Re: Survey of women who have had myomectomies

[Guest guest]

I'm with R. on the question of needing assistance after myomectomy.

Neither did I need assistance. I stayed in bed the first couple of days, but I

was able to get up to use the bathroom, get water, take the Motrin, etc. I took

care of my own grooming - true, it was limited grooming the first couple of

days- but I didn't require anyone's assistance. There needed to be a category

for " No assistance required " .

Joyce

[Guest guest]

Abdominal Myomectomy/Hysterectomy:

If you're on your own, pre-stock the house with easy to cook,

lightweight size food and drink. Things like tins of soup and

instant dinners will be easy to do. You won't want to tackle

anything that involves lifting your heaviest largest saucepans of

water, or anything dangerous like chip pans. Think 'frail very old

lady' when anticipating what will be hard, or easy. Can you actually

open that overladen bottom drawer of clothes? Can you reach that top

shelf? I'm not kidding! Stupid things like toilet flushes may be

harder to push down on and just stretching to close a window can

feel like a bad idea. Certainly get someone to phone or visit often

and think ahead about what you need nearby. Do walk around the

house, walk up and down your street if you feel up to it and be up

in the daytime. Don't be over-ambitious or reckless. Showers are

easier than baths.

It's nice having someone around all the time for:

* Help if we have an accident or have complications making us ill

* Someone to do all those frustrating things we're supposed to avoid

that still need doing sometimes. (people who haven't had the

operation yet shouldn't underestimate the hassles of moving objects

that normally seem light and manageable that we shouldn't be lifting

ourselves).

* Reassurance that a symptom is most likely normal healing

* Someone to get you to a doctor, or to buy you some medicine etc.

if it is a problem

* Someone to bore to death talking about it all

* When you are ill sometimes you want to be with your parents or

whoever, and somewhere where you don't have to worry about hogging

the bathroom or being untidy for 6 weeks.

* Some people feel down, especially after a hysterectomy

Aztek

[Guest guest]

I think there may be some confusion on the poll here...

I agree that many of us did not need assistance with personal

grooming, etc. when we got home (I didn't). However, other things,

like lifting gallon containers, cleaning your house, taking care of

young children, etc. are different. There are probably women who

just didn't do these things for a few days or weeks or didn't need

to do these things (i.e don't have small children) and therefore say

they didn't need assistance. Others, with different family

situations, have no choice (i.e. if you have children or pets at

home, someone has to take care of them & your house, and if you

can't (which I would thing that everyone who had abdominal surgery

can't at least for a period of time) then you will need assistance.)

I think the purpose of the poll is to give others an idea of what to

expect after a myo - what they may or may not need assistance with.

I don't think it's fair to lead people to believe that they won't

need assistance with ANYTHING (not just personal grooming/needs)

especially if they have children who will need to be taken care of.

Perhaps it would have been a good idea to have a choice of 'not

applicaple' for certain categories.

Just my 2 cents...I don't mean to split hairs on the poll, I just

want to make sure the results aren't misleading to those who haven't

had their surgery yet and are using it as a baseline.

~Cindy

> I'm with R. on the question of needing assistance after

myomectomy. Neither did I need assistance. I stayed in bed the

first couple of days, but I was able to get up to use the bathroom,

get water, take the Motrin, etc. I took care of my own grooming -

true, it was limited grooming the first couple of days- but I didn't

require anyone's assistance. There needed to be a category for " No

assistance required " .

[Guest guest]

I agree with you . I went into the site, but couldn't find a

single alternative that applied to my case. First of all, in the UK,

most patients stay in hospital to 5-6 days after a myomectomy,

regardless of complications arising, so I'd appreciate an extra line

saying " stayed 5 days or more " without the bit about complications.

Secondly, a lot of women (or most) will probably not have needed that

much hands-on assistance post-myo, esp. not to get in/out of bed,

bathe, etc. The assistance we most tend to need is with grocery

shopping, hoovering, ironing, etc. and even those last two you can

live without for a few weeks!

Thanks for raising the point !

Chie

There is NO category for " I didn't need any assistance " .