing. This will also be covered under insurance, so I am getting both surgeries out of the way under one out of pocket deductible limit on my insurance. Yes, I know I'm a very, very, lucky guy to be able to pull this off.
About my surgery: I have never had surgery like this, and have never spent any time as a patient in the hospital. So this entire situation was very new to me. My wife has had some surgery experiences so she shared what she knew and I did some research on the web. I was more excited than nervous going into this.
The day before the surgery I got a call from the nurses at the hospital going over some of the things on my chart. The most interesting part to me was they wanted to know how I wanted to be referred to. As Mr. <Last Name>, <Full Name>, or <Common Short version>. I told them to go with the common short version of my name.
I was at the hospital 2 hours before my surgery the next morning. Although there was a big "F" on my wristband, everyone referred to me by the proper gender and was very nice. There was a couple of slip ups, but nothing intentional and not unexpected considering the type of surgery I was there for. Once I got up to the pre-op area I did a blood draw and had to pee in a cup. They had to verify that I wasn't pregnant! (Spoiler alert - I wasn't.) I got my gown on and put away my clothes into the provided bag. After that it was answering more questions, taking my vitals, and getting the IV's put into my hands. Since I was having a robotic assisted procedure they put in one on each arm in case something goes wrong with the primary one as they can't reach my hands once I'm under the machine.
After all the preliminary work was done, they allowed my wife and mother up to the waiting area to visit me. I think they were there for about 30 minutes. During that time the anesthesiologist stopped by to talk to me for a minute. He verified that I have sleep apnea, and asked if I had any lung or other issues. He explained that they would insert a tube down my throat and that I might feel him pressing on my throat when they did this. He also explained that although they try and remove the tube while I'm still under, they sometimes have to wake you up to do it and I might remember that. In short, explained everything that was going to happened and then stated I probably wouldn't remember any of it anyway. I thanked him for telling me anyway!
After that my surgeon stopped by and asked if I had any questions, etc. I told her I didn't and shortly after that they sent my wife and mom away. Then they rolled me out to the OR. On the way to the OR I was administered some of the drugs I would be getting to put me under. I remember rolling into the room, seeing everyone and having the machine pointed out to me. That's the last that I remember until I was in recovery!
In recovery I remember the nurse speaking to me a bit. (Don't ask me what she was saying.) And then she asked if I was ready to go to my room. I indicated that I was. I again remember starting to get pushed out and then I was in my room and the nurses were asking me to roll to my sides. This was to transfer me into my hospital bed.
I remember being very, very cold and shivering so they brought me another blanket. My blood pressure was also pretty high. I pretty much dozed in and out for the next couple of hours. I remember my mom visiting me, etc, but it's all pretty blurry. Once I was a bit more awake, I started asking for additional pain medication and this helped bring down my blood pressure as well.
Shortly after I was a bit more awake I started to request that they remove the catheter. To me it was very uncomfortable and causing me a cramping feeling. I was told that they couldn't do it until I went on a walk. Again, I drifted off and on to sleep. Once I was a bit more awake they let me go for a walk. Once done, I asked for the catheter to be removed again. Within about 30 minutes someone came in to remove it. I must state, this is a very uncomfortable feeling! I was told that I needed to urinate within 6 hours of having it removed. I managed to do it within the hour. The first time I went it hurt, it felt like I had a cut. And this feeling persisted throughout the first day. By the second day, I wasn't feeling any discomfort.
I had one of the IV's removed from my hand by this time, but I was still hooked up to a saline IV in my other hand. The night nurse was able to remove this as I was urinating enough to indicate everything was ok. Once I had this IV it was a fairly "free" feeling as I could finally get up and move without taking the IV rack with me.
My stomach was pretty bloated after the surgery. Since this was a laparoscopic surgery they had to put air into me to give them more room to work. The nurse was able to give me some GasX but of for the most part it was just waiting for the air to escape on its own.
Around 4 am I was getting a little stir crazy in the hospital. My pain was under control, I was no longer hooked up to any machine, and I was awake as I had been sleeping most of the day. My doctor/surgeon came and saw me around 8am and basically told me everything went well. She had given my wife some pictures of what she saw and what everything looked like after she was done. So I asked her a couple of questions about that and then she went and filled out the paperwork so I could be released. The doctor that assisted her in the procedure also stopped by to say "hi" and I thanked him as well. Around 10am my wife came and picked me up and we made one stop to pick up my prescriptions and then I went home to sleep.
I have 4 incisions on my stomach. One in my belly button, 2 on my left hand side of my stomach and 1 on the right side. Today is the 3rd day after surgery and although they're a little sore, they don't feel all that bad. Ibuprofen seems to be keeping the pain down. So that's my story of my full hysterectomy.
Findings:
1.) Ask for more pain meds if you need it.
2.) There was an abdominal binder in my room. I found using it helped greatly. I especially found wearing my binder plus the abdominal binder to be very useful. It really helped with the gas and the bloated stomach.
3.) Since she used steri-strips instead of stitches I was able to shower right away. I just need to change the regular band aids once a day. The strips will fall off or I can take them off after a week.
4.) Use laxatives/stool softeners. The first couple of days it was very uncomfortable to "push". I was prescribed them... take them.
5.) Ibuprofen is actually a pretty wonderful drug at times.
Feel free to ask me any questions. I'll try and answer what I can.
