I’m currently developing a hypotheses: transsexuals recover from surgery faster than the same surgery performed on non-transsexuals.
I’ve had two lots of surgery both of which I recovered from pretty fast.
Bilateral Mastectomy
Nights in hospital: 1
Pain: 1 shot of post op morphine, and 1 Co-codamol tablet. The morphine made me really drowsy so I couldn’t shop the day after surgery. I tried, I remember wandering around London resolutely refusing to be ill. but nearly fainting on the Tube, twice. I then decided I didn’t want to spend the night in the student Halls of residence I was staying in so took the train home – which was a 3 hours journey. Then got the bus from the railway station to my house.
Time off work: 5 days, and that was because they wanted a doctors note before I came back, and it took me two days to get an appointment. So I spent most of those five days wandering around the house and doing more than I would have been at work.
Laproscopic Hysterectomy
Time in Hospital 8 hours.
Pain: 2 paracetamol, and 1 diclofenac.
Time off work: 3 days. I was amazed by the lack of pain and got back to normal really quickly.
The real world..
When I first qualified I worked for a surgeon who did mastectomies in women who had breast cancer. At first I thought it be might be useful that I’d had the surgery – I’d know exactly how it would feel: but for them it was nothing like that. They vomited more, felt more tired and felt more pain. For me surgery was a happy thing, and for them it was a sad thing.
One day I’ll do a study and prove, with some numbers about the difference in recovery time.
Warning : I’ve just discovered that a site that is very pro hysterectomy has linked to this. If you are thinking of having a hysterectomy please remember these factsl:
- I met my surgeon at a party two years after my surgery – he said was the recovery was the quickest he’d ever known anyone get better. Most of his patients who have had exactly the same surgery stay in for 3 or 4 days and take 1 – 2 weeks off work.
- I’m an SHO in O and G; I advise women to take up to 2 weeks off work.
- My consultant in occupational health at work said that my recovery was the faster he’d ever ever known. He’d expect me to be off for 3 – 4 weeks!
- The fast recovery rate is great – but there’s a higher complication rate for laproscopic surgery, as opposed to vaginal assisted laproscopic surgery or total abdominal hysterectomy. That’s not mentioned in the article that links to this one Why not read Bonnie’s commnents on her experiences after having a complication.
- I’m not saying don’t have a laproscopic hysterectomy – when they work they’re great, but are you willing to trade a few days of reduced pain for a slightly higher complication rate? I decided I did want to make that trade, but it might be different for you.
*Grins* I collect research topics.
I wonder if it has anything to do with knowing what you are letting yourself in for/ going through though as well? One of the things I found difficult about my hospital visits is that I got quite stressed out afterwards because I wasn’t prepared for what was happening to my body and didn’t know whether it was normal or not. Plus, I suspect that doctors and the like have a better idea of what stresses the body can survive and that it’s more than the rest of us think.
Result? Ignorant people like me obsess over the pain and cosset themselves more. And probably feel more pain as a result. And so as well as the positive mental attitude thing affecting the amount you suffer, I reckon the fear of the unknown factor has an effect too. Especially as I’d imagine that transexuals have taken a strong interest in invesigating the proceedures and medical processes in general as a form of self defence, so the whole thing would be better known.
‘Course, I could just be a terrible old hypochondriac…
By: Solnushka on November 4, 2006
at 11:53 am
And I think the ‘why’ of the surgery is extremely important. My mother had a lumpectomy a few years ago, which the doctors told her repeatedly was no where near as invasive as a full mastectomy, and she tried and tried to do stuff around the house straight away and was so tired and sore she simply drove herself (and us – I ended up threatening to tie her to her bed) all nuts. And I’m sure part of it was because she was not dealing very well with having her lovely useful ‘fed three babies and still up-and-at-’em’ cleavage scarred. And having cancer, however small and non-invasive, is frightening, and being scared is knackering.
On the other hand, when I had my ovary removed, I didn’t take any pain-killers at all. Despite having been opened up from hip-to-hip (even I admitted I was finding it a little tricky to sit up unaided, and the referred pain in my left shoulder was, actually, a bitch). It’s just, the pain was so very minor compared to the actinic white blaze of ovarian torsion – that had stopped, everything else was dandy. I did spend a couple of weeks being bored out of my tiny mind at home, and it did take me months to get the strength to sit straight up without rolling onto my side first, but it was all peaches and rosebuds compared to before the op. The woman in the next bed, who had an ectopic, presumably with similar degrees of pain before, and a rather smaller incision after, but having had exactly the same bits removed, was in agony, and on morphine. I think it had a lot more to do with the fact she was utterly heartbroken. Poor woman. I still feel sad when I think of her, 13 years later.
By: Reed on November 4, 2006
at 1:53 pm
I think the reason for the pain is very important, when I was in pain I was thinking ‘this is so cool I’ve had surgery and it’s over’.
The first time I didn’t expect to be in pain after the operation at all, so I made a bit of fuss and ended up getting morphine, which was uneccessary to be honest. It just hadn’t occured to me that it would hurt afterwards.
This was when I was a preclinical student, so didn’t have much experience at all.
The next time I knew exactly what would happen, I’d been a final year student on the ward so I knew what was involved! from all sides. The shoulder pain I was just really excited about – because I’d never seen it before, and it’s always cool when you seen one of the bodies quirks work for the first time, even if it’s on yourself.
By: Z on November 5, 2006
at 11:50 pm
One thing which struck me is that a differnece between your situation and that of women having masectomies and hysterectomies is that you were healthy at the time of the operation. Wouldn’t a truer comparison be with women having breast reduction surgery?
Just a thought.
AB
By: Aphra Behn on November 5, 2006
at 11:53 pm
Indeed, but I’ve looked after too of those and they seemed in more pain, but equally pleased and relieved. Being young and healthy is obviously the best to compare it too.
By: Z on November 6, 2006
at 10:59 am
I wonder , were to find boyfriend to my sister? Joke:)
My online friends propose this link to use -TOP10 – As for me, I think life is now!!!
By: JesseNewst on March 9, 2007
at 1:00 am
I am very curious to discover why there is a difference in the recovery from vaginal hysterectomy and why transsexuals are recovering faster.This is an interesting question to think of.
By: Cara Fletcher on April 5, 2007
at 5:23 pm
Thank You
By: Mark on April 18, 2007
at 9:25 am
I didn’t know that the recovery after hysterectomy can be so fast.I thought it takes weeks to recover from such surgery.
By: Cara Fletcher on May 5, 2007
at 3:12 pm
Er, yes. But I couldn’t work how to tell my colleagues why I was having a hysterectomy so couldn’t take much time off. I didn’t really have a lot of choice.
By: Z on May 5, 2007
at 6:11 pm