Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

C Section Recovery

39 replies

Nichola2310 · 05/09/2018 22:30

Hi, just wondering how I’m doing at recovery. I had a planned c section on Tuesday lunchtime. I only stood out of the bed twice on Tuesday and the catheter was removed early Wednesday morning. Therefore I managed numerous bathroom trips Wed but I’m extremely hunched over and in quite a lot of pain. I had vicious after pains for a few hours today. Tomorrow eve (thurs) is my potential discharge time and I don’t feel at all ready. I haven’t been able to lift my baby in/out of his cot either.

I know it’s important to try to keep moving, so I’ve really done my best.

Does my recovery sound slow though?

OP posts:

Smurfybubbles · 06/09/2018 20:18

Hi OP, I had my section at 7pm and was up out of bed by 7am the next day. When I first stood up I felt like my insides were going to fall out and I was terrified to stand up straight. The key to recovery is standing tall as much as you can, avoid hunching over! Try walk as much as you can, I spent the whole day after my c section pottering around the ward.

Watch your painkillers as they tend to offer codeine which will constipate you, not ideal!! Also you will more than likely have trapped wind after the op. I took fybrogel sachets and drank peppermint tea to move things along and to help with the trapped wind.

You'll find you'll cope better at home in your own environment but again keep moving to help reduce the risk of blood clots. I managed a little walk to my corner shop 5 mins away on day 3 and felt like Wonder Woman.

Take it easy but keep moving if you can and congratulations!

Yarnswift · 07/09/2018 15:44

I also had severe hip/back pain before both sections - the pain of that was actually worse (by far) than the wounds. The problem for me was that what little core strength I had was altered by the section and that plus the instant weight distribution change was absolute agony. It was like raw bone grating together. I also lost 2l of blood, needed a larger incision due to placenta placement and had the anaesthesia fail so I was a bit of wreck after!

Move is the best advice. Take your painkillers on schedule and push for more if you’re still in pain. The pain of the actual wound I could deal with but the hips and back was really bad so I requested, and got, further painkillers.

Try to get up at least once an hour in the day and do a lap of the room plus walk e etc time you go to the loo, leg stretches and bends etc. The key is to do as much as you can without going too far. Stand up as straight as you can.

I needed a week in hospital for both sections and I’m still being seen as an outpatient for complications after the second. Everyone’s recovery varies.

Best of luck - a specialist osteopath did a lot to help me when the hip and back pain didn’t resolve even months later.

The first ten days I felt abysmal - after that recovery really picked up for me.

Original poster

Nichola2310 · 07/09/2018 18:38

Thank you yarnswift. Now that I’m a couple of days on the pain from the section is more than manageable. However it is the sciatica that is keeping me awake at night, the intensity is awful. I finally saw the consultant today who agreed to give me 7 days worth of a nerve pain medication until I can get to my own GP.

I have had a lot of wind pain and took a sachet drink yesterday to try and get things moving again. However I ended up puking a huge amount yesterday evening, which on top of everything else was very hard to bear, and I’m not sure if the drink was what upset my stomach or not.

OP posts:

rachmea2101 · 08/09/2018 04:40

Had my c section 5 days ago. They tried to get me out of bed later that day and i nearly fainted so they upped my pain relief. Next day i was up and could walk about slowly. Everytime i was getting out of bed was scary and i dont think I really prepared myself for what i would feel like after a c section. I did not realise how painful it would be as people said i would be up and about in a few days and this actually made me feel quite down and as if i wasn't trying hard enough to recover for my baby.

I am at home now and every day gets better when i take my time to get about and lift the baby.

One tip is to buy one of those litter grabbers as you wont be able to bebd for a while.

Dony be afraid to ask friends and family for advice too x

nhssecretary · 08/09/2018 12:57

I slept with pillows under my calves so I was in a sort of U shape
It really helped with the pulling sciatic pain

Have you been for a poo yet?

Original poster

Nichola2310 · 08/09/2018 20:02

I sleep with a pillow behind my knees.

Still haven’t had a bowel movement but midwife said to start drinks tomorrow if nothing has moved!

I’m now walking pretty well, and my section recovery is fine. Unfortunately the sciatica has me paralysed at times where I cannot move my leg. I’m so disappointed as I’d hoped for the whole pregnancy that the sciatica would go away once I’d delivered.

OP posts:

nhssecretary · 08/09/2018 20:51

I literally couldn't stand sometimes from the sciatica and it seemed to be exacerbated by sitting for prolonged periods
I remember being late to my husbands cousin wedding as I was clinging to the car screaming
Diazepam can help this
You need to take laxatives tonight
If you normally go to the loo every day you are seriously constipated now.
It is always neglected by hcp!!
I ended up with an impact on and an enema in a&e with someone pulling bloody poo out of my rectum.
It's always left too late.

Original poster

Nichola2310 · 08/09/2018 21:36

Oh god going to get my laxative drink now!

Sciatica is brutal and unless you’ve had it you cannot understand how debilitating it is. At times it today I’ve been able to do bits and bobs around the house, and at other times I’ve had to ask my husband to move my leg for me as I am frozen with pain.

OP posts:

nhssecretary · 09/09/2018 08:16

It's such a horrible pain as you don't know you have it until you have it :(
Did you take the laxatives
I promise you won't pop your stitches open xxx

LaPufalina · 09/09/2018 08:30

I'm having stabbing pains in one side now (section on weds) and think it's constipation I've had at least one fybogel a day, too! Can I take anything else? They gave me lactulose...

Original poster

Nichola2310 · 09/09/2018 09:33

I made the laxative drink and had sat it on the table. I then was tidying up around the house (avoiding having to drink it!) and then I went to the toilet and had a bowel movement. So I poured the drink down the sink! But it’s definitely something I’ll keep an eye on in the coming days as I’m still on cocodamol for my sciatica which can cause constipation.

Got my staples out this morning so that’s progress too.

OP posts:

StarfishSandwich · 09/09/2018 11:56

I would definitely take your lactulose LaPufalina! My DS was born via EMCS on Weds lunchtime, I’ve been taking lactulose 2 x day since Weds eve and had my bowels open twice yesterday, easily. Usually they reccomend you take it until you finish codeine or iron tablets and/or your bowel movements are back to normal.

I’ve been really, really lucky with my recovery I think. He was born at midday on Weds, I was moving around in bed quite easily by about 4 and out of bed shortly before 6. Catheter came out at midnight and I had pottered to the loo for a wee by 1.30. We were discharged Thurs lunchtime and I walked down to the car carrying DS (although to be fair I hadn’t realised quite how far away DH had parked and would probably have suggested he at least drive to the entrance if I’d known!). Fri we went for a very short walk (literally to a bench up the road and back). Have been carrying DS about, popping into the garden, to see neighbours etc. Going to visit my parents today and might try another short walk with DS in his wrap sling. I do take co-dydramol and ibuprofen fairy religiously and DH is doing absolutely everything in terms of housework. He does most nappy changes too. I basically just have to feed and relax so that definitely helps.

Roomba · 09/09/2018 12:36

Congratulations!

I had terrible sciatica when pregnant with DS1 and it definitely made recovery a lot harder after my c-section. I was advised to stand as upright as possible and move around lots, but the sciatica had me crying in agony. I couldn't use my back, hips and legs to move/bear weight and my core muscles were out of action due to the section, so I was practically immobile with pain. I remember having to buzz a midwife at 3am and beg her to move my legs for me - they were bent at the knee and I just couldn't shift slightly to move them. They hurt so much after hours of being stuck in the same position!

I will say that although my recovery was a lot slower than it was with my second section (no sciatica that time so I was walking fairly normally if tenderly after a couple of days ), after the first week I began to feel so much better every single day. If you'd told me on day 5 that I would feel how I did by day 14, I wouldn't have believed you.

Take all the pain relief you can regularly - before you need it. Try and get as upright as you can and remember that your insides really wont fall out, even if it feels like they will. And get someone to refer you for postnatal physio urgently to help with the sciatica. I can take a while to go after birth and no one takes it seriously, so be pushy!

Redken24 · 09/09/2018 12:49

Hello! Congratulations on new baby.
Remember pain meds on a timetable take them whether you feel you need them or not.

Get some lactulose - once you get the poos/wind out. So much more comfortable.

Not sure on what kind of wound you have but I was advised to wash it everyday and to use a hairdryer on low cool settin t make sure the wound was properly dry.

Use a pillow or rolled up towel when sneezing / coughing.

Depending on how your feeling it's definitely worth while to get moving xx

Flip

1 2