57. Fab, 40 and Sterilised!

Amy Littlejohn
Feb 11, 2023
7 min read

As the title says, I'm now 40 and Sterilised!

I spent my 40th Birthday with Dan in Iceland, which was amazing. It was so nice going back after 10 years (where has the time gone?). We didnt do many tours as we done most of them last time we went for my 30th, but we did go back to the Blue Lagoon and do a Northern Lights Hunt on my birthday, which didnt disappoint!

The weekend after our trip Dan surprised me to a 80's Disco! He went to so much effort organising it (with the help of some friends), it was an amazing night! It was also so nice seeing all the people that came and in fancy dress too!

In my head I'm still only 28, how can I be celebrating my 40th Birthday!!??

2 days after my party, I was heading back to Yeovil Hospital. Such a familiar place now. I was heading into the Womens Hospital Ward, where 2 years ago I had the bad cells removed from my cervix. This time it would be day surgery and under a general anesthetic.

I was up silly early in the morning as I couldn't sleep. Not sure if it was nerves, or just my general inability to sleep lately. But it gave me a chance to have a little snack before I had to stop eating at 7am.

Arriving at the hospital.

Dan dropped me off to the Hospital just before 11:30am and I wasn't sure how long I would be. The Surgery was only meant to be around 30 mins, so I thought I would be home again by about 3pm. But as usual, nothing goes smoothly!

I don't know if there was any sort of delay, but me and another lady we sat In the waiting room waiting to be seen for quite some time. One nurse did pop in and said she would be with us but I think most went to feed the other patients on the ward, which is fair enough.

The nurse came back in and said we would be seen by the surgeon and the anesthetist soon. I didnt really take much notice of the time but probably 10 mins later a nurse came in to take some details and showed me to my room. I was so lovely and warm in that room as the sun was shining that day. I eventually had to close the blinds!

I will leave posting any graphic photos to the bottom of the page, so if you dont like seeing incisions, belly buttons or bruising you can stop scrolling at that point. But I will warn you when!

Anyway, soon the surgeon came in to explain the procedure. I would be having a Tubal Occlusion by means of a Laparoscopy. Which is a fancy way of saying they will do keyhole surgery to go in a clip my tubes.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/female-sterilisation/

I find it weird that when I was trying to research sterilisation and the procedure there is very limited information on the web, which is the very opposite of information for breast cancer. I don't know why its not really a talked about thing. Anyway, more on that later.

After the surgeon the anesthetist came in. I cant really remember what we discussed. The only thing I remember was her saying my blood pressure was a bit high cause I'm overweight.

Ok, yes, I know I'm overweight, but they way she said it was a little rude. Luckily cause I am overweight, I have thick skin and it didn't bother me. But someone who is self conscious or feeling low about themselves, a comment like that would have been very hurtful. Its more the way she said it rather than exactly what she said....Rude! But she was going to be making sure I'm ok during surgery so best stay on her good side!!

The nurse came back in and gave me some fetching compression socks. I have two pairs of these now from surgeries in the last 2 years! Shame they don't come in different colours!

Oh one last thing I had to do before moving onto the next room (the surgery suite) was give a urine sample to check if I was pregnant....and YAY its negative!

Time for surgery

I walked into the surgery suite and laid on the table. I had to remind them they couldn't use my right arm for blood pressure checks or injections as I have had Lymph nodes removed, so they moved round to my left arm to give me a G&T (as they called it!) and within a few seconds I was asleep.

I came on round in the recovery suite. The first thing I noticed was the pain going from my lower right abdomen down my right leg. I was quite uncomfortable, so they gave me some pain killers which didn't seem to help.

It wasnt until one of the nurses explained my legs would have been up in an awkward position during the procedure that I could then reassure myself that nothing was wrong. Once I started to relax in bed the pain started to go.

The anesthetist came in and told me that during surgery they inflate your abdomen with gas, allowing more room for the surgery tools. But for some reason when they did this to me, my blood pressure bottomed out. They were unsure why this happened. So surgery was paused while an ECG was done to check my heart rate.

This came back fine and all went back to normal, so things continued.

I got back to my room on the ward about 6pm, so it took much longer than 30 mins. Dan came to the hospital about 6:30pm and sat with me in the room until they discharged me. I had to eat something and go for a wee before they would do that, or as the nurse said the 3T's, Tea, Toast and Tinkle!

I managed a little bit of toast but I had a sore throat from the tube they put down in during surgery. Drinking was fine and going for a wee I'd done in a bed pan in the recovery room! It has been a few hours since going to the toilet!

I was finally discharged and finally got home around 8pm and I went straight to bed.

Side effects

I was told some people get shoulder and stomach pain from the gas, but I was lucky and didnt get anything like that. I did take a Buscopan for IBS which might have helped with that. For me the most uncomfortable thing was my stomach. It felt like I'd done a 1000 of stomach crunches while I was due on my Period! That feeling lasted quite a few days. I was also having to use sanitary towels due to bleeding a bit. Again I was told this is a normal thing to happen.

I thought I might be able to work from home on the Thursday, but I was in too much pain still and just exhausted. It felt like the worse period pains I'd ever had.

I also struggled to sleep for a few days as I had to lay on my back and I was constantly worried about the cats trying to sit on me. Bless them!

Healing

After a weeks rest I managed to go back to work doing half days in the office and the rest of the day working from home. I found it quite uncomfortable to sit upright for long periods of time. Laying down on my back or standing was the best thing to do. I even struggled to bend over and do up my shoe laces! But that might just be my fat gut! ;)

As I mentioned earlier, there isnt really any information on the recovery time for sterilisation. That's why I wanted to try and get some of it down on the blog for other people to read.

Its now been 3 weeks and the stomach cramps have all but gone. I do get the occasional twinges but nothing too much. The incision site is scabbed over and the dissolvable stitches are still visible.

When I tell people I was sterilised, I get 1 of 2 reactions. Surprised or praise.

- Surprised people are like "Oh, why did you get that done?", "Did you get that done because of the cancer?", "Was it your choice?". My answer is always, I dont want children. Yes, it was my choice, no its nothing to do with my cancer etc etc!

- Praise from people tend to say well done, like I have achieved something. Which I suppose in one way I have. I've gone against the nay sayers and got sterilised.

I really do think women should be able to choose to get this done anytime, the same as a man could. I understand the surgery for a female is a bit more complicated and probably costs the NHS more, however women should not have to fight as much as then do to get this procedure.

I was fortunate that because I have had chemo, that my eggs are probably no good anyway. But I know some 30 year old women that have already decided they do not want children and will probably struggle to get a doctor to agree to put them forward for it. It just seems unfair.

Anyway, I wont rant about that much more. I will keep you up to date on my healing.

For now, I will post my Incisions so you can see how small they actually are. I have one on my left side and another in my belly button, but you cant really see that one!

Oh, I did do something a bit stupid. I used a plaster over the incision to stop my jeans rubbing on it and forgot to take it off. This made the scab a wet and soft meaning it opened up a bit. So I will probably be left with a slightly bigger scar because of that. Doh!