I have a friend who has fibroids and has decided to have a hysterectomy

[SheilaT]

3. It's major abdominal surgery, right?

I haven't had a hysterectomy, don't have fibroids, so I can't really offer much from a personal perspective. But I've been crazed for the past forty years or so that women have been brain-washed into thinking that hysterectomies are minor surgery, and that what's being cut out just isn't very important. Am I the only one out there who thinks that we ought to do our best to hang on to all our organs?

Okay, rant off. Do your best to make her understand that no matter what, it really is major surgery. There will be pain. There will be recovery time -- which varies a lot from person to person, but isn't the basic rule of thumb six weeks at a minimum? This is not a procedure like a root canal where you can get up and walk around immediately after, and return to work three days later. So long as she clearly understands all this, then fine. It is her choice, after all.

(In some ways I'm the wrong person to ask about any kind of surgery. I had a C-Section with my first baby, and was able to stand fully upright within 24 hours. Nurses on my unit all said they'd NEVER seen anyone recover from a C-Section so quickly. I was driving a stick shift (we needed a new car and I was test-driving) three weeks later. Fortunately, I got the message and do not ever expect anyone to recover as quickly as I did. Major surgery is major surgery. We deserve to take all the time we need to recuperate, and no one should ever be expected to recover as fast as someone else.)