I know these stories help people to understand what to expect, so I would love to share my post-op experience here ... and also ask some questions.
1 month ago i had a LEEP procedure and was diagnosed with CC 1a2 (written in docs) though the size is 1b1 (10mm surface and 7mm deep), so not yet sure why doctors put it as 1a2
I was referred to a professor who did around 500 of trachelectomy operations, and he also started talking about brachytherapy, as I have LVSI (lymph spaces only). However, while I decided to go for brachy as it gives 2% of recurrence, the doctors finally changed their mind: the PET and MRI scans all showed clear, and I had trachelectomy or hysterectomy as an option. Trach is 5% recurrence, hyst is about 4%. I opted for trachelectomy, but we agreed that during the operation the doctors will do everything to decrease recurrence.
Trachelectomy was done vaginally. Lymph nodes operation was laparoscopic.
I entered the hospital on Wednesday, had an injection into the cervix and 2 hours later had CT scan to see what lymph nodes took the radioactive material they injected. That was supposed to help surgeons during the operation.
On Thursday the operation was planned for 8am, I was waken up at 6, took shower, put on stockings, and was brought to the operation room. When I woke up my first thought was that they abandoned the operation as I felt nothing. Luckily the doctors came at this moment, said they kept my uterus, all went well etc. I was very nauseous because of pain killers, so spent 2 hours more in the 'wakening' room, before was admitted back to my room.
I had a cathether and perfusion till Saturday, didn't bother me at all. What bothered me was those gases they used during laparoscopy. Gosh! That was painful. On Saturday morning i was so painful that I decided to get up myself (they got me up once on Friday, was painful). Luckily they took out my cathether in the morning, to test how my bladder works, so it was a doable action. Later on Sat they took our perfusion as well and gave me pain killers in tablets (actually a paracetamol as I had a bad reaction to everything else)
Surprisingly to me, only gas was painful, everything else not. I passed urine test, I tried to walk around hospital at least 3 times a day, was progressing very quickly and left home on Sunday. My progress continued - 3 gr of paracetamol per day, mild laxative to help constipation (which continued till Tuesday, but doctors said it's ok), was walking more and more till 1 hours in total per day (in 3 times). The gas pain almost disappeared on Wednesday - walking really helped a lot.
However, on Wednesday the progress stopped. I started swelling in the pelvic area, and on Thursday and Friday was feeling pain 'there'. Mild pain but pain still - it's like I was beaten :) My belly is yellow all over, and my private parts (especially on the right) have red huge bruise on it, it's really swollen, freaks me out, and I don't know if it's within a norm??? I just think that I don't have any fever, so hopefully it's a normal process and I won't have complications over the weekend. Eventually I reduced walking as it hurts more right now, just had 2 x10 min today and 10 min yesterday, feel weaker than I was on Tuesday-Wednesday
Emotionally though it's still hard - not what I hoped for before the operation. I really thought that I will wake up with a thought 'i need to recover and it's over', but no - the fear is still there, very strong, up and down every day :( I'm waiting for my path results (in a week) to understand if I have a further treatment after that
Hope this story helps to those who are about to have a trachelectomy, wish you all the best!
Any stories on swelling and bruising will help me in advance - it's so intime, that I'm not even sure if I should call a surgeon or someone else to talk about my swollen private parts on the right? :)
