Topic
My vestibulectomy adventure
Hello! At the encouragement of Dr. Goldstein (known as Dr. G to everyone), I’ll be writing about my adventures of going through a vestibulectomy surgery. I don’t have a long background story to share because my search for a “cure” has been relatively short in comparison to many women. I was 28 when I got married about 3 1/2 years ago and both my husband and I were virgins. Sex was painful during our honeymoon week, but we thought it would get better with time. By Month 6 of marriage we were ready to start counseling because sex had become such an issue. I felt it was a physical issue with me, and my husband thought it was mental. Have you ever been told it’s all in your head, or that if you think it’ll hurt, then it will? Well, my husband was gentle with his words, but that was basically what he believed. And so did the doctors. “Everything looks fine, just give it time.” Yeah, that’s not really helpful. I really wanted to ask them if they thought they were being helpful but at the same time, I was scared of whatever the physical issue was and didn’t want to have to deal with it yet. Within the first 3 years of marriage I saw 3 gynecologists, 1 nurse practitioner specializing in OB/GYN, and my primary doctor. None could “see” anything wrong. The last gynecologist I saw performed a q-tip test and was able to pinpoint a specific area that I recognized as being the main source of pain during sex. She gave me a dilator to work with at home (to insert at various lengths until I was comfortable inserting the whole thing) and lidocaine gel to use prior to sex in hopes of numbing the area to decrease or eliminate the pain. I had no problem inserting the dilator and the lidocaine gel didn’t help. I let the doctor know the results and she referred me to Dr. Goldstein.
(Just as a side note, I had a severe reaction to the Nuva Ring about 9 months into marriage. The symptoms were all neurological and stumped 13 doctors until I found my current primary care physician, who is an OD (osteopathic doctor) specializing in Endocrinology. She tested for everything under the sun, trying to find the root cause (and not just mask the symptoms!) and finally told me to go off Nuva Ring to see what would happen. Every single test and procedure I had gone through with each doctor came back perfectly fine. I was literally the healthiest sick person for almost 1 1/2 years! Within a month of going off NR, I felt much better and continued to feel better as time went on. No more chemical birth control for me (chemicals are just bad anyway – why ingest them if you don’t have to)! So, had I not been sidetracked with that for well over a year, I hopefully would have been referred to Dr. G much sooner.)
During our initial phone appointment, Dr. G asked a million questions, listened well, and had a diagnosis by the time the call was finished. He said he would wait to tell us the diagnosis at our first in-person appointment. He emailed me a list of patient email addresses in case I wanted to contact any of them with questions. Most of them contacted me first and in doing so, I was able to figure out what Dr. G’s assumed diagnosis was for me and what the likely “fix” would be – a vestibulectomy. I think I just knew that I was going to have to have the surgery, but that didn’t keep me from freaking out about it. Dr. G will tell you how adamant I was at our first appointment about not having the surgery. That in-person appointment consisted of lots of education (I had no idea what a vestibule was until then!), pictures of others and my own anatomy, and tests that were not so comfortable. There wasn’t time for Dr. G to perform the nerve block, the last test. I was very nervous for the nerve block at my next appointment, and it was honestly worse than I thought it would be. Not to scare anyone who might have to have it done, but I don’t tend to sugar coat things. So if you have to have one, expect pain. After all, you’re getting injections in precisely the area that’s already causing you pain. The test is necessary, but it still sucks.
After we got home, my husband and I did our “homework” of attempting sex, which was painless in the area that had always hurt before. I did have some discomfort deep inside, but after explaining it to Dr. G, he said it was most likely due to pelvic floor spasms. The nerve block was deemed a success and surgery was now an option. I’m not sure if this is common or not, but I had some discomfort in the vestibule area for close to 2 weeks after the nerve block. I also experienced a lot of itchiness, which I’d never experienced before, other than an occasional itch here or there. It was bothersome and around the time I was going to contact Dr. G about it, I started my period and the discomfort & itchiness disappeared. After the nerve block, my husband and I spent some time weighing our options and he graciously deferred the decision to me since whatever option we chose was going to “happen” to me. Although there are many non-surgical options, Dr. G felt the vestibulectomy was my best option. At the age of 32, with the thoughts of having kids swirling in my head (I don’t want to be an old mom!), I decided to have the surgery. Sooner rather than later, please, so I didn’t have to stress about it too long! Which brings me to my user name, GADgirl. I have GAD – Generalized Anxiety Disorder – which means I stress about everything 
So that’s my story leading up to right now, 8 days post-op! Over the next few posts, I’ll fill you in on my experience of surgery and recovery. Hopefully I can help answer any questions you may have, like the other blogs in the forums have done for me! As Dr. G says, we’re all hear to learn from each other!
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After we had made the decision to move forward with surgery, I wanted to schedule it as soon as possible and we were able to schedule it for only 3 weeks out (10/22). I knew I would stress about it big time, and I also wanted to be feeling good during the holidays, so the sooner the better. To prepare myself mentally for the big event, I tried to get everything in order as best as I could. I have a home-based online business and it was going to be a major thing for me to close it down for a while. I let my customers know what was going on (without too many details though!), tied up loose ends with my manufacturers, then set my store in “vacation” mode. Sounds easy, but it was tough to do. Shutting down your business means no income and with some expensive medical & surgery bills sitting on a credit card, it’s a hard thing to do!
So with my business taken care of, I moved on to prepping the house. I do the bulk of the cleaning around here (admittedly, I’m a clean freak and like things cleaned juuust so) so I spent time washing sheets, doing laundry, cleaning the house and making sure Hubby had everything he would need to fend for himself while I would be recuperating. We went grocery shopping and took a special trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get some items that had been suggested for post-op. Since multiple daily baths are a requirement and I’m not a bath girl, I opted for a comfy head, neck & back pillow for the tub (highly recommend!). We also picked up a cushy memory foam neck pillow which will be great for sitting on post-op and for the several road trips we take each year. I honestly haven’t used the pillow too much yet…it’s been more comfortable for my lower back (and surgical site) to sit or lay reclined with my knees bent at an angle. I also found a lap desk designed specifically for laptops – it adjusts to different heights & angles, and has a built in desk light & computer cooling fan. I was thinking ahead for when I start back up to work – the bulk of what I do is on the computer so I thought it might come in handy at some point.
A couple weeks prior to surgery, I emailed with Dr. G and our therapist about getting a short-term anti-anxiety prescription because my anxiety was definitely kicking in! I was breathing shallow and had tightness in my chest as a result. Mentally, I knew everything would be fine with the surgery and I was ready for it, but that didn’t show physiologically. We agreed on a basic Xanax prescription, but I ended up not filling it. I already had an appointment set up with my Naturopathic Doctor a week prior to the surgery and she ended up giving me a homeopathic remedy called Calm-Gen. The appointment I had scheduled with her was originally set up as just a follow up (she’s working with me to eliminate my headaches), but we discussed in detail the surgery as well. I’ll provide information about my ND visits knowing that not everyone believes in NDs and may think what I’m talking about is hooey. It’s okay if you think that, I wasn’t always a believer in Naturopathy either
Quick note about my ND – she is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor, not simply a Naturopath. In CA, you’ll find both, but only NDs are licensed and have medical training. 4 years of pre-med plus an additional 4 years of naturopathic medicine school = a licensed ND. A good ND will have excellent knowledge of the body, medical conditions, nutrition and naturopathic as well as conventional medicinal remedies. My ND believes that there is a time and place for both natural and Western medicines, which I think is a good theory.
Prior to the surgery I took a daily probiotic capsule, Holy Basil capsules (for anxiety), and liquid homeopathic supplements (the kind you drop under your tongue – we jokingly call them “witch tinctures”) which were for a variety of reasons, mostly to help with the headaches. I am now a firm believer in probiotics and I noticed a difference in my anxiety levels during the first month of taking Holy Basil. During my initial visit, my ND sent off a blood panel for food sensitivity testing and I tested high in animal dairy, eggs, buckwheat and spelt. The last 2 weren’t really an issue, but the first 2 were hard to eliminate. Although I don’t like eggs and most dairy (hmm, think my body was trying to tell me something?) I realized I was consuming way more of them than I thought. My first couple of trips to the grocery store after learning of the sensitivities were very educational. Eggs & dairy are in WAY more products than you would imagine. I even found some ritz-type peanut butter filled crackers with cheddar cheese in the ingredient list – ew!
Fast forward to a week prior to the surgery, my ND gave me some recommendations for post-op. We went over everything, making sure there were no contraindications with anything that I would be taking during and after surgery (anesthesia, pain medicines, etc.). We stopped the liquid supplements as they would not necessarily be beneficial post-op, but kept the probiotics and Holy Basil in the mix. As mentioned before, she gave me a liquid remedy called Calm-Gen that I was somewhat doubtful would work, but it really did help. I didn’t need to fill the Xanax prescription, which I was happy about because I don’t like to consume chemical medications unless absolutely necessary. For post-op, here were her recommendations:
2 probiotic capsules (1 in the morning, 1 in the evening) until my bowels returned to normal, then back to only 1 capsule a day. Anesthesia and most pain meds cause constipation and the probiotics help move those things through your system quicker.
Arnica twice a day to help with pain and inflammation – comes in the form of tiny pellets that you let melt under your tongue and tastes like candy – yum!
Fish Oil (EPA-DHA 720 – a more concentrated dosage than what you usually find in the stores) – 2 capsules in the morning, 2 in the evening – acts as an anti-inflammatory (FYI – don’t take any Fish Oil prior to a surgery – it’s a blood thinner)
So that was it – nothing too wild or crazy. Plus, she told me to take the Percocet when I needed it, that it was being prescribed for a reason! See?
A good ND knows when conventional medicine can be beneficial – it’s not all crazy witch tinctures!
Post-Op Days 6 – 12
During this second week of recovery, the worst thing I had to contend with was the itching. It set in big time on Day 5. Of course, my first inclination was to scratch, but obviously that’s a no-no, so it was difficult to refrain from that. Baths didn’t really do too much to help relieve the itching, but ice helped some. My husband learned pretty quickly that if he saw me making a fist, it was because things were particularly itchy at the moment.
My recovery seemed to go well during this time and the pain seemed to plateau at around a 3 this whole week. I did notice that the more activity I did, the higher the pain level would rise. I still only took Advil during this week and learned to just space things I needed to do throughout the day, so that my body could rest between activities. This helped prevent the pain level from rising too much, although by evening time each day, I was pretty tired. I continued baths 3x daily with baking soda, and iced often.
On Day 7, I re-opened my online business with a limited inventory. I only made active the part of my inventory that didn’t require any preparation or lifting. So all I had to do was package up really easy orders. I’m glad I re-opened because it gave me something else to focus on during the day besides surgery and recovery. I have a hard time when I’m required to be still, or rest, so I was actually happy to be working for a change!
By this second week of sleeping on my back, I was starting to feel it. I’m normally a side sleeper, so lying on my back was taking its toll. My lower back and eventually my hips started aching, like I knew they would. I felt very stiff during the day and was uncomfortable in most positions, but I lacked the flexibility to work on stretching exercises. I was given great advice by some of the other girls to sleep with a pillow or two under my legs. It definitely helped with the pain, but I still really just wanted to sleep on my side.
On Day 7 I didn’t take an Ambien before going to bed and I was awake until 2am before finally getting up and taking one. I guess my body wasn’t ready to give it up just yet and I figured sleeping was better for my body at that point, than stopping with the sleep aids.
All in all, Post-Op Week 2 was okay with each day getting better.