All of this stuff is so fresh in my mind now, but I KNOW I will have forgotten most of it by the time we're ready to do this again (which won't be for at least another four years, I assure you). So this is really a "just in case" post: Just in case anyone ever asks me for cesarean advice again, I'll be able to refer them to this link, and just in case I need to be reminded of this stuff a few years down the road, well, then it's all here...
ABOUT THE EPIDURAL
I promise the epidural does not hurt that bad when it's being administered. It really doesn't. It stings a little, but if you're anything like me, then it won't be anywhere close to as bad as you'd built it up to be. It can, however, leave quite a bruise in the middle of your back (mine was about the size of a golf ball at first), so you can probably expect to be a pretty tender at your epidural site during the first couple weeks, particularly in the first few days. (It's not a stabbing acute pain or anything like that; it's just sore in the same way a bruise is, and the fact that it's right in the middle of your back--what you lie down upon--makes it more inconvenient.)
ABOUT THE CATHETER
After they do the epidural, they'll insert your catheter. I was incredibly worried about this and thought it would hurt, but by the time they do it, you won't be able to feel it at all. They do a couple other things to prep you for surgery (vitals, one of those finger clamp things to measure the oxygen in your blood, nothing worth mentioning), and then they get started. If you read my previous entry, you know what I think about the actual procedure...
After 24 hours, they'll take your catheter out. It doesn't hurt at all to have it removed. What's weird is that it does a number on your bladder, so you kinda have to retrain yourself how to pee. It's not like you can't control your bladder or anything like that; you just probably won't be able to go more than a little trickle at a time. It's weird.
ABOUT THE PROCEDURE
The whole thing takes about an hour from the time they wheel you in to the time you're all sewn and stapled back up again. I don't even remember being wheeled back out, and although I remember bits and pieces from the 24 hours following my surgery, I have no sense of time. (I can't distinguish between people I saw two hours after the surgery vs. people I saw the next afternoon.) So expect to be pretty groggy for the 24 hours following your C.
ABOUT THE FIRST 24 HOURS
The worst part of the entire experience will be roughly 12 hours after your surgery. Your Labor & Delivery nurse will come in and check to make sure your uterus is starting to decrease in size. She'll do this by pressing on your tummy (up by your belly button). ASK FOR PAIN MEDICINE BEFORE SHE DOES THIS. It's the most painful part of the entire experience. They'll continue to do periodic checks of your uterus by pressing on your tummy, but none of those hurt nearly as bad as that first one.
The first time you have to get up and go to the bathroom, don't freak out if you look down and see an input cup full of blood mixed in with your urine. You'll bleed a little bit (about the same as you would during the first couple days of your period) throughout your stay in the hospital, but nothing like the first time you get up to use the restroom.
I am not going to lie and say that C-section recovery is easy, because it's not. As they will tell you over and over again in the hospital, you are having "major abdominal surgery," and after it's over you will completely understand why they say that. The first two days are REALLY tough. You will need someone to help you with almost everything, including getting up and walking to the bathroom. Within 24 hours after your surgery, you should be able to stand up (if only for a few seconds and while holding onto something), and within 48 hours, you should be able to walk short distances (very, very slowly like an old woman, but still!). Don't be surprised if walking down the hall completely wipes you out. Recovery from a cesarean is a really slow process, so it's all about doing things in baby steps.
DURING YOUR HOSPITAL STAY
Just a couple of weird things that you need to be prepared for during the three or four days you're in the hospital... First off, while it's a little embarrassing and gross, if you're not comfortable "tooting" in front of your husband and mother (or anyone else who may be there for an extended period of time), you need to get that way real fast! During a C-section, air gets kinda "trapped" inside your body; your digestive track is also really sluggish and slow due to pregnancy, so you'll have more gas on your tummy than usual. The nurses will give you medicine to help it come out, so don't be surprised if you sound like a college frat boy in the hospital! (And although it's the antithesis of feminine, you really shouldn't hold it in. You literally feel better almost INSTANTLY every time you pass gas, so just prepare your husband and whoever else is going to be there with you and don't look back!)
Also, sneezing, coughing, and laughing are not so fun in the first few days. They don't really hurt; they just feel weird as a result of having to use your inner abdominal muscles while they're still healing. It's kind'of a sensation like your insides are going to fall out on the floor (even though obviously they won't!). Holding your tummy whenever you sneeze, cough, or laugh really hard helps a lot.
ABOUT YOUR STAPLES
Before you leave the hospital, they'll take out your staples. I worried about this the entire time I was in the hospital, even though everyone assured me it wouldn't hurt at all. DO NOT worry about this! I PROMISE it does not hurt in the least. You can barely even feel it. After taking out your staples, the doctor will put little butterfly bandages across your incision. You'll take them off yourself (if they don't fall off themselves) after about 10 days.
ABOUT THE FIRST NIGHT AT HOME
The first night home is pretty tough. It's not so much that your incision or insides hurt; it's that the muscles you've been using to compensate for your out-of-commission abdominal muscles are not used to working so hard and thus are tired and sore and won't relax. Your brain kinda won't let you relax either. Jeff & I called it "mental pain." I remember crying to Jeff that I was hurting, but after talking it out with him, I realized that lying there in bed nothing really physically hurt; I just had the sensation that someone was going to run in and hit me in the tummy right where my incision was, and it made me panic. If you ever go through this, just stay calm and try to talk some rational sense into yourself (e.g., no one is going to come in and do anything to your tummy, etc.).
ABOUT AT-HOME RECOVERY
I can't tell you how long it takes to fully recover, because I haven't fully recovered yet (and it will have been six weeks since my surgery by tomorrow evening). Like I said, it's a very slow, baby steps process. The first four weeks are obviously the toughest; you just get a little bit better and a little bit closer to back to normal each and every week. Baby yourself a lot, and don't expect to do ANYTHING else except take care of yourself and the baby during your first week. If your mom or mother-in-law is able to come and stay with you, I would totally take her up on the offer. It's REALLY important for you to get some rest in your first two weeks following delivery--and especially after having surgery, because your body heals itself during sleep.
You'll bleed less and less the longer you're home, but even I am continuing to spot every now and then. Your doctor will probably go over all of the dos and don'ts with you, but the basic don'ts are:
- No lifting anything over 10 lbs. for the first six weeks
- No tampons or sex for the first six weeks
- No baths for the first two weeks (showers are fine, but baths aren't until your incision heals up a little bit more)
- No swimming pools or hot tubs for the first six weeks
- No ab exercises for the first eight weeks
THINGS YOU'LL NEED WHEN YOU COME HOME...
- A "sheet rope." Have your husband create something you can use to pull yourself up to a sitting position when you're lying down in bed. Assuming he will not want you to wake him up every time you need to go to the bathroom or tend to the baby, you'll need some way to hoist yourself up to a sitting position when you're lying down because you won't be strong enough to sit up on your own during your first few nights at home. (It's easy in the hospital because they have those cool adjustable beds that tilt up and down, but once you get home, you're on your own!) Jeff tied a bunch of sheets together and put one end beneath our footboard and the other up by my head. It was like a big rope. Worked wonders during those first few nights at home.
- Pillows. During your first few nights, you need all the pillows you can get for propping. I was surrounded by pillows during my first few nights at home. They made a HUGE difference in my comfort level.
- Granny panties. Assuming you don't wear Granny panties normally, you will want to get at least six pairs of high-cut, natural-waist panties in a much bigger size than you normally wear. Otherwise, you will come home and try to put on your regular underwear and they will hit you directly across your incision. Not comfy. I'm still wearing my Grannies and plan to continue until my incision is 100% healed.
- High-waist pants. If you're like me, practically all of your pants are low-rise, which means they will hit you directly across your incision, and in the beginning, you will be much too sensitive for this. Wearing pants that rub up against my incision STILL isn't comfortable for me, so even if you're not quite as much of a baby as I am, I can guarantee that your normal pants won't feel good in the first two weeks. My advice is to go to Academy and get some sweat pants, scrub pants, etc. in a much bigger size than you normally wear so that you can wear them up above your belly button (like an old woman). It may not be the most attractive look, but I promise you will thank me for this.
- Ocean Spray Cran-Grape Juice. It's gross, I know, but after you've had a C-section, it's really, really hard to go to the bathroom (like, #2). You can't use your ab muscles to bear down and push things out the way you normally would. This stuff is a natural stool softener, so two glasses of this stuff a day not only keeps you from getting constipated (something you REALLY want to avoid with a cesarean), it also make it a lot easier to go when you've gotta go.
- Maxi pads. You may already have some of these around your house, but I didn't. Stock up on maxi pads and pantyliners to protect yourself from bleeding after delivery for about three or so weeks (possibly more).
- Hydrogen peroxide. My doctor said to keep my incision clean and dry. I'm too big of a baby to touch my incision and wash it with soap, so here's what I do to make sure it stays clean: After I take a shower, I pat it dry. I get back in the shower with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a mirror, lean back a little, and, using the mirror to see what I'm doing, let the hydrogen peroxide spill down my incision. It bubbles out any infection or dirty areas of the incision. Then I just pat dry with Kleenex. It's a great, pain-free way to keep your incision clean.
- Tylenol. Seems obvious, but make sure you have a great big bottle of it nearby. You will be going through Tylenol like nobody's business! :-)
The best advice I can give you is to lean on your husband for support. Guys will show a strength that you didn't know they had when you lean on them in this type of situation. If you expect them to be hands-on and help, they will rise to the occasion. Or at least mine did.
Mine was wonderful. He didn't mind when I woke him up like nine times to help me to the bathroom on my second night in the hospital. He applied pantyliners when I was too sore to bend down and pulled up underwear when I was too weak to do it on my own. He insisted that I was beautiful when I know I looked absolutely horrendous, and he always waited for me to put on my make-up and brush my hair before we went to see Harper because he knew it would make me feel better. When a nurse was so mean to me that I literally cried--and cried hard--he WENT OFF on the charge nurse and demanded that she assign someone else to be responsible for my care. He made things funny and fun at a time when I really needed them to be; although initially painful, difficult, and upsetting, the task of pumping breastmilk actually became a little entertaining once he insisted that we start betting on which breast would "win." He comforted me when I cried and assured me that everything was going to be OK when I wasn't so sure. He was my strength throughout the entire thing, and I'll never forget it.
Lean on yours this way. You'll come out not knowing how you could've possibly done it without him.
No comments:
Post a Comment