I hated hearing this because I had one my first pregnancy and recovery was a breeze. I certainly didn't feel like I had just had major abdominal surgery. So as serious as the surgery is, this time I wasn't quite as scared.
But I'm having surgery side effects now. :(
Last night, I woke up about 2:00 am to feed Hadley. She ate for 20 mins on one side, but only like 5 mins on the other. My left breast loves to be engorged, so it was extremely painful that she didn't empty that one. I went ahead and pumped to help out, but it was still really hurting. By the time I made it to bed, I had started getting chills and I was freezing. I got into bed, and cuddled up next to Andrew hoping his body heat would help warm me up. I was laying on my left side. I all of a sudden started getting severe chills. My whole body was shaking and I started getting body aches. I asked Andrew to check me and he said I didn't feel warm at all, so no fever. He ended up having to get me a thick fleece blanket that did absolutely nothing to warm me up. Eventually, I realized it could be the start of a breast infection or a clogged duct or something. So I flipped from my side to my back, hoping getting off my left breast would help. The body shakes went away, but I still felt feverish with body aches. I eventually fell asleep.
About an hour later, I woke up, still chilly, still feverish, and I noticed my pajama bottoms felt wet around the elastic waistband. I woke up Andrew to check me out and sure enough, my incision had started bleeding. There were several fairly large blood spots on my pj pants. So, with his help I changed and put some dressing on it and then we took my temp: 102.
I called my on call doctor (about 4:30 - 5:00 am at this point) and when she called back, she said it could be a breast infection, an incision infection or both.
Since I already had an appointment that day, they just moved it up a few hours to see me sooner.
The doctor said it looked like a clogged duct, which could be the beginning of a breast infection, but more importantly I had a hematoma behind my incision, which had started to drain. It could drain a lot more. She started to try to drain it herself, but it hurt soo bad that she stopped and told me it would take care of itself - either drain or my body would absorb it. But this has me susceptible to infections. So for either possibility of an infection, I'm to take antibiotics and see the doctor again next week.
So, remember, that c-sections really are abdominal surgery, which means they come with their fair share of complications and side effects. Not quite sure if I'll be having major abdominal surgery in the future by choice...
HOWEVER, this does explain why it's been so painful this entire time. And it just got more painful when I had to start slowing down on my pain medication. So, I feel much better knowing that I'm not just a big baby this time around - there was really something else going on causing more pain.
Honestly, I was expecting this easy breezy (beautiful Cover Girl - couldn't help myself) - easy breezy c-section like I had last time. Kind of a drag I didn't quite get that experience. But today I was thinking, It's really hard to complain too much - we are so blessed with two beautiful girls. How'd we get so lucky?? :)
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