Piles, potential blood clot, creeky knees & serious clumsiness. Anybody else gone to the dogs after giving birth!!??

[Nezzi]

Just wondering if it's just me
I'm 38 and had my 1st DC 5 months ago. Before I had him I was fine, no physical problems at all. Since giving birth (G&A, straightforward with a handful of stitches) I've not been the same. I feel like an old woman. My knees creek almost everytime I get up or down, I need to have 2nd lot of blood tests 'cause I've got a low count of something, white cells I think, which could indicate all manner of problems but coupled with a numb patch on my right calf could be some kind of clotting.
Piles; mild they may be but who needs them?!
And I seem to have lost all sense of spatial awareness, I keep bumping in to things and misjudging stuff. big sigh
I could go on but I'm sure you get the picture.
Is it just me?

No, it's not just you. Everything seems a bit off kilter since I had DS 4.5 months agi

ago, even

Can I ask what age you are Devon?
I'm so unimpressed with the whole thing.
Ante-natally, the care was great, someone is always checking to see if you are ok and there's always someone to call if you need to. I though the NHS did me proud.
Post-natally, who cares?! I had my 6 week check with my GP, a total waste of time. "Are you ok, which contraceptives are you going to use, let me feel your tummy?" that was more or less it. Nobody has said a thing to me since. Surely the post-natal check should be more thourough and maybe another check after the 6 week one

I'm 27 so I was expecting to 'bounce back' to normal really but health wise it's all been a bit rubbish.
I've noticed my knees aren't quite what they used to be either! but it may have something to do with all the crawling around on the floor I do to amuse DS and I won't go into the piles luckily they are pretty much gone now.
And somehow having a baby has made me susceptible to bronchitis and chest infections which was never the case before.

As for clumsyness, I think I've always been that way but I notice it so much more when I'm carrying DS.

My six week check was combined with DS's so he was thouroughly checked over and I was given a prescription for the pill. I'd had a emergency c-section and my scar wasn't even looked at (though i guess it had been endlessly checked my MW in the 1st few days)

Hopefully some others will turn up in a bit and let us know it's not just us!

It's rubbish.
I can't believe they didn't check your scar again but saying that, nobody has checked my tear & repair either. When I asked about contraception, the Dr asked me which brand of Pill I wanted how was I supposed to know, there's loads of 'em and it had been years since I had been on the Pill. When she then chose one for me I asked her why she had picked that particular one and she said "Why not?" surely a little guidance wasn't too much to expect!?
I've started taking cod liver oil tablets for my knees, they seem to be helping. You're probably right about the extra crawling activities we do, lifting and carrying too, it's must be a shock to our systems.
Anybody else want to moan??

Nezzi
I'm 39 and had ds2 10 months ago - think I can safely say it has been my longest ever time of prolonged illness... probably not what you wanted to hear!

I also had a dvt about a month after ds2 was born so have been taking warfarin ever since for that - it's a fairly serious thing if you do have a clot, are they doing anything to actually check if you do or don't have a clot?

And the achy knees - check that too, felt more like I was going on about 70, really painful to get up or down, do stairs, bizarrely was ok walking once I had got started but it hurt to get going. seems to be gradually going but I still get caught out. I had bad spd with both pgs, I wonder if that was anything to do with it and loose ligaments around the knee as a result...

tiredness - zonked all the time, not helped by ds2 waking 3 times a night still for feeds. made worse by having thyroid problems which are bad enough to monitor rather than do anything about as they still come in 'post pregnancy effect' rather than being 'real and long lasting'. And googling warfarin for the dvt I discovered that lethargy and fatigue are common side effects, albeit more anecdotally than ones that doctors mention.

weight gain - I am now heavier than I was at 9months pregnant . have been trying to eat really healthily and am still breast feeding (which lots of people find helps them to lose weight) and yet still the pounds pile on. I even had a d&v bug so had nothing but a few bits of toast over the course of an entire week and I was breastfeeding - was horrified to discover that even then I had managed to put on nearly half a stone. I have no idea how, am wondering if it is the warfarin again. but everybody else I know that got the bug lost about 1/2 - 1 stone.

piles - don't have those but am wondering if I have a hernia as I can feel a strange sensation like having a pingpong ball in my groin (although nothing physically there when I try to feel it to see what is there).

bug resistance - have got every bug that has come within a hundred yards of my house it seems - I've had more antibiotics in the last year than in the last decade previously. sick bugs, flu-y bugs, coughs, colds, conjunctivitis, swollen glands, all sorts of weird things that I hadn;t heard of.

clumsiness - oh yes. and silly things like mmisjudging feeding myself and ending up with food or toothpaste down my top, never ever noticed doing that before. guess I am ttrying to say little thing clumsiness as well as big clumsiness!

mind going - just can't do sums in my head any more or think of the right word or remember things that I would have never had a problem with before. see 'bug resistance' above - have been sitting here for 5 mins trying to remember what the proper word for that is!

so yes, you're not alone. sorry this has gone on a big, hadn't meant it to be quite such a big moan.

and yes, 6 week check is pretty useless. wouldn't mind so much if you were able to go back at any point and say that you've had a baby, you feel rubbish, and they had some magic wand that they could wave and make you feel better . or even just listen and agree that you are feeling rubbish and give you some moral support if they can't do anything...

good luck, hope that things work themselves out for you soon and you get to feel better and enjoy mummyhood!

oops. that didn't just go on a bit, that went on way too long

Don't forget, pregnancy disrupts the immune system to prevent automatic miscarriage of the 'foreign body', so it might take time to sort itself out back to normal. Having said that, when dd was 2 felt if my body had gone into auto destruct mode and 5 years later, and 6 stone heavier, found out it was an underactive thyroid. Might be worth having this checked out.

Wow, zipzap that was a long un! Only joking, was good to hear from you

I've had 2nd blood test to check levels and will get results next week, I'll speak with the Dr then. Fingers crossed it's not a clot but then what else is it...?

I completely forgot about the forgetfullness (the irony) it's becoming a joke in my house, I struggle remembering people's names, what I went to the shops for, even what I went upstairs for. It's ridiculous
Underactive thyroid tb, what are the symptoms of that?