Hysterectomy Recovery and Post Surgery Details

For a woman about to undergo a hysterectomy, one of the biggest fears she faces is how she will handle the post surgery recovery. After all, you are asleep during your surgery and you put your life in your doctor’s hands. It’s only when you wake up do you begin to measure the success of your hysterectomy surgery. However, it’s important to set realistic expectations for your hysterectomy recovery.

Naturally, people will be concerned with the pain when they wake up. Of course, they will also have questions like how will I get home? Who will care for me? When can I go back to work or resume normal activities? These are important questions to think about and discuss with your doctor before hysterectomy surgery.

Every surgery has stages of recovery, each of which include a milestone to monitor your progress. The recovery milestones depend on your type of hysterectomy. There are three postoperative scenarios in gynecology: the minimally invasive hysterectomy, the open benign hysterectomy, and the open cancer hysterectomy. Recovery for these surgeries can range from one night in the hospital, to over a week. Obviously, the minimally invasive procedures involves the fastest recovery time and often has patients walking out the operating room the same day the procedure is completed.

In my book, Not Your Mother’s Hysterectomy, I detail the recovery for each type of surgery and how you will experience recovery that day, the next week, the next month, and the rest of your life. Hysterectomy recovery varies greatly from woman to woman, but my book provides a comprehensive guide to what you can expect from recovery.