I was discharged yesterday lunchtime and arrived home at 1.00 pm - or 2.00pm - husband hadn't got round to altering the clocks.
I was in hospital a few days longer than anticipated and you will probably be able to deduce from that that something "interesting" happened. And on this site "interesting" is usually not good. "Boring" is good.
I had the op on Friday afternoon. All seemed well the next day, the catheter was draining and displaying the expected mixture of urine + blood in a pretty pale rose wine colour. I had some nausea & vomiting - normal for me post op - but this was soon brought under control with the anti sickness medication. As Sunday wore on, I started to feel more pain and the colour changed to deep red. By night time I was crying with pain and passing heavy clots outside the catheter. All my sheets were soaked in blood. My nurse was wonderful and insisted on calling the doctor on duty. From what she told me, he thought she was making a fuss about nothing but she knew better. Having seen me, he did then feel he needed to consult the Urologists. As the catheter was now draining ok and my pain had decreased, it was decided to "wait and see" at this stage as changing the catheter unnecessarily might compromise the repair.
My GynaeOnc consultant came the next morning. The catheter was still draining mainly blood and he asked if it had always been that colour. I said it had been rose to start off with. He then asked at what stage it had changed from rose to Rioja 
Most of Monday, although I wasn't feeling great, the pain was bearable and the clots decreased. However, I was still leaking blood & urine outside the catheter. Another lovely nurse on duty said she thought this might mean the catheter was blocked and told me to call her if the pain increased, Which it duly did, The Urologists were consulted again and this time agreed that the catheter should be changed.
In the meantime, there was a suspicion that the heavier than expected bleeding might be due to the clexane injections (given to stop clots forming) which in some individuals causes heavy bleeding. They did a CT scan to confirm that it wasn't an injury due to the op. Sure enough, when the clexane was stopped, the Rioja turned back to Rose. I had a blood transfusion on Tuesday. Nice to get some claret inside.
From Thursday morning things started to feel very much better and I improved rapidly over the next few days, being able to walk about with my catheter in one hand. Yesterday morning I was definitely ready for home. It is lovely to be back. Before I went into hospital I hadn't been looking forward to wearing the catheter for 6 weeks but now, having the bag strapped to my leg so that I can walk around with both hands free and being able to empty it myself when I want to, it seems like small potatoes.
Having reacted to the clexane means I'm not able to have the injections for the 28 days following discharge. What a shame!! Because of that it is extra important that I move around as much as possible and wear the TED stockings. My GynaeOnc also reminded me that red wine is good for preventing clots. Every cloud . . .
Sorry for the gory details. It all came good in the end. And thank you so much everyone for all the good wishes you sent me when I went into hospital. I've missed you all and am looking forward to catching up with your stories and chat.
Love and best wishes to you all
Mary
Good morning 
2weeks after Hysterectomy
Back home!
