What side effects did you not expect when you had you cs? I am due to have An elective cs in 4 weeks and of course alllll the stories are coming out! I have had one person tell me how her legs swelled up like balloons and another who was shaking so much from the spinal that she couldn't hold baby. So I got me wondering what I could possibly expect to feel once the cs is complete - obviously besides the pain
I had the shaking and also the swelling in my feet which was worse than the shaking because it lasted for days. Overall I found having a CS quite managable, mine was an emergency CS so I didn't know what to expect at all. The thing that sticks in my mind was how long it took me to get up to DS the first couple of nights in hospital because of how sore my tummy muscles were, so not as in any great pain just very, very sore muscles that made it hard for me to respond to DS and at the hospital I was in partners were not able to spend the night.
I had the shaking, like I was cold during theatre but other than that nothing for me, my recovery was great.
I went into theatre early evening & my DD was born just after 6pm. I had a cathetar in overnight & was on hourly OBS for most of the night/early morning. DD had to be bought into me for feeds. I was up, showered & dressed by 9am the next morning, t'fered into a double bed room & pain was managed with panadol forte. I had no issues with my scar or getting up to my DD.
Obviously everyone is different & I guess it is important to plan in case you don't have a good recovery.
I've had two c/s. I has the shaking for both, but the swelling only after the second. I also had bad shoulder tip pain. Nothing that stopped me holding my babies, BF or tending to them. I was up and showered early the next morning both times. I recommend taking all analgesia offered in the first couple of days so that you can get moving and stand up straight. Good luck!
I didn't expect that tightening/holding my core muscles *wouldn't* hurt, but it didn't, and it helped to get me standing up straight. I rememebr the physio came in and said "tighten your core muscles and it'll help you stand up straight and it'll help stop the pulling down on the scar". And my face went ARE YOU KIDDING ME! It seriously felt like the LAST thing I wanted to do, and the last thing that would help me stand up straight or feel less pullig/pain, but it was right. The more I held my core muscles in the easier it was to stand and move and pick up DD.
The thing I didn't expect was how difficult it was to twist and reach - the first night was really difficult as I wasn't out of bed yet (she was born late afternoon) and every time she cried my mummy instincts kicked in and I just wanted to hold her but some *****y stupid nurse had moved her cot out of arms length and no one was responding to my buzzer so I tried to reach over and almost fell out of bed, and I was so sore and tender I just cried.
Mostly I felt blessed relief - I was so so happy to be holding a baby when I thought i would never be able to "do" a birth ever again. The staff were fantastic and very reassuring, the actual procedure was handled really well, I had no shakes or nausea or anything (and if you do, you should tell the anaesthetist so they can adjust the meds).
For the first 24 hours afterwards I itched uncontrollably from the morphine-based anaesthetic, even my eyeballs felt itchy. Nasty agency nurse wouldn't hand over the antihistamine when it was at its worst in the middle of the night. Mind you I was so high from pressing the PCA button constantly it didn't matter very much at the time. But with subsequent surgeries I've mentioned it and they've given me something else instead.
I had the swelling - was still swollen so much that I left hospital barefoot. Take all the pain relief they offer, and as soon as you can get out of bed and move around, take short walks - I found that really helped.
I had the shaking as well with my first (had a spinal). Second no shaking as it was a GA. I much preferred the recovery from the GA, but then I had not laboured as long second time around.
i had the shakes and a bit of nausea - but i hadn't slept more than an hour at a stretch for about three days and had been contracting (induced) for nearly 18 hours when i went into theatre at 4.30am - so i put a lot of that down to exhaustion moreso than the actual meds/procedure.
I gave birth at around 4.45, was back on the ward by 5.45, and feeding dd by 6.30. catheter was out again by 1030 and i was up and walking around the room as soon as i could after that. I felt significantly less pain than i expected. i would have been happy with nothing but panadol for pain management after the surgery - but i'd had previous surgery to my ovaries as well as ivf and resultant complications that left me quite uncomfortable, so i wonder if maybe it was because, in comparison, it didn't feel so bad. i felt more stiff, like i'd worked hard in the garden during the day, and then not cooled my muscles down the right way and strained them! probably the only thing that bugged me (and hurt) was the drain bottle that kept dropping off the edge of the bed. oh, and the clexane injections to stop blood clots - but i'm not sure if that's normal or just because i'm a larger lass - they were annoying more than anything! i also had pressure stockings on my lower legs to prevent the swelling, and they suggested i keep using them til about 10 days post partum (from memory)
my milk was slow coming in, which was suggested may have been due to the c/s (it may have also been the exhaustion from the failed induction or from the fact i have pcos) so hubby stayed either very late or overnight each night i was in so that he could help settle dd and let me sleep in between very frequent feeds to encourage it to come in. my only suggestion to you is to get yourself as much support as you can to help establish breastfeeding if that is your wish. i know at one point i was given an ultimatum, that if my milk hadn't come in by a certain time, they'd HAVE to give DD formula - so i set an alarm and put her on the breast very frequently to help with that. had i not had support (from DH and a couple of BB friends via text) i might have felt it all too hard on top of the induction, and given in - but i told the nurse to pull her head in and just pushed through - and 3+ years later, DD is still feeding!
oh, just thinking of when i came home - i had minimal post partum bleeding when i got home (day 4) and for the next week or more - and then it started again and i ended up passing a very large clot (bigger than DH's fist) - when i rang the midwives at hospital, they said it's quite common for a c/s mumma to have similar happen as they are essentially cleaned out post-partum during the surgery, and may end up with a clot at the cervix which means the blood pools. it scared the bejeepers out of me - would have been nice of them to warn me!
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Besides the pain....
ARE YOU KIDDING ME! It seriously felt like the LAST thing I wanted to do, and the last thing that would help me stand up straight or feel less pullig/pain, but it was right. The more I held my core muscles in the easier it was to stand and move and pick up DD.
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