Recovery

It was difficult celebrating our child's monthly birthdays since in the same revelation... it was an ongoing count on the number of months since we had relations! Below I will chronicle the process from birthing a healthy baby at 39 weeks of age then enduring many months of slow recovery.

Thankfully I was blessed being able to naturally give birth to our first child. In addition to the aforementioned strategies/tools the Labor and Delivery Nurses and Obstetrician on-call were helpful.

The day after delivery an obstetrical visited me and asked about the severity of my tear. Wow, I thought... after giving birth I had no idea that as a patient I was in charge of asking how many stitches the obstetrician was including for my second degree tear and second degree episiotomy! The doctor pursued the question exploring, Well how long was he down there stitching you up... a minute, 5 - 10 minutes? Again I  meekly responded, I don't know.

Later in the night one of my nurses checked-in and asked about my level of pain, discomfort, etc. After a visual exam she shared, you definitely have some bruising! Again, I was not prepared to know what my body looked like, only focusing on my health and emotions. As you may have guessed, I was not one of the mothers in favor of having a mirror positioned to watch our child's entrance into the doctor's hands... no thank you!

Stops along my journey to recovery included detours and potholes (typical to Pittsburgh: ). Here were some of them...

• 6 week follow-up appointment: included extremely painful internal examination to yield news that I was not fully healed enough for relations nor was bum healed... possibly a fissure or hemorrhoids. I received a referral to a specialist though thankfully by the time the 4 weeks came for the appointment, an increase in fiber, water intake, and stool softener remedied my problem.
• 12 week follow-up appointment: (scheduled as my "yearly exam" for pap smear, breast exam etc.) Doctor was unsure whether the lack of stretching within insertion was a result of scar tissue or other cause. He diagnosed me with Vaginisums and responded that he sees patients with this problem 1 - 2% of his work load.  I was not prepared to be included in such a minority after joining the realm of motherhood. He expressed interest in performing Fenton's Procedure yet knew of my hesitancy for another invasive procedure. Thus, he prescribed me for physical therapy at Women's Rehabilitation Program - UPMC Centers for Rehab Services and referred me to another gynecologist who specializes in this area for a second opinion.
• Five months after delivery: I began weekly physical therapy while waiting for 2nd Opinion Doctor. Sitz baths and Kegel Exercises seemed to not help for the first, several months. The physical therapy appointments included external and internal exercises which continued to be a challenge for myself to complete.
• Six months after delivery: I visited the gynecological specialist and endured more internal examinations. This yielded a diagnosis of vaginal atrophy. After exam the doctor continued to describe the health of my organs, your vagina looks like it would inside of a 75 year old woman - completely stripped of estrogen. The skin layers are worn down so that when wiped with q-tip it bleeds." Well, here is proof of an older woman's sexual organ reincarnated into a young adult! He discussed options of prescribed estrogen. Since I was exclusively breastfeeding I was prescribed Premarin. It was explained that a woman's brain quits producing estrogen to instead focus on lactating. Typically women's organs continue fine despite no supply of estrogen. Yet, some of us do not do well with healing scars while avidly breastfeeding children. So this topical prescription was safer than oral remedies for concern with the amount excreted into breast milk.
• I was unprepared for the immediate, side effects associated with this medication (such as burning, discomfort) yet was relieved that these resolved around a .5 weeks after daily doses. Another thing that I was unprepared for even though in the larger context it was a tangible problem... the cost of the medication for a 45 gram tube.

Although we were planning on spacing out our children only God knew that we would not have to chart with Natural Family Planning  since relations were impossible (within the first several months)!

How can you relate to my experiences? Any advice or ideas to help others with their recovery?