Navigating the Maze: My Personal Battle with Uterine Fibroids Part 4 of 4

What if you could take control of your recovery after a major surgery like a hysterectomy? Picture having a toolkit of tips and resources that keep discomfort at bay and speed up healing. We wrap up a four-week journey of uterine fibroid recovery, discussing the benefits of readily available allergy medication to combat the side effects of sedation, and the importance of introducing movement and stretching early in the recovery process. We celebrate the incredible physical therapist, Jessica Vallant, whose post-hysterectomy workout videos on YouTube have been a massive help. We also unveil the magic of Mederma Scar Gel, which has dramatically transformed the scar from day four to day 21.

Ever wondered how to smoothly transition back to work after a surgery? We share the joy of returning to simple pleasures, like sipping a margarita or soaking in a hot bubble bath after four long weeks. We explore the importance of easing back into work, ensuring not to stress about playing catch-up too soon. We appreciate God's perfect timing and reflect on the blessings that came with a few days off upon return to work. We also ponder the power of a supportive squad and share ways to give back to those who stand by you in tough times. And lastly, discover the benefits of Chair One Fitness workouts, designed specifically for those with limited abilities, that have been incorporated into the recovery routine. Get ready for a dose of empowerment to make your recovery journey smoother and easier.

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Chapters

• 0:09 The Journey of Uterine Fibroid Recovery
• 10:24 Return to Work and Post-Surgery Recovery

Transcript

Teresa: 0:09

Welcome to season two of the Infuse YOU podcast. My name is Teresa and I am your host. I'm excited to be back for another season. The goal of this podcast is to help women and young girls fill up their cups. Oftentimes we are so focused on helping and supporting others that we forget to take care of ourselves too. My mission is to spread love and joy through movement, education and motivation. Today, I will continue sharing my uterine fibroid journey. This is the final part of a four-part series. If you haven't listened to part one, two and three, please listen to them first before you play the rest of this episode. On today's episode, I will wrap up my four-week recovery experience. Thank you again to everyone that has followed my journey thus far and those of you that have reached out to share your stories and ask questions. So in episode prior to this part three, we left off on day 18 of my recovery and now we are at day 32.

Teresa: 1:07

Before we dive in, there is one tip that I forgot to mention, forgot to share, and I thought about it after I had already recorded part three of this series. So that tip is to make sure that you have an over-the-counter allergy or sinus medication available that is able to help with sore throat, running nose and sneezing. The reason why I'm sharing this tip is because two days after my hysterectomy, I developed a sore throat and my right nostril was running nonstop, and then I started sneezing. After doing some research, I learned that these symptoms were side effects of having the breathing tube placed in my throat and being sedated. Now my doctor did mention my anesthesiologist did mention that I would potentially have a sore throat due to the breathing tube being in, but he didn't mention anything about the running nose and I'm like am I coming down with a cold? What's going on? Am I getting an infection? But it is absolutely normal to have a sore throat, sneezing, itchy, running nose. My symptoms only lasted for a few days and I normally have allergy pills at home because I have seasonal allergies, so the ones that I had in my medicine cabinet worked just fine. So just wanted to make sure I shared that, because I totally forgot. Now. Days 18 to 25 were my last full week off of work, so I had to ensure that I got as much rest as possible, but also I had to begin incorporating more movement and more stretching.

Teresa: 2:33

Now I found an amazing physical therapist and Pilates instructor on YouTube who struggled with many female hormone related conditions, including prolapse and endometriosis for many years before she had to end up having hysterectomy. She used her recovery time to create some post hysterectomy workout videos, utilizing the standard restrictions that were all given by our physicians. However, what she shared in this video is that physicians don't provide any details to us on the type of movements we should be doing to prepare our bodies for that six week mark where we can lift more things, where we can get back to normal. All they tell us is walking, walking, walking, walking. But walking alone cannot prepare your body to go back to normal, especially if you are used to working out, lifting your kids, so on and so forth. So she shares that we have to take control of our recovery and prepare our bodies before we dive back in. If you would like to check out her information, her name is Jessica Vallant. Her last name is spelled V-like in victory A-L-A-N-T. She has various hysterectomy related content, including sex life after a hysterectomy, lifting weights after a hysterectomy, how to care for your pelvic floor and more. So I'm so glad that I stumbled upon her page and I share this information with you so that you have the power to research and find alternative ways to help heal your body better after any procedure. I know that our physicians are licensed professionals in their field and they know a lot about what they're telling us. They know about the procedures that they're conducting on our bodies, but there's so much more information that's out there and they only spend a limited amount of time with us and so they can only give us specific information because they see a mass amount of patients. So this is my PSA for you to get informed for yourself, for your loved ones.

Teresa: 4:32

So during my last full week of recovery, I was able to complete Jessica's videos she has a 10 minute hysterectomy videos and I did that about three times. And then, of course, I continued my daily walking. If you follow me on social media, you would have seen this photo. So I did on day 21,. I did a photo comparison of my scars on my abdomen from day four to day 21, and at day 21, they were visibly much lighter, and I owe that to the Mederma Scar Gel. Mederma Scar Gel is going to be your best friend for any type of procedure where you're going to have an incision that's going to leave a scar. Now we are at day 32 and those scars are even lighter because I've been using that cream every day, our gel, excuse me, it's recommended that you use the gel once a day for eight weeks after your procedure. Now if you've had a surgery and it's been past eight weeks, or you've had a surgery three years ago or two months ago, you can still use the cream. It's just a different timeframe that you have to use it. If it's an older scar and you didn't start using it originally. Now, I do plan to post another comparison photo after week six and then after week eight. So follow me on social media to see those photos if you want to see how my scars turned out using that cream.

Teresa: 5:49

Now, on day 25, I was able to complete an on-demand. If you're not sure what that is, online chair one fitness workout. Chair one fitness is something that was created to provide dance fitness in a chair for people with limited abilities Not necessarily only people that are disabled or senior citizens, but people like me as well who have limited abilities due to a procedure that I've had, or maybe someone had a car accident and there's only certain things that they can do. So chair one fitness is a great program and I'm going to soon be getting certified to become a chair one fitness instructor as well in the near future, but I signed up for their on-demand workouts. It's $19.99 a month and you have access to unlimited classes.

Teresa: 6:34

So I chose to select one of their low impact workouts because I didn't want to do a high intensity one, because I know that my body is not quite ready for that. So I did a low impact workout and it just felt good to groove again, even though I was dancing in a chair. I was winded and I did feel a little soreness in my muscles later that day from the workout. I also experienced some pelvic pressure when completing some of the movement. Now, being a group fitness instructor has definitely been a plus for me during this recovery, as the knowledge base I've gained has helped me to incorporate proper modifications for movements that have been challenging or cause pelvic pressure. So when I felt that pelvic pressure, I just adjusted my movement to a different type of movement that was similar to what they were teaching so that I can relieve that pressure off of my pelvic area. Now, also, continuing to where the abdominal band has been a huge help in protecting my abdominal muscles and having that restriction on my belly.

Teresa: 7:36

Have you ever thought about starting your own podcast? Do you like to talk to people? Do you have something to share with the world? Well, if that is, you just like I was. I was so confused, didn't know where to start, what tools to use, what tools I needed, but I'm so excited to be partnering with Buzz Sprouts. They helped me kickstart my podcast. They have all of the resources that you need, both in written form and also YouTube tutorials, and if you sign up for their paid plan, you will receive a $20 credit if you use the link in my profile bio, and you will also be helping to support the Infuse you podcast.

Teresa: 8:09

Now I also began reading a book that was gifted to me the night before my surgery by the infamous Hilda Young, and this book reminded me to pause and reflect on this time of recovery. It also incorporates specific restorative yoga poses, which I started to incorporate into my weekly routine on day 27. In a future podcast episode, I will be doing an episode, a book review, on that book. The name of the book? I don't have it right in front of me. I thought I had it here on my desk. You know this is live recording right. I don't really typically edit my podcasts because I want to keep it authentic and real. And I didn't have the book in front of me, but the name of the book is called called Pause, rest and Be Stillness practices for courage in times of change, and the author is Octavia F Rahim. So I haven't quite finished the book, so on next season I will be doing a book review on that book and sharing with you how I was able to incorporate what she shares in this book to help me pause, rest and be, not only after this recovery from my hysterectomy, but also just an everyday life.

Teresa: 9:19

So now we are at day 28,. And day 28 finally arrived exactly four days excuse me, not four days exactly four weeks after my surgery and the day that I was scheduled for my post op appointment. I was excited to have reached this milestone, as that meant I would be able to return to work and get back to somewhat a normal routine. At my appointment, my doctor was very impressed with how well the scars on my abdomen were healing and then, once she completed the vaginal exam, she informed me that my internal incision was also healing nicely. She released me to return to work with no lifting restrictions. But there were still some things that she told me I couldn't do no sexual intercourse for two more weeks. No chiropractic or massage therapy for four more weeks. Those of you that follow me, you know I love going to see my chiropractor, so I still gotta wait a little bit more time for that. And of course, you wanna be half intimacy. I gotta wait a little bit more time for that, and that's quite all right. I wanna make sure that I am well and healed and that I don't have any setbacks.

Teresa: 10:24

However, I was excited to learn that I could drink alcohol. I haven't had a, hadn't had a drink in five weeks. I stopped drinking a week before my surgery, so I was able to go to lunch after my post-op and enjoy a margarita. I can only have one. You know, once you get things out of your body and you put them back in, there's an effect. So I got a little bit tipsy off of one, and those of you that know me know I can drink more than one margarita, but I just had one. I was also able to pick up my daughter for the first time since I had my surgery and take a hot bubble bath. I love taking hot baths and having to take showers for the past four weeks was very depressing. I want to be clean, but I love alternating shower than bath. I mostly take a lot of baths, but I can only take showers for the past four weeks. So I was excited to be able to take a hot bubble bath with Epsom salt. I love those Epsom salt baths. I have all the different scents of the Epsom salt lavender, eucalyptus, you name it. I got it. So now I'm back at work.

Teresa: 11:27

My first few days back at work were great. I had over 500 emails waiting on me, but I was grateful that my manager was able to submit my access reinstatement in advance, which allowed me to access my emails on my work cell phone. So the day before I returned I was able to quickly go through on my phone and clear out about 200 emails, and many of these were calendar notifications, that for stuff that had already passed, and then emails that were just information only, that didn't really require an action from me. So it was great to start off with 300 emails instead of 500. I was welcome back with smiles from my team. Everyone was happy to have me back. My manager even brought in donuts and treated me to lunch for my return Now I still have a lot of catching up to do from the four weeks that I was gone.

Teresa: 12:14

It's not gonna happen overnight. My manager reminded me not to stress over it and to take my time getting back into the swing of things. Now I do have to share this for those of you once you have your procedure and any procedure, I would think once you have your procedure and you've been out of your normal routine for that many weeks, I was very exhausted. So when I first came home after my first day of work, I'm like what in the hell happened? I mean, I was literally just sitting at my desk for most of the day. I did get up and do some walking around our site, but I was literally on the computer and I'm like, why am I so tired? It's because my body has to catch up, my mind has to catch up to getting back into the things that I was doing prior to my surgery. So I know it's gonna take some time and I'm gonna just do what I can. I'm not gonna stress myself out about going slower than normal, not picking up on things quickly like I was before, because this is still a transition, transitionary period for me where I'm getting back into the swing of things.

Teresa: 13:19

So, thankfully, the way that my surgery was scheduled, I returned to work on a Thursday, so I only had to work two days this past week, then next week I'm off for Veterans Day, so I only have to work four days, and then the week after or the week of Thanksgiving, I'm off Thursday and Friday. So essentially for the month of November I only have to work two full weeks. So God's timing always works things out for the best. Now, those of you that follow me and those of you that are close with me, you know that I was so in a rush to get this surgery scheduled. I kept looking at the ideal dates of when I wanted it to happen. But if we would have had the surgery when I wanted to have the surgery, there wouldn't have been any days off or short weeks when I returned back to work. It would have been back to back to back, full weeks of work. So this is just my reminder that to you. This is my reminder to you that when things don't happen when you want them to, it's because God knows the timing isn't right. If you believe in God, like I believe in God, you know that he works everything out for our good and I thank him for working out my surgery to be on the day that it was so that my return would be simplified. I would ease my way back into work because, again, I was so, so exhausted After those two days of work.

Teresa: 14:44

So I was able to, yesterday, get out and go support two of my God nieces at their dance Performance dance performances at the Phoenix International Raceway to celebrate the championship race weekend. I'm not into race car Race car driving. I've never been to a race before. The only time I've been to the raceway was during the holidays when they had the Christmas drive-through lights show, so I only saw it in the dark. But it set up very great though. Employees were very friendly and helpful and, of course, my God nieces and all of the other dance groups there did a great job. I love supporting those people who support me, and their mothers, rocky and Amber, always support me, so I was glad to be able to return the favor.

Teresa: 15:30

As I shared in one of my episodes last season I believe the episode title is building a squad. Everyone should build a squad of people that you can count on, lean on, cry on, fit, to have fun with, etc. So every day I'm grateful for the squad that I've built. The squad is in a group of 35 40 people. A squad is a squad like. It's those core people, maybe 10 people or less. Some people don't even have that many people in their squad Because there's so much hate in the world, there's so many people that want to see you down that it's hard to find those people that are really Looking out for you, that really care for you, that really support you, that want you to win. So I'm just grateful to have my squad of people so my hysterectomy recovery and journey doesn't end here.

Teresa: 16:24

I'm still taking it easy with activities and I've also purchased Jessica Vellant's 10 week post hysterectomy workout program. It's been great. I'm excited to use weights next week for the first time in a long time. Essentially, the best exercise for uterine fibroids is gentle Activities that don't place too much pressure on your stomach. So activities like crunches, sit-ups and lifting heavy weights they tell you that they should be avoided. So when I discovered that I had the fibroids, I had to start tapering down those activities. So all I was doing was a lot of cardio based fitness classes or fitness exercises. So I had to limit all of those weights and sit-ups and crunches, especially the crunches, because they started to become too painful to do so. With Jessica's program, I will properly be preparing my body to be able to do all the things I did before the fibroids took over. So I'm super, super excited for that and in a future episode Next season, I will give an update on where I am in my hysterectomy recovery, because I think it's important to share this information with other women, other young adults who may be dealing with this.

Teresa: 17:37

So, again, I will give another update of where I'm at Next season in one of my podcast episodes. So next week will be my season 2 finale. I will be sharing interviews that I had with three of my friends who have also had a hysterectomy. They will share their experiences. They will share the symptoms that led them to have in hysterectomy, their recovery tips and more. So you have been listening to the infusion podcast. I hope that something was said today that will help you along your life journey. Until next time, continue to do you, be you, infuse you and be blessed.