When your injury involves surgery, such as a knee reconstruction, back surgery and rotator cuff/shoulder repair, your specialist will often recommend a physiotherapy rehab programme to get you back to function and minimise risks of needing further surgery.
But what about surgery for the pelvis?
Often you get the all clear at 6 weeks it’s usually “good luck and get back to normal”…
Many guidelines will state 6 weeks is the optimum recovery time and most tissues will have “healed” by then. In reality, by 12 weeks the healing tissues should have reached 80% of their strength but it can take between 12 weeks and 2 years for the tissues to fully recover their function/strength after injury.
Whether you have a hysterectomy (when the uterus is removed from the pelvis) or bladder/bowel/prolapse repair, you may have a small exterior incision. On the inside though, the tissues have been cut and repaired with many tiny incisions and these takes time to heal. Some very interesting statics to think about are:
Front wall vaginal prolapse repairs have a higher failure rate than posterior wall: success rates vary between 20% and 80% according to the literature
10-20% of women will require a repeat surgery.
There are many many factors that affect the outcomes of surgery – one being the laxity or “stretchiness” of the pelvic floor muscles and tissue. Although pelvic floor muscle strengthening won’t change this stretchiness, looking after your body in the early stages may help the tissues recover to their maximum.
With very little guidelines for post-op recovery, I’ve done some extra research and courses and created a post-op recovery guide. I see many women prior to surgery to assess their pelvic floor, teach them exercises and give them lots of advice to maximise recovery in the early days and weeks post surgery. A real passion of mine is helping women get back to daily life/sport/exercise/what the love after surgery while looking after their pelvic health.
If you are thinking or having surgery or already booked in to have it, a physio appointment prior is a must!