Restitched

[ouchouchow]

I had my baby 10 months ago - failed ventouse, forceps, third degree tear (3b). I was left with a stingy band of scar tissue near the entrance of my vagina which made sex painful, so the gynaecologist recommended a modified Fenton's Procedure to cut it out, which I had done on Monday under local anaesthetic.

The operation itself wasn't too bad and I was so relieved to end up with a local rather than general anaesthetic and get out of hospital and back to my still breastfed baby within 2.5 hours.

However my period arrived12 hours after the surgery, so I'm struggling to keep the stitches clean and dry, and I have agonising period pains - actually worse than the pain from the op at the moment!

Has anyone else had this sort of op, and what was your recovery like? There's very little online about this, and I feel as if I'm the only one!

I was offered this operation after a 4th degree tear with my DS but havent had it done yet as i wanted to finish ruining my body having babies first. I was told by my consultant that recovery wise it would be 3 days of agony, then about a week to 10 days discomfort and then by 3 weeks post op back to 'normal' and able to have sex.

It hasn't been agony for me so far, so hopefully that's encouraging, craving. I've been taking nurofen but not felt desperate for it.

It's hard to imagine feeling anything approaching normal in 3 weeks though. It would be nice if that proves to be the case! They suggested waiting 4 weeks to me, but the mere thought makes me wince.

I've seen other threads where people have been told to wait till they'd finished having children before having the op, but none of the docs that I saw suggested that. They didn't say anything about future deliveries and I forgot to ask but I'd be tempted to go for an ELCS if there's a next time - not an easy option, I know, but not sure I could bear any more tearing and cutting and stitching down below.

I know what you mean about it being a very short time to be 'normal' again. Obviously don't rush anything. I had a skin tag removed from my perineum and that only took a couple of weeks to be completely pain free.

I think the waiting until you finished having kids thing is more to do with any other problems you may have. I have a prolapse as well and after many discussions with gynae consultants we decided it was best to wait and have everything fixed all at once.

I have just had my second (and last) DC a few weeks ago and had ELCS which is much easier recovery than from my first delivery which was forceps, episiotomy, shoulder dystocia, pph and was very traumatic. Most people with 3rd or 4th degree tears are offered elcs, or are easily able to request one as in my case they didn't want to risk tearing again as I've healed quite well and they cant guarantee such a good repair second time around.