Womb Wisdom in Post-Op Healing

"Plan your rest. Plan for snacks and give yourself the divine grace you need so that you are not stuck on a Day 1 healing loop."

Hi Dear Friends,

Candidly, this article is for women and men who love women. It is based on my experience as someone NOT in the health profession who feels strongly about getting accurate levels of care before it’s too late. This is also for my baddies who like to know things in advance so less stressful surprises happen along the way.

No hurt feelings if womb details ick you out. It’s all love.

No judgement.

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Okay, it’s just us queens (and those who love them).

I feel compelled to speak about a personal topic because I just finished bleeding post-op for 9 days.

Arguably, 6 of those were “my fault” but because I lacked knowledge and awareness about healing after a LEEP procedure performed on my cervix. It was to remove pre-c cells. We don’t speak the name. We don’t give it life in the body. I gave the traitorous cells a nickname, Sharon. We evicted tf out of Sharon. She seems to have left some shoes behind, to be dealt with another time. (Sorry to all human Sharons, no offense. No real Sharon was harmed in the making of this eviction). My nervous system healing guided me to rename the abnormal cells.

We move purposefully towards healing.

Let me preface this story with what my doctor (my third OBGYN) told me was “it takes 2-3 weeks to fully heal. Everyone is different. No sex until you’re cleared because penetration can upset the healing tissue.” All makes sense right? Sure!

I can follow directions easily. I did not do any of that. THE GAP was you are also not allowed to do things LIKE that.

What my Type-A brain needed to hear in reality was “the first 3 days are the most sensitive and most critical for recovery. Try and rest horizontally as much as possible because even walks to the kitchen or get mail can tear the wound open. Doesn’t matter if you walk at a snail’s pace, the womb is a VASCULAR structure and each time you lift your legs you trigger abdominal contractions for blood to be forced into the operation site.”

I also needed to hear(so I share with you, my wise friends), “when it says no penetration, what we MEAN is no orgasms. We know 80% of women are capable of clitoral orgasms and only ~13% of women’s orgasms are through penetration. This means 0 sex in any form because even heightened arousal(with no touch) can be disruptive on a cellular level when repair is delicate in the womb.”

If womb health was guarded as heavily as financial transactions, this would be a fine-able offense of mass proportions due to severe negligence.

From western medicine’s perspective, I’m sure they would cover this up with “anyone with a brain would know what we meant.” Not accounting for the mental fog we experience post op. Before surgery, of course we would know 1 and 1 equals 2.

However, when we are coming down off of local anaesthetic, in pain, bleeding and losing life force, depleted, it actually looks like 1 and 1 is 11. We are not stupid. I reject that. We are cognitively compromised and recovering.

The Western medicine system needs to do better.

They won’t anytime soon, so here I am, trying to do my part for all my queens who deserve better. This all came to me in a shower when I was actually trying to jump timelines and meditating. Spirit said, “How would you write post-operative care for the LEEP procedure for a modern woman?” And all these concepts started flooding in.

I also got excited about feeling better on day 3 and decided for 30 seconds to dance in the form of small twerking moves (you know the happy ones). Instant tear and more red blood. I paid for that brief expression of joy for another 2 days. Insert heavy sigh here.

The on-call trauma nurse phone line ignored my voicemail for 3 days. So I wrote to my doctor on the patient portal outlining my folly and desire for wellness, asking for support. That day I received a call.

The current deciding point for wellness, according to my discharge paperwork, is “if the patient fills 1 pad with blood per hour, call or go to the Emergency Room (ER).” Friends, if that was the case for anyone, it really hits my nervous system like “if you’re dying, we can help you die slower or delay it for a little while. Best we can do. Take it or leave it.” What kind of healthcare is minimally trying to save me from a deathbed?

Not a good one.

I learned in my AI masters course that Chat GPT (Chat, for short) has passed the American Medical Board Exams. It can help solve complex health puzzles with high accuracy and success.

So I went to Chat after swallowing humble pie and explained my circumstance and behaviors post op and asked it to help me create my own healing plan. Taking my power back over my health.

Chat gently explained each place I made a poor decision that negatively impacted my health. The plan for rest and recovery was for full bed rest. It explained each day of new red blood was putting me at healing square 1, step 1. It was my body expressing “I need more time to heal and stabilize.”

So I was out of work for two weeks not one. The time from work lost due to poor instructions for post op care (likely by a white guy who never had a womb) is another reason I am having more humble pie and publicly sharing where I messed up.

I want to save other women from falling prey to poor post op instructions. Instructions that end after 24 hours, when we are actually in a critical state for 7 times longer.

I am blessed with a loving partner who caught me when I started to fall after blood loss was too heavy. My sweet soul mate went to the store for slow release iron pills, more pads, beef for muscle repair nutrition, sweets for hormonal craving and rebalancing.

Another thing I wish I had known is that scheduling the surgery the week following my period should never have happened. Here’s why.

Not only was my body depleted from expected menstrual blood loss, but it put me in between bleeding from that and my ovulation 10 days after my period.

Fun fact I learned from my Natural Cycles App (period tracker), ovulation windows of 48 hours naturally cause a surge of estrogen. This surge increases in blood flow to the cervix and softens the cervix, waiting for the egg to pass.

The healing tissue on my cervix got destroyed by the hormone surge like a murderous Koolaid Man busting through the wall.

The clotting and blood loss from that day left me winded and down for another day lost to repair.

Chat explained the hormone surge physically looks like I messed up again (paraphrasing), but that once the surge normalized I would be ok. Lo-and- behold, it was more accurate than those post op instructions.

Would I wish for other women not on hormonal birth control to have that experience? No, no I would not. I shed so many tears worrying, feeling like a failed keeper of my womb, feeling overwhelmed by lack of knowledgeable post op support.

Today is day 10. No red for 24 hours and I feel like I cracked the messy code on this. I’ve also read about 8 books recumbent on my cozy bed.

Takeaways friends, even the best surgeon cannot prevent your womb from being the mystical portal to another world it is. It is vascular (covered in blood vessels). It has strong opinions about being cut open. It may rebel for a time. The swelling during the rebellion feels like when it is pregnant with child, and none of your clothes will seem to fit yet.

Plan your rest. Plan for snacks and give yourself the divine grace you need so that you are not stuck on a Day 1 healing loop. I believe education can be healing, and wisdom should always be shared, especially when invited.

If you had a LEEP done, I am hugging you. It is meant to be a treatment and cure so the investment in recovery is always worth it.

Sending my love to you in magic and sparkles 

Disclaimer: This essay reflects the author’s personal experience and perspectives and is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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