POST C-SECTION ADVICE

Tivaniag- oh man i am soooo sorry you have had such a terrible experience! but honestly in your case i think you are safe to wait a few more days and try a few pain relieving tips first.

If you start bleeding heavily, getting a foul smell or are literally bent over in pain all day then definitely just go see a different gynae at a different hospital. Those are pretty good signs that something is seriously wrong.

If your scar starts to appear pussy or infected, badly swollen or very red around then i would say that should indicate an infected wound.

You just had major abdominal surgery and on top of that you need to care for a newborn who is not sleeping well and an older child, you are going to be pretty uncomfortable and sore for a while and 19 days is still very early. Try to make yourself as comfortable as possible at home by making sure your bed isn't too high or too low, keep lots of pillows behind you in bed so when you get up for baby it's not such a struggle, make sure your chair or sofa is a good height for you to get in and out of without using stomach muscles because every strain will set you back a few days in mobility. Make sure you're holding a pillow or putting some type of compression over your abdomen when you laugh, cough or sneeze because a sudden jolt can pull a sore muscle.

I hope the pain goes quickly but as your not breast feeding i think maybe you should get some Pynstops or speak to your pharmasist on the strongest OTC meds and see if that doesn't help.

If I had to tell you what an ordeal I had and how I was mismanaged at the hospital I was in, you would all be shocked speechless but I am not going to go there and get worked up about it. I never got voltaren suppositories I ended up telling my husband to go buy some voltaren tabs when I was discharged. I never got any pain meds, I was supposed to go and see my gynae 10 days after the caesar to take out the steri strips covering my wound and he was on leave and I had to take it out myself! He is still on leave and I dont have a GP to see here.

Vix, thanks for that advice, I will give it a few days and see what happens. I will try the hot compress for my breast and see if it relieves some pain.

If you are getting foul smelling discharge from your V then that would definitely suggest an infection but really excessive bleeding is usually also a sign and as there has been no bleeding since day 3 i would say it's probably the sterilization that is adding to the pain.

Phone your gynae if you're worried but don't panic and stress yourself out too much.

My Dr also sent me home with synap forte but i never took one, everyones pain threshold is very different although i am surprised they didn't send you home with anything other than the suppositories just in case.

I have heard that the the sterilization makes the recovery from C-sec more painful, i also wanted to be sterilized this time round but i think I'm just going to go back and have it done once i have fully recovered.

As for 3 days bleeding that's perfectly normal, with a C-sec the Dr 'cleans' out as much debris as possible from where the placenta was attached so all you need to bleed out are the last few remaining debris that were left behind. I also only bled for 3 days post C-sec. i did have 2 seperate occasions where i had a huge gush of blood when i woke up probably around 3w and 4w but it was simply 1 day and it was over and my gynae said that was perfectly normal. I got my period back at 6w post op to the exact day even though i was BF so everyone is different.

As for the left breast pain, try using a heat pack when you get the pain, a week isn't long since your milk dried up and you can still have mild engorgement. If the breast becomes tender to touch all the time and starts to swell considerably or is particularly lumpy then i would suggest you get it checked out in case it's mastitis but if it's only occasional you may find it will clear up soon.

Yes, I agree with KarinM, rather phone your gynie, since there could be an infection, and this could be very serious!
Good luck!

I am quite surprised that your doctor didn't give you more pain meds. THey probably gave you voltaren supp.? Most people I know received a stronger pain medication like Synap forte tablets for pain management for at least the first 10 days.

With my first C-sec operation they removed a damaged fylopian tube. This operation was much much more difficult to recover from than my second c-section which was just a normal c-section. I think that the sterilisation might have added extra pain. But I am no doctor.

If the pain in the scar is of such intensity that you feel it regularly, some pain tablets should help. With my first c-sec I took pain medication for about 3 weeks after the operation, since I was really in a lot of pain. If your gynie is unhelpful, phone your GP perhaps.

If I were you, I would really phone the gynie ASAP about your symptoms. (Especially the pain in your breast). Could this be Mastitis, even though you are not breastfeeding? Maybe other ladies could be of more help regarding this.

Hi Tivaniag.... NO its not normal... I've had 2 c-sections and what your describing should not be happening. My advice is to go to your dr. TODAY still and get a check up. You might have developed and infection in the wound or some of the stitches on the inside have tore and the wound is not healing.
Its can be very dangerous, rather go see your dr. and make sure what might be wrong.

Good luck and let us know!