Pain revisited - anyone else have this happen?

MommaPeaRG

I am 7 weeks post partum and had a stage 2 tear. I had a lot of pain and swelling and a feeling of pressure if I stood for too long that lasted about 4 weeks. I finally started feeling better. I was pretty much feeling like normal and then the pain came back. I almost feel like I did week 2 (minus the stitches) and my discharge increased. I can't see my dr for another week cause he's on vacation. Just wonder if anyone else had a similar experience and what came of it.

punkrockabye

This is 100 percent what I experienced. I mean, I could have written this word for word, except my pain had been improving for a while before making the EXACT return you speak of at 4 weeks on the dot.

The pressure, issues while standing, increase of discharge, 2nd degree tear, everything. lol sorry I am just amazed at how similar our experiences are!

When the pain came back, I was almost incapacitated. It felt like I had a softball between my legs and it felt extremely bruised. I was in as much pain as I was 2 days pp. I was bleeding again as well and a nurse shrugged that off as my period despite the fact that I am breastfeeding and there was absolutely no cramping or symptoms of if being a period at all. Of course I couldn't get in to see the doctor for 10 days; the day of that appointment, I suddenly felt 98 percent better. She looked, said everything looked and felt great except a tiny spot of redness that was still healing and not a problem.

That appointment was at 5w3d and I'm now 7w4d and in pain, albeit very manageable at this point. I still take 3 ibuprofen every 6 hours and while that takes care of it, the pain increases if it's been 8 or 9 hours since my last dose if I get behind. It's worse if I stand or walk for too long and the pain still feels very bruise like, and I feel some pressure still especially with walking and standing too much.

I'm not sure if this will make sense but the location of this pain is... if you think of looking at yourself straight on while you're getting a pap smear/your legs are in stirrups, and you draw a line from left groin to right groin right groin that crosses the perineum, the pain is kind if concentrated to the perineum and the areas immediately beside it between the groin and perineum. Kind of like where the labia meet the butt cheeks!

It also hurts to sit on the toilet because it's like the lack of support/counter pressure while sitting on it causes things to feel like they're pushing out more, so if I have to do more than just pee I need to shift my weight and sit on one thigh. Still hurts but it lessens the pressure. And I can poo just fine usually, but I still use toilet paper and press up on my perineum and labia with my hand for counter pressure while I go.

In terms of discharge I still have it but I consider it normal in terms of volume and smell. When the pain returned, it eventually got very rancid; I'm sure I had an infection. I kept making sure I didn't start running a fever. It was greenish yellow and nasty, but of course it became normal the day of my appointment and it hasn't been bad sense.

So, all that said, I don't think I've provided much comfort or advice since I'm still in a moderate amount of pain. But for what it's worth, my doctor didn't see anything wrong at all. I did notice that the return of pain coincided with me finding pieces of stitches starting to come out [dissolvable] and a few times the pain took a BIG turn for the worse an hour before I'd pee or wipe, see some stitch remnants, and then it would dramatically subside immediately and stay down for a while. Very, very weird.

I felt so strange when people on my birth month board were talking about feeling great at 4 and 5 weeks pp while I was literally unable of caring for my baby because I was in so much pain. I couldn't sit at all.

Anyway, sorry this was a novel, but it was just really weird to see you describe exactly what I went through and continue to experience to an extent. I still don't have answers and I may never have any but I just hope I can not be in pain at some point. Right now I honestly don't know if it will ever go away nor do I know if I want another child because this has been extremely traumatizing, and my reactions to it have been specific enough and lasted long enough that I think it's about time to seek therapy for symptoms of PTSD. The actual birth was beautiful, but what happened after has left me terrified.