Hugs, Shadowann. I know what you mean about the pain; I've been dealing with it for over a year, and nothing was done until it became so bad I had to leave my job because I wasn't physically capable of doing it any longer (and I had a job that involved 80% sitting at a desk!)
I didn't have a complete hysterectomy, just the uterus and one ovary, so I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that from personal experience. However, the answers on this thread and in what I've read elsewhere seem to indicate that sex may not be that different, although if you go through menopause because of the procedure you might need to use lube where you might not need it now, and your sex drive may be a bit lower.
As for recovery, I'm only 5 days post-op, so again I can't speak from personal experience, but my doctor told me no heavy lifting or driving for 2 weeks, no intercourse for 4 weeks, and no returning to work for 6 weeks. My fiance took 5 days off from work (Friday through today); he had the surgery date as a day off anyway, and has tomorrow and Thursday as scheduled days off. He's planning to return to work Friday, but will come home if I need him to. It's a bit easier for him, though; he works about 4 miles away, and his father is his boss, so he can get time off for family stuff very easily unless it's the middle of summer. But back to the recovery thing: They had me out of bed standing for a few seconds, then sitting in a chair at 7 pm the day of the surgery (the surgery started at 1 pm and took about 2 hours); the following morning, they got me out of bed walking to the bathroom with help the first time, and then the rest of the day I got myself out of bed to the bathroom and even up and down the hall with no help. I came home less than 48 hours after surgery and spent much of the rest of that day and most of the next in bed, or at least on the couch, but I'm able to do a bit more each day.
A hysterectomy can be pretty scary to think about, but from what I've been told, after it's over you feel much, much better. Even if you do wind up going through menopause because of it. If that did end up happening, your doctor would likely put you on hormone therapy, which would at least damper the mood swings and other hormonal effects. I know that the evening of the surgery, my fiance commented that my color was much better than it had been in months, and even though I have some discomfort from the incision, I don't have the overwhelming pain and discomfort that I've had in my abdomen and pelvis for the past 14 months or so. Blood tests that they did the day after surgery indicated that the anemia I was diagnosed with a year and a half ago has nearly corrected itself; I've been on iron supplements, but recently even those weren't helping. Now that I no longer have the fibroid growing in my uterus or the ovary growing, my blood is going where it belongs.
Good luck, Shadowann, and keep us posted.
I didn't have a complete hysterectomy, just the uterus and one ovary, so I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that from personal experience. However, the answers on this thread and in what I've read elsewhere seem to indicate that sex may not be that different, although if you go through menopause because of the procedure you might need to use lube where you might not need it now, and your sex drive may be a bit lower.
As for recovery, I'm only 5 days post-op, so again I can't speak from personal experience, but my doctor told me no heavy lifting or driving for 2 weeks, no intercourse for 4 weeks, and no returning to work for 6 weeks. My fiance took 5 days off from work (Friday through today); he had the surgery date as a day off anyway, and has tomorrow and Thursday as scheduled days off. He's planning to return to work Friday, but will come home if I need him to. It's a bit easier for him, though; he works about 4 miles away, and his father is his boss, so he can get time off for family stuff very easily unless it's the middle of summer. But back to the recovery thing: They had me out of bed standing for a few seconds, then sitting in a chair at 7 pm the day of the surgery (the surgery started at 1 pm and took about 2 hours); the following morning, they got me out of bed walking to the bathroom with help the first time, and then the rest of the day I got myself out of bed to the bathroom and even up and down the hall with no help. I came home less than 48 hours after surgery and spent much of the rest of that day and most of the next in bed, or at least on the couch, but I'm able to do a bit more each day.
A hysterectomy can be pretty scary to think about, but from what I've been told, after it's over you feel much, much better. Even if you do wind up going through menopause because of it. If that did end up happening, your doctor would likely put you on hormone therapy, which would at least damper the mood swings and other hormonal effects. I know that the evening of the surgery, my fiance commented that my color was much better than it had been in months, and even though I have some discomfort from the incision, I don't have the overwhelming pain and discomfort that I've had in my abdomen and pelvis for the past 14 months or so. Blood tests that they did the day after surgery indicated that the anemia I was diagnosed with a year and a half ago has nearly corrected itself; I've been on iron supplements, but recently even those weren't helping. Now that I no longer have the fibroid growing in my uterus or the ovary growing, my blood is going where it belongs.
Good luck, Shadowann, and keep us posted.
So far so good on the recovery; I'll see what the doctor thinks when I go in for my one week post-op check up later today.
