Things they don't tell you about a c-section

In case some of you thought I died on the operating table I figured I better chime in and let you know I'm still around. Chris has been doing a good job on keeping you up to date but since I did have major surgery (the first in my life) I'll share with you how I'm doing. Mostly okay, but there are certainly some things about having a Cesarean section that I did not know and was not prepared for.

1. You can be sitting on the table with iodine dripping down your back and the anesthesiologist ready to stab a needle into your spine and they can postpone it. You'd think once you're sitting in the OR you're good to go, but evidently not.

In fact here I am, a slightly crazed pre-op Dawnell wondering why we can't just get the show on the road and get things over with.

2. Betadyne is no longer brown. The disinfecting goo they painted my stomach with was a light blue. My belly looked like it was an Easter egg, or I was a big, but messy fan of blue Popsicles.

3. You can smell the burning meat smell of your stomach when they cut/cauterize you. It's not nice to point this out to your queasy spouse, even if you feel justified doing it because you're the one experiencing it.

A happy, paper pants wearin', pre burning meat stomach smellin' Chris.

4. OR lights are reflective. I actually watched my own c-section, drape be damned! I saw them pull Ciaran out and I watched them poking around and sewing me back up. Then it got boring because putting you back together takes a lot longer than getting the baby out, and the horrible effects of the morphine started to hit me so I stopped looking.

5. It is normal to have weird pains in your shoulder or breastbone or ribs or something. Evidently your body fills up with air when they break that seal and cut you open. So you get strange pains from air trapped in various parts inside you.

6. I guess this explains why the key to healing seems to be farting. I don't know how many times I was asked post operation if I'd, "passed gas." And for some reason the nurses always said this with a lowered voice and down cast eyes. I just found that odd. I mean, they're nurses. They helped me move my dead meat slab legs and all sorts of other gross care, yet you really feel embarrassed to ask about flatulence? Once you have declared your gasiness you are allowed to eat real food which made me pine for a whoopee cushion in a way I never imagined possible.

7. Days afterward your stomach feels like it's asleep. This is normal, and it can last for months. Really? I shouldn't be worried that I'm numb for months? That nerves got severed or something and they're not going back together? I guess not.

A wiser, but not altogether happier, post-op Dawnell


These random thoughts aside I'm healing and the incision seems to be closing as it should. I'm scaling back the percocet's a bit so that's also an improvement. In two weeks I'll be able to drive and can be a little more active. Chris is doing a great job taking care of me and of Beckett and making sure to lift Beckett up to me so we can have our own special love time too. It's great to be home with the boys and I look forward to the day when I'm outnumbered around the house by one more.