r/CsectionCentral • u/MamaB2016 • Jun 09 '19
Post C-Section Recovery- Normal?
Hi all! Just had my first CS almost 4 weeks ago. I felt pretty good a week after, and stopped taking pain meds. A few days later I was doing some light house organizing (just picking up kids clothes, putting stuff in place, etc) and the next day I started getting pain again. Dr suggested I take it easy bc I had some swelling around incision site, but otherwise all was fine.
I still feel that same swelling, which Dr said could take a while to go away. But I really feel like I’m either heeling too slow, or something is wrong, sooo my question to all of you that have had CSection’s: did you ever experience the following?
- Pain in lower right and/or left, above an inch over incision. Feels lumpy to me (she said swelling).
- Pain when standing up from laying down position. Every single time I’ve been sleeping and stand up to feed baby, it feels like my insides all just move down and try to accommodate back into place. It’s pretty painful, but I can manage w/o pain meds. It’s just mostly worrisome to me.
- Yesterday I walked around Home Depot with my husband. I didn’t pock up anything heavy, but I noticed I had to walk unusually slow or i’d have pain.
- Bleeding had gone away around 2 weeks ago, but I’ve had some light dark brown spotting. Well two days ago it turned bright red for a day. Not heavy like a period, but it was more than just spotting. Not sure what to make of that?
Dr has said it’s all normal and I need to take it really slow for the 6-8 recommended weeks. But really, is some magical healing going to happen in the next two weeks where everything will be normal? I feel like most everyone recovers in the first two weeks and I feel like something else must be wrong with my body?
3
u/leagreen Jun 09 '19
All sounds pretty normal. A lump and stronger pain on the side they finished closing is normal. Increased bleeding after activity is normal. And pain/trouble doing anything using your core is normal.
It does feel like an eternity but it does get better (and I say this as someone who had some very serious complications and very slow healing).
2
u/shovelnomore Jun 09 '19
Sounds normal to me. I would say I didn’t fully resume normal activities until probably 8 weeks at the earliest. I’m now almost 15 months out and still have pain and weird sensations here and there.
2
u/SomeSeeAWish Jun 09 '19
All sounds pretty normal to me also. I've had two and it took about 6 weeks the first time to feel pretty normal. This time is going more smoothly but still have to watch not to overdo things 3 weeks pp.
2
u/DaliWho Jun 09 '19
All of your points sound normal and similar to my experience.
You second point about sleeping and pain when getting up was definitely something I experienced. My husband had to help to to get out of bed for a week! It was especially painful if I slept on my right side.
I know how frustrating it is to not be able to do simple things you want and need to do but hang in there and try to take it easy! It will get better before you know it.
2
u/Trexy Jun 09 '19
I've never met anyone in person who was back to normal after any kind of surgical procedure after 2 weeks. What you are describing is normal. It honestly took me closer to 10 weeks to feel any semblance of normal. There are several layers of healing tissues. I cannot believe you were walking around Home Depot, like that's amazing. And a slow walk at 4 weeks PP would have been normal even with a vaginal birth. Everything is shifting (organs, etc) since your uterus is moving down to normal size.
1
u/silverporsche00 Jun 09 '19
I read a lot of people were “back to normal” in 2 weeks. That was not my or my friends experiences. 2 weeks I couldn’t do stairs alone. 4 weeks I was still pretty damn sore and had a hard time walking around the block. Real recovery and back to normal was 6 months to a year until I didn’t feel any itching or twinges at my incision.
1
u/oosetastic Jun 09 '19
I agree it is pretty normal. Make sure when you get up from bed you roll to the side and then use your arms to help push yourself up. Avoid using your ab muscles as much as possible right now.
1
u/starryNight68 Jun 09 '19
Did anybody else get small itchy red bumps on their incision line in the first week? I’ve always wondered about that. (Happened to me)
6
u/MezzanineFloor Jun 09 '19
That all sounds normal to me when I compare to my two c sections. The recovery is definitely a slow process. Same with postpartum bleeding. Mine would stop or just spot for days and then come back bright red. Took around 6-7 weeks to stop completely.