Patient's question:
I have been feeling unwell recently, often experiencing stomach pain and lower back pain. I don't know what's wrong with me, and I've had white discharge frequently, which I didn't pay much attention to. Recently, the stomach pain became severe, so I went to the hospital for a check-up. The results came back saying I had endometrial polyps. I asked the doctor, "What should I do?" The doctor said this would require surgery. I felt a bit worried after hearing this, but I went through with it. After returning home, there were no immediate side effects. However, I want to know how long it takes to recover after having endometrial polyps removed?Doctor's answer:
1. Early mobilization: Except for high-risk patients, patients can be guided to perform appropriate turning and movement in bed within 6 hours after surgery, and can get out of bed and gradually increase the amount of activity after 6–8 hours.2. Pain management: Postoperative patients may experience varying degrees of pain. Relaxation techniques can often alleviate the pain on their own. If the pain does not subside, analgesics can be administered.
3. Monitoring urination: Early encouragement, guidance, and assistance should be provided to help patients urinate. For those with significant difficulty urinating, bladder emptying techniques can be used, and catheterization may be necessary if needed.
4. Dietary care: After surgery, patients can consume nutrient-rich soft foods and reduce the intake of irritating foods.
5. Routine care: The patient should lie flat without a pillow for 6 hours to prevent the premature elevation of the head, which may cause cerebrospinal fluid to leak from the puncture site into the subarachnoid space, leading to low intracranial pressure. This can stretch intracranial veins and meninges, causing headaches.
6. Perineal care: After surgery, the perineum can be cleaned with a 1/5000 potassium permanganate solution or a 0.1% chlorhexidine solution twice daily to prevent retrograde infection of the uterine cavity during catheterization.
7. Monitoring vaginal bleeding: For patients with extensive surgical wounds and significant bleeding, an intrauterine balloon catheter is often placed postoperatively, with 8–10 ml of normal saline injected into the balloon to compress the bleeding. Postoperative vaginal bleeding should be closely monitored. If a large amount of fresh blood is observed, the doctor should be notified immediately, and treatment should be administered as per medical advice. If there are no abnormalities, the intrauterine balloon catheter is usually removed 24 hours after surgery.