ferrousland.com - diary archives
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
the recovery - 10:26 AM
i thought i'd write a bit about recovering from the caesarian, for my own record as well as for those that might be interested to hear about what it's like to have a caesarian, at least my experience of one.
i may be descriptive about some bodily functions, so be warned & skip over those bits if you're eating or if you don't like that sort of thing.
after i was back in my hospital room about twenty minutes after riley was born, i was still completely numb from under the breasts downwards for an hour or two. any time i wanted to sit up or change position on the bed, i had to have help. my mum turned up at about 9pm to see how i was going (& to get the first glimpse of riley) & so she & shroom would have to pull me forward & hold me there while one would adjust the bed & the other would change the configuration of pillows behind me. it felt really odd to not be able to control my body. there was no feeling at all, no strength.
as the feeling came back, it came back into one foot first, then slowly spread to the other one. one thing which i found odd was that i could move the toes on my right foot before i could feel any sensation there. it was strange to see my toes move as my brain was telling them to move, yet not feel the movement.
it was similar to earlier, immediately after the operation, when they moved me from the operating table to my bed & changed my gown for a clean one. i was lying down of course & looked down toward my feet to see a knee moving around attached to a leg. they were shifting my limbs around to change me. the leg was mine but i couldn't feel a thing & it seriously freaked me out. i had to look away in fact, because it was really, really weird.
they'd put a catheter in while i was still numb & left it in for around twelve to sixteen hours. it didn't hurt while it was in, but when i moved around it sometimes tugged a bit & felt kind of odd. i think i filled two bags while it was in. i didn't think then about how much i was peeing until they'd removed it (which was uncomfortable but fortunately i was distracted at the time) when i was up & about & got the use of my bladder back.
when that happened, i was to pee into a special container which fitted under the loo seat & measured how much water i was passing for the first three times i urinated. i don't know if it was to do with all my inside bits settling back to where they used to be, or if it was directly related to the epidural, but when i peed, it came in three or more passes. i would begin to pee & i'd pee for ages. i'd think i was finished, but then i'd feel some muscles release & there'd be more. i'd think i was finished for the second time, but then the same thing would happen again & i'd pee even more! i think i spoke to another patient about this & she had the same experience. it was very odd. it kind of reminded me of the scene in a league of their own when tom hanks' character came into the locker room after a big night & took a really long pee. i wondered if all the fluid coming out of me was some of the water which i'd been retaining through the later part of the pregnancy.
i was told that morphine can cause an itchy nose for most women & more rarely, itchiness all over. i got itchy all over, as well as my nose, but it wasn't a horrible itchiness which made me scratch myself raw, as it is for some. it was more of a nice itchiness, where when you have a little scratch in one spot, you find more places that are itchy just to the left, then the right, then up, then down, then further to the left again, then up again .. sort of like when you get a really good back scratch, you know? it lasted for a few days.
i was surprised at the lack of pain which i had, but i think that my case wasn't typical as i know that a lot of women have quite major pain after what is essentially major abdominal surgery. i didn't need any pain relief until about twenty-four hours later, & even then it was only because they recommended that i keep on top of it rather than wait until i was in pain before asking for more pain relief.
for the first couple of days they would have me rate the amount of pain i was in on a scale of one to ten, one being the least, & ten being the worst pain i could imagine. the worst pain rating i ever gave was a two & that was a day or so into the recovery time, after i'd been moving about a fair bit. even then, it certainly wasn't unbearable.
in fact, most times when i took pain relief it was to stop the pain from an ulcer which i had on my tongue. in the later part of the pregnancy, i found that i got more than my usual share of ulcers. when i went in for the caesar, i had a small pimple sized one at the back of my tongue on the right. when i ate, my teeth rubbed against it & it was quite sore. it seems the drugs they used on me exacerbated it, because over the next day or two it grew to about one hundred times its original size & it caused me quite a bit of pain, even to talk. i showed one of the midwives & she exclaimed, "my gosh, that's huge!" i was glad that she also thought it was big, because i wondered if perhaps i was just being a big wuss.
the midwives said that i was remarkably mobile after the caesar. i'm not sure why i was more mobile than most. maybe the yoga, aqua aerobics & packing i did in preparation for moving house all helped with the recovery.
it's not to say that i didn't feel any pain at all though. it was difficult to move around, especially when sitting up from lying down, or getting out of bed. they don't cut through the stomach muscles, but they do separate them & hold them out of the way with some type of metal clamps so i could feel the effects of that, as well as having what i was told were seven layers of stitches inside me stretching & pulling every time i did anything that involved my midsection, which is pretty much everything.
coughing & laughing were difficult. i was still getting over the tail end of a cold, so i was still suffering from a bit of phlegm, as well as the usual amount that i get from an ever-present post nasal drip so it wasn't easy trying to clear that from my throat. much of the maternity ward was totally void of the sound of coughing. there was just patheticly weak & lengthy clearing of throats.
a physiotherapist visited me while i was in hospital & gave me some exercises to do to help the recovery. she also gave me what she called, if i remember correctly, a thing called a tubi-grip. basically, it was a large tube shaped piece of very stretchy fabric, which i pulled up to cover my midsection. it wasn't tight, but was comfortably firm & it helped to support everything. when i rolled over in bed, with the lack of a baby in there, it felt as though my insides were rattling around so the firmness felt very good. i wore the tubi-grip pretty much non-stop for another week after i came out of hospital.
when i arrived home after five days in hospital i could still feel my insides. a few times when i got out of bed, or more often when i moved around in bed, i felt the stitches strain & had to remind myself to be more careful.
there has been very minimal vaginal bleeding, even a day or so after giving birth. initially it was like a heavy period but now i'd say it was equivalent to a light period. it's still going on, but i've been told it can continue for a while. i guess it's made up of the bits & pieces which don't come out when you give birth, or perhaps it's a natural cleaning mechanism. i don't know. it would be interesting to find out though.
the last week or so i've been feeling as though i didn't even have surgery. i've been feeling much stronger & haven't strained anything. i've been able to cough for about two weeks. however, when i took riley out in the pram the other day, i realised that i'm still recovering.
i planned to go the local shops, which are about five or so minutes away by car. i asked our neighbour how long she thought it might take to walk there & she estimated about forty-five minutes. her son said that it took him about fifteen minutes on his push bike. i figured i'd go to the shops, stop there for a decent amount of time to cool down, maybe eat some lunch or have a good snack, then head back home. i didn't get that far though.
by the time i'd been walking for only ten minutes, i was feeling tired. by twenty minutes i could feel my stomach muscles working. this was when i decided that i wouldn't continue (well, couldn't continue) all the way to the shops. instead, i'd go to the end of the street i was on & then turn around to come back. after about thirty minutes of walking i was feeling rather fatigued, but i wasn't quite back home yet. by forty minutes in, i was having to lean on the pram for support, rather than just pushing it. fortunately, i was only five minutes from home by that stage. i realised that i was dreaming thinking that i'd be able to go as far as i'd hoped. i hadn't realised that i was still suffering from the effects of the operation until i pushed myself physically harder than i had since before the birth.
so i didn't make it to the shops, but i was glad to have had the exercise, even if i needed a three hour sleep afterwards to recover from it. i guess that i'll work up to a longer trip, bit by bit. i'd like to make a habit of going for a walk with riley at least once a week, but i hope to make it more like two or three times a week. the walk felt good & since i could feel my muscles working, it must be helping to strengthen them up again, not to mention helping to keep my geneneral fitness up to an acceptable level. also, as riley becomes more alert day by day, he'll appreciate going for a walk & enjoy the experience & look around rather than just sleep the whole time.
the scar is healing well, i suppose, but it's difficult to tell because the steristrips are still in place. i was told that you get the 'best' scar, that is, the least obvious scar, if you leave them stuck there until they fall off of their own accord. they're looking a little grungy at this stage, kind of grey with fluff from my clothing, but they're beginning to loosen up around the edges & in the middle right along the line of the scar. i thought the scar was kind of long, but when i was in hospital one of the midwives said how tiny it was. i guess it feels long to me since i'm kind of little, but maybe in comparison to other people's scars it might be quite short.
so my recovery has been good, but i guess they're right when they say that you need six weeks to fully recover. i suppose they know what they're talking about. i'm glad that i've been feeling well, even if my recovery still has some way to go. 
"very minimal vaginal bleeding" - lucky you! although i have just been googling a bit about it and i think now that i may have not been quite normal. everything says it should be no heavier than a heavy period. i thought it was like having ten periods at once!
what dave said about healing is right... you just gotta take your time. i think that sometimes it's hard to realise what you can handle or not. like, you feel absolutely fine just around the house and stuff but try to do anything slighty more exerting, even if it's not exactly BIG, and you soon realise that you're still not quite right. still it was very good of you to make it that far! if you are wanting to go for walks you could just try wandering around your own property maybe.. you've got plenty of space and you could bring mcg along too. and if you need to sit down or lay down then no one's going to look at you funny
yeah! you could get a cheapish camp-like stool from crazy clarks, that come in a bag with a strap that you could dangle from the stroller, or your shoulder, and sit on that!
you're doing well though, by the sounds of it. and I'm sure your body will keep you informed if it feels you're doing too much
I got itchy all over when I had morphine for my knee surgery. It was awful!
I have a c-section too, and i think i recovered as fast as you hd experienced. Just asking, how many months should my husband and i wait to have a normal sexual intercourse?
gmail
com
don't rush getting into your normal routines down yet real girl. its best to let it heal properly. no matter how long it takes. i know its probably frustrating. hang in there!