C Section recovery- is this normal???

[yetihed]

I had an emergency c-section 9 weeks ago, had an infection at the time and again a few weeks after. I am still having the odd bit of pain and discomfort and am paranoid some permament damage has been done. How long do symptoms normally last? What was it like for the rest of you section-ers? Are there any clues that something has gone wrong?

pain and discomfort to a certain degree is normal, you have had major abdominal surgery ! also an infection might delay healing. As long as your scar is closed , dry, not oozing, no weeping then all should be well. of course you can go back and be checked out by your GP if you are concerned.

bump

but thanks chicken!

I didn't really have any pain, but I did have egg sized lumps at each end of the scar. I went to the GP and he said they would go down - which they did.

He was really good about my worries, but it did make me realise that the hospital didn't really tell me what were normal or abnormal post operative pain/symptoms.

If you are worried, go and see your GP.

Oh yes, I had pains and twinges for more than a year after my emergency section. The scar tissue is tight and if you pull on it (eg twist sharply), it may hurt a little. Other than little niggles like that, I was perfectly normal. My em cs was probably relatively violent - I don't remember because it was such a crash that they had to knock me out right away with GA and did not have time to put in a spinal. From the time the decison was made to do a cs to the time dd was whisked out, it took 11 mins!

But it does get better over time. I am sure by 2 years the twinges were gone

I had an elective 2nd time around, and healed much better. It is 14 mths since and I even let my dcs bounce on my lap!

I was mortified I ended up with an em cs the first time round and terribly chicken about operations. Prior to that, I had never been in hospital before and the worst procedure I had was having my wisdom teeth out under local.

So I was also very freaked out by my scar for a long time and a bit sad about the twinges. But then, with time, I realised that hey, it was all in my mind and all in all, I was in remarkably good shape, particularly down below. So chose an elective the 2nd time round.

likewise i had pain and discomfort for a while. now 6 months later and still have twinges, plus it itches.

9 weeks still early. outside scar may be healed but the inside will still be healing.
try to take it as easy as you can. i did too much lifting and got backache. your stomach muscles will take time to recover.

congrats on your little one.

I think this is completely normal. I had some mild pain and twinges for at least six months afterwards (not constant, but often came on if I did a lot or moved suddenly) - am now 16 months on and scar is still very itchy at times, but no pain any more. My doctor told me that as the internal scar heals it can form adhesions to other bits inside you, and this can cause a bit of intermittent pain for a while as you heal.