Adhesions after 2nd degree tear

[cardamomginger]

Hi everyone,
Had a second degree tear that became badly infected and opened up. Saw gynae on Friday and she told me that the wound is still partially open and I have adhesions forming which will cause problems unless . She has told me to do perineal massage with local anaesthetic gel [scared face!] to try to thin them and stop any more forming. Wondering if anyone out there has had similar experience and how things ended up healing. Quick rant to finish if you don't mind: I AM SO SICK OF ALL OF THIS - HAVE REFLUX BABY TOO AND THERE ARE DAYS WHERE I JUST HATE EVERY SECOND!!! OK. Breathing deeply. Feel a bit better.

keep breathing cardamom. Its very hard in the early days. I had similar probs to you, there were many times it was painful just to stand, but obviously to look after ds i just had to push on. Try to do sth for yourself every day, even if its just a 5 min bath, or reading the paper or magazine while feeding. And hold onto the fact that it will get better.

What do the adhesions look like? Did she use the term 'granulation' to describe them?

What gel did she suggest? Is it instillagel or lidocaine? Both are harmless and will help manage any pain you have down there anyway.

I dont know about the perineal massage idea, am intrigued by it, bc the excess growth of granulation tissue is what will obstruct healing in your wound. For me the tissue had to be cauterised 4 times and cut out under local anaesthetic once, but eventually wound healed.

Actually on day 16 postnatal i had a gynae dr rupture granulation tissue with a gauze, so the advice you got makes logical sense, as i guess youre basically stopping any granulation before it becomes too 'strong' and requires more invasive intervention as ive described.

It took 5 months to be living a normal life again. Youll get there too.

Thanks Muslimah - as well as for your posts on other threads. I always benefit from reading what you write - just sorry that you have become so experienced in this! Am using instillagel. I have to say doing perineal massage when things are still open in pretty scary!! She also said to slap on aloe vera gel on a regular basis. Am almost 6 weeks postnatal, but things have been very infected so I think that they have only recently started to heal properly. When she examined me she ruptured the tissue, so I hope this will help. She didn't mention granulation tissue - I'll ask her when I see her in 2 weeks. The good news is that my urethral tear is healing well and doesn't need any additional treatment. Just keep plugging on I guess! Hope you are completely better now. X

thanks for your message, its nice to hear that my comments have been of help. writing on mumsnet posts such as these has been great therapy for me actually, if i can just help others who have had the same thing as me it makes me feel something good can come out of what happened.

i guess with the perineal massage its not the same as the kind youd do antenatally for about 10 minutes or so, i guess just a quick rub is what she means? i have no idea though as ive not come accross this. id love to know if it helps.

i asked about the granulation as i'm guessing that's what's meant by the 'adhesions'. granulation tissue is basically dark red and lumpy. it grows as part of the healing process but with a large wound often the body produces too much and then it causes a physical obstruction to the open wound healing.

i tried aloe vera gel, it stung, but it may have been because i used an old tube (about 3 years old...), and in principle it is very good for healing. on ebay you can buy plants- the fresher the aloe you use the better as i understand it.

as for me, i'm pretty much better, have been pain free for a few weeks now. tried to start some exercise last week and the pain came back, now i've stopped the pain has stopped, so i think my body is not ready for that yet. but id rather live a relatively normal life and hold off the exercise for now than be in pain again.

well i started the massage and thought, what the heck am i supposed to be doing?!?? i clarified it with her today and she said to do exactly the antenatal kind of massage where you stretch out the vaginal opening. had been hoping it was somthing rather more external! never mind - better than more surgery! she wants it 3 times a day, if i can tolerate it (and find the time with a reflux baby ) for 5 mins a session. i've found the aloe vera ok - dh tried to foist some rubbishy old tube full of bright green muck and couldn't understand why i insisted on buying a new tube . so pleased you are feeling better. hope that in time you'll be back to exercising again - exercise can be so important to feel like you are in charge of your body again, a feeling that is much needed at the moment. will post back here and let you know how i get on. interestingly, at my 6 week check today, gp, with no prompting or suggestion from me, said she would support an elcs if i have another baby.... too early to think about anything like that and have no idea what i would want to do, but hearing that has helped me to relax... xxx

hi there

im so glad you managed to get clarification on what to do, it's a pretty sensitive area so you want to make sure you're doing it properly! it does sound scary tbh now you've described exactly what to do, but it also sounds logically like very good advice, and i hope it works (cant wait to hear from you if it does! pm me after a while or post on here )

yes i expect it was the age of my aloe gel that caused the stinging

you're so right about exercise affecting how you feel, i was absolutely loving it when i did and am very sad that i had to stop. dh and my hv said to me to maybe just do less rather than stop, which makes sense but i guess i kind of freaked out when i started getting pain cos i just thought i don't want to be in that place again. i think i'll give it a month or so and then pace myself a bit more (maybe starting on half an hour of wii fit every day was a bit much...)

take care x

hi mulimah - have sent you pm with update
xx