Hysterectomy vs c-section?

My hyst. was with the bikini cut back in the 70's. I was not to drive, climb stairs or sweep for 6 weeks and I was still discomforted when doing those things a year later. The laparoscopic version is said to be easier but people have varying pain thresholds too.

I've often wondered how women can have C-sections and hop right into caring for their baby full time.

I've had a hysterectomy and a C-section.

C-section was bad. I also had blood clotting issues after, so mine was maybe worse than your average. Still, I was up and home and doing most things within a week. Pain was hard if I sneezed or hard to get up for a few weeks after that.

Hysterectomy I had laparoscopic. I had it on a Thursday morning, came home on Friday morning. I was pretty sore over the weekend. On Monday night I went to a work dinner. I was tired for a week-ish, but much less pain that the Csection.

Just my personal experience with both.

I had a hysterectomy that involved a C-section type cut. They tried to do it with a laparoscopic cut, but my fibroid was too large to take out of the little holes. It hurt like hell for about three days and then if I was careful with the way I moved it was okay. I just took Tylenol after the third day. Perhaps it is something they did inside of her. Organs and "important stuff " get cut out and maybe that is her pain. The c-section itself doesn't involve the innards as much as a hysterectomy. (This is my hypothesis- never had a c-section.) Maybe the doctor knicked something, maybe she hasn't ever had surgery before, maybe she doesn't do well with pain. I know that even though the cuts are little with her surgery, what they do on the inside can cause a lot of pain. That being said, I have a pretty low pain tolerance and was allowed to leave the day after my hysterectomy do go home and suffer in the comfort of my own bed. Perhaps someone should encourage her to go back to her doctor if she is in that much pain. You never know.

never had a C-section, but I agree with the 'they did stuff inside you and cut stuff out' comment. I had to keep reminding myself that no matter how *little* the incisions looked, there was lots of stuff done that couldn't be seen. (...and discomfort from the gas / bloating from the laproscopic surgery, too...)

That all being said, if she truly is in that much pain, I think I'd go to the doctor, if it was me, to make sure something wasn't wrong.

I think pain is a personal thing, what might be nothing to you might be total agony to someone else. I see no need to compare it.

I had a laproscopic hysterectomy. To tell the truth, I felt NO pain from the surgery itself, just discomfort up around the shoulders from the gas they pump into you to perform the surgery.
I was extremely tired for close to six weeks, but as for pain, none.
I didn't have a c-section, but I did have old-style gastric bypass (cut open from breastbone to pubic line) back in the day. That was mighty painful as they cut through many layers to include muscle, which is what I think they do in a c-section.
Some people just tolerate pain much much better than others, or want sympathy. A hysterectomy can be a very emotional experience, leading her to just be in a bad place and complain. Or...maybe she is having some kind of complication and really is in pain. I would 'unfollow' her for awhile if her posts annoy you. I do that from time to time with friends. It's okay to do.

I've had two c-sections and a laproscopic hysterectomy. My 1st c-section was horrible. One of the staples was in a nerve and caused terrible pain. I couldn't lie flat for two weeks. It seemed like it took forever to feel right. I developed a lot of scar tissue.

The second c-section was much better. I was up and doing things within a week.

The hysterectomy was done on an outpatient basis. I was home by late afternoon. No pain pills after two days, but I was very, very tired. It was like someone sucked the energy out of me.

Everyone's pain tolerance is different and if she is still having that kind of pain then she needs to be seen by her dr.

Not necessarily. I've assisted in many of both, and in a c-section generally the whole uterus is taken out through the incision and examined, after the baby has been delivered, and then put back into the cavity. There's as much movement of organs in a C-section as there is in an open hysterectomy.

I've not had a C-section or a hysterectomy, but I have had a colon resection and had a large midline incision. I remember it being very painful for about a week. But, the worst pain I've had after surgery is when I had my gall bladder laparoscopically removed. Although there were only a few small incisions, the leftover CO2 gas in my abdomen caused incredible "shoulder strap" pain, that I couldn't get relief from. So in some cases laparoscopic surgeries can be harder and/or more painful to recover from than open ones.

Yep, it's gently pulled out, examined, and then sewn up. It's easier to sew up that way then having it down in the lower abdomen, where the OB might accidentally snag something important nearby. It's not necessarily rolling around on top the patient's belly, being attached to some pretty serious ligaments, but you can see most of it that way,

One of the few times I had a sponge left in a patient was during a C-section. The nurse and the tech (me) do an initial count before the procedure. Then we do our first closing count as the uterus is being closed, another as the abdominal cavity is being closed, then a final one at the end. The OB was finishing up the uterus and our first count was a sponge short. The OB told us it wasn't in the patient, so we counted again as she slid the uterus back in and started sewing up the abdominal cavity. We were still one sponge short, and the OB told us to look around on the floor, because it wasn't in the patient. She finished up the skin, and we were still one short, having looked everywhere for it. Hospital protocol called for an X-Ray in the surgical suite when something from a count is missing, so the X-Ray tech had to come and take an X-Ray. And there was the sponge, hiding behind the uterus where it had been pushed back in, with the uterus (c-sections are very bloody, and it's easy to lose sight of sponges in the mess). We had to open the poor patient's abdomen back up and retrieve it, with considerable egg on the face of the OB.

OK.. here's the GENERAL scoop... exceptions exist of course

Any open abdominal surgery is generally MORE painful over a longer period of time. The issue is the opening of the muscles. When you have a c-section, the skin incision may be lower on the abdomen, but we vertically (up and down, to separate the rectus muscles. That's probably the most painful issue, along with the size of the actual incision. I can do nothing inside your abdomen and it won't matter. It's the incision that matters the most.

Now, with the caveat, if I ligate the tubes while I am in there, that will be more painful. Same for if I have to close the intestines or the bladder. Those are exceptions. Your intestines will move around afterwards in the space created by the decreased uterine size. Same in a hyst. That's not really a painful situation. Your internal organs are always moving around.

The beauty of a laparoscopic surgery is the SMALL incision size. Bigger incision=more pain=longer recovery time. Of course, you do have the issue of having had a belly filled with gas afterwards, but once that's gone, it's not a big deal. You may feel sore, tired, but not in pain. If there is, it's a reason to be seen by the doctor again.

I will say that it takes me a week to recover from ANY anesthesia. Even my more minor procedures have knocked me for a loop for a week or two. It's annoying and isn't necessarily painful. Some minor things, like my port insertion, caused me more pain than my laparoscopy.

I have had two c-sections and they really hurt, but I had babies to take care of so I dealt with the pain. I was up/down stairs and all the things they say no to. I think when focusing on your baby you don't have time for the pain. If I end up having a hysterectomy I will definetly milk it at least for my husband, probably not on facebook!

You may have more crampy type pain in the short term... but having it at the time of a c-section, you won't likely notice the difference. If you had it had via laparoscopy and were comparing to, say, a simple ovarian cystectomy, I would expect there to be more pain with the tubal ligation. The pain from the abdominal incision is likely to mask the pain from the tubal.

An example of that is that I had my tubes and ovaries removed laparoscopically during the same anesthesia as when I had my breasts removed and tissue expanders placed. The pain in my chest was SO much greater than anything I felt from the laparoscopy. I had a few tiny incisions for that and one slightly bigger one in my belly button. It felt sore, but did not compare to the pain from the large incisions running across my chest and the muscular involvement.