C/S elective for previous c/s, arrived 7 am and met the anaesthetist...Told
him of problems with last spinal block (it took 7 attempts) he bragged about
how great he was and if he got it in he wanted a good bottle of Red...
Went up tomy room, settled in, showered and got ready for theatre...
Took him 3 goes and I told him I didn't feel numb, last time I went
completely numb for 6 hours...he did the frozen ice on my skin test to prove
my legs didn't feel the cold and even though I could move my legs a bit and
felt the catheter go in I was supposedly numb enough not to feel pain....
Yeah right, it was the foulest most painful distressing experience of my
life, I felt the cutting in but just as a scratch and felt hands prodding
about in me, ok gross but not painful at first but before long I had massive
abdominal pain I was really confused and didn't know what I was feeling. By
this time It was 1/2 over and he supposedly gave me something in my IV to
help the pain....next thing I have 4 people diving on my stomach pushing my
uterus ( I found out later cranky pants(CP) had moved while he was trying to
get him out and had gone transverse and up high and he was fishing about
trying to pull him out) Now seeing this big anaesthetist dive over my face
to push on my stomach was scary enough, I knew something wasn't right and
the pain sure wasn't right...anyway out comes CP and they hold up my head to
watch im get pulled out...Like I was interested, NOT! They took him over to
the resus bed and The nurse in me is calling out"he isn't very pink" the
midwife goes to turn the oxygen on to find the cylinder was empty, luckily
he cried abit more and pinked up, meanwhile I'm crying in pain and watching
them fuss about...the little resus bed wasn't even turned on, I had to tell
them to turn it on so he wouldn't get cold...then I get a massive chest pain
they put oxygen on me and try and calm me down, between my crushing chest
pain and abdominal cramping pain, me crying, DH looking helpless they ask me
if I want to hold my baby....You have to be kidding right? They try telling
me the chest pain is some kind of pooling effect, whatever that means and
I'd be ok it had to do with the layer they were sewing up. I couldn't
actually feel sewing, or anything as low as the scar, just from the top
retractor upwards. The Dr asks if I still want my tubes tied and I scream "
well I'm not coming back"...anyway it feels like the longest hour of my
life...off to recovery where they keep giving me fentanyl every 10 mins
without much effect, finally they give me my PCA which I'd been asking for
for the last 40mins and I start pressing it, spent an hour and 1/2 in
recovery ( not like the 20mins with DD's birth)...I go back to the ward and
they give me some indocid and finally I feel some relief...I pressed my PCA
more in the first two hours than I did the entire time with DD...
CP was about 3-4 hours old before I felt well enough to hold him, I'd given
up the idea of early feeding but his blood sugar was good at 4 hours of age
so we just waited for him to wake a few hours later and whamo....could the
little guy latch! I was in shock...the one good thing was my boy was healthy
and could feed like a champ...
the next few days were a blurr and the whole theatre experience was just
overwhelming, the pain over the next 5 days slowly improved but I was still
experiencing alot of pain. It was so different to my first c/s where I
sprang out of bed the next day and never looked back, it's only today a week
later I am feeling better, I still need help to get out of bed and can only
lay flat on my back....
A friend of mine who is a DR says that people who experience alot pain in
the first 6 hours post surgery feel more pain later and have a slower
recovery than those who don't, they have a heightened pain response so that
may explain it, he also feels they probably went one vertebrae too low and
thats why I felt such abdominal pain. Needless to say there will be no gifts
of wine.
so I have had two vastly opposite birth experiences, 1, the easy c/s and
trouble feeder and now the nightmare c/s and the best feeder...I'll never
minimise a c/s again...and luckily I never have to have one again.Most
importantly though I have two beautiful healthy children.
Alissa