Tiredness

Hi, I had keyhole surgery in 2017 so I can't recall too much detail now but I do remember that after 3 months I was nowhere near my usual fitness or stamina. Early on, Macmillan gave me an exercise chart to fill in, where I wrote down every day how far I had walked, or for how long, and it helped me to look back over it and see that I was improving although very slowly. I suggest you contact your CNS about your lower-back pain though, as I think gynae pain can be referred to the lower back so maybe your poor post-op insides are causing you some pain there. Good luck and I hope you soon are feeling lots better. I think you have been a top girl to go back to a demanding job so soon.  LR.

Hi Jakesgirl

I had my hysterectomy six weeks ago, I’ve just been signed off work for another 4 weeks, I’m a carer and don’t feel that I can go back yet , not sleeping well and fatigued, I ve hardly been outside the front door since I got home from hospital.I’m 65 so obviously went through the menapause in my 50 s but now I ve had my ovaries removed I’m having hot flushes not sleeping weepy all the time, I didn’t even need hrt first time around(menopause) but I suppose still had ovaries producing oestrogen then, not sure how I’m going to cope this time around, I’m not happy to take hrt because of its association with cancer and my consultant doesn’t want me to take it. 
They thought I had ovarian cancer (reason for hysterectomy) turned out to be a benign fibroid no sign of cancer at all so I don’t want to risk it by taking hrt, sorry for rambling️

Hi Jakesgirl

As you have had open surgery do you feel you may have returned to work too early?  I had my surgery on 5th July which was via robotic laparoscopy and I returned to work about a month ago on a phased return.  My job is admin based and so I'm working from home - started off with a couple of hours per day, then a week of 25% of hours, then 50% etc.  Last week was my first week at fulltime hours and I really felt it with the tiredness

From the nature of your job I guess working from home isn't an option, but have you been offered any reduced hours i.e. not full days or different tasks?  If you are really struggling I would ask your manager to do a referral to occupational health, even if this has already been done you can ask them to review the plan that was agreed if you feel it's not working for you.  People diagnosed with cancer do fall under the DDA and so your employer has to make reasonable adjustments to support you in doing your job.