Recovery from C-section

Two days ago, I went running for the first time since March 5th. That date sticks in my mind because it was the day before Bernard ran the LA Marathon. I was about 17 weeks pregnant at the time, and still able to run, but definitely feeling discomfort from having my uterus bounce up and down on my bladder. Since then, I’ve done very little exercise, so it was no surprise that my run two days ago was short, involved a little shortness-of-breath, and i’m still sore today from it. Nevertheless, I was still pleased that I could get outside to do a slow jog.

As I’ve heard from other people who have undergone a C-section, being able to run six weeks post-partum isn’t too bad. My abs are another story though. Last week, I couldn’t do a single leg lift–now, I can do two of them. I guess it will take a while for those muscles to regenerate after having been cut in half. Overall, my recovery has been better than others’, but my theory is that the people who had worse recoveries underwent labor prior to their C-section. I had a scheduled C-section, so I never experienced labor. Despite my relatively smooth recovery though, I think I still would have preferred a vaginal delivery.

Right after my C-section, I was feeling very little pain. They inject a long-acting morphine derivative into the spinal canal which lasts about 24 hours. I remember thinking, “Wow, this is great! I’m going to recommend C-section to everyone.” The morning after my C-section, my obstetrician told me to start taking pain medication by mouth since the spinal anesthesia was going to wear off. Well, I didn’t listen to her, and I paid for it later that afternoon when the pain was so excruciating that I couldn’t move at all. Now, not being able to move isn’t a huge deal after a C-section because you have a Foley catheter in your bladder so you don’t need to get up to pee, and your intestines have stopped moving after your surgery so you’re not going to have a bowel movement anytime soon. Also, the nurses come in and clean you up every eight hours or so. However, if you’re trying to breastfeed twins, you do need to do a bunch of shifting around, so that was really hard. Bernard became an expert at latching the twins onto me since I could barely move.

Two days after the C-section, they take the Foley catheter out–it’s not too bad, just a quick burning sensation as the tube is pulled out, and now you have to get up to go to the bathroom. Also, they start asking you constantly if you’ve passed gas yet. Basically, you can’t eat any solids until this happens. The important thing is to keep taking pain medication around the clock because if you wait too long, the pain is so severe that it’s hard to control it. For me, this involved 800mg of ibuprofen and one Vicodin every six hours.

After we got home, I wished we owned a hospital bed, because without those sidebars, I couldn’t get out of bed. Again, abdominal muscles are really important! Basically, I had to take pain medication around the clock for almost two weeks. Then, it became ibuprofen once in a while; then, I was completely off pain medication at about three weeks.

One thing I didn’t know about was the incredible amount of swelling that you get after the delivery. I had swelling in my ankles that was much worse than when I was pregnant. This took about one week to go away.

In terms of the actual incision, my obstetrician used absorbable sutures instead of staples, so those went away at about three weeks. The incision site was covered with little pieces of tape called Steri-strips which came off at two weeks. Now I just have a four-inch line on my lower abdomen. The next thing I have to worry about are keloids, which are basically thickened, overgrown scar tissue. My obstetrician told me to put on Neosporin Scar Solutions, which are silicone treated bandages to help prevent keloids. When I put them on at three weeks though, I developed these red welts along my incision. I stopped using the bandages and the welts have pretty much gone away. My obstetrician thought it was probably a reaction to when the sutures absorbed just underneath the skin, so i’m going to try these bandages again.

Six weeks later, I’m physically back to where I was before I became pregnant. Well, except for the fact that I’m constantly sleep-deprived, and I have a mildly protruding, stretch mark covered belly. But I wear that like a twin mom badge of honor. Also, I have huge biceps from constantly carrying around two eight-pound weights, i.e. the twins. I lost thirty pounds in the first two weeks, and now most of the rest of the forty total pounds that I gained. I think part of the weight loss was due to breastfeeding, but also, the fact that I don’t have time to eat! As Bernard mentioned in a previous blog entry, we barely fit in two meals a day, and those are shoveled into our mouths as fast as possible.