Pt here with post birth/BTL symptom question

Published

Hello all..

I have a question and I don't know if it would be considered "urgent", so I don't want to stop whatever the staff at my hospital is doing to ask this.. Plus I had fantastic luck on this board before, so here goes..

This is probably going to skip around a little bit, because I will be adding things as I remember them :p

Back Story:

I gave birth to my 2nd son (lady partslly) on Tuesday, March 1st via Pitocin induction. He was born at 7:41pm, was 8.8lbs and the doctor said I tore on my previous episiotomy scar, so she had to stitch that up.. One stitch I believe. The site hasn't bothered me even a little bit. The day after I gave birth, I had a Bilateral Tubal Ligation, performed by another doctor from the same practice. I was under general anesthesia and as far as I know, I had no problems or complications with it. The hospital I gave birth in this time did not perform any fundal checks. My husband and I both thought that was strange, considering how many of those uncomfortable (and therefore memorable) fundal checks I got when I had my first son. We figured that maybe it was just that different hospitals do different things (and perhaps that is the case). Side note: My first was born at a hospital about 20 minutes away from this one, in a different hospital system.

My son and I were discharged Friday morning around 11am, myself with a prescription for motrin and percocet.

About an hour before discharge, I had a BM (first one since labor) and the force of it caused my belly button to start bleeding. I went to the Nurse station and asked for a bandaid. She gave me some gauze and told me to hold pressure on it for a few, then to put the bandaid on if I felt it was needed. It stopped bleeding pretty quickly and I didn't bother with the bandaid.

Problem:

It is now Saturday Evening. The entire area between my labia and belly button is becoming more discolored. It is turning sort of yellowish, which I am not worried too much about.. But it is painful inside.. The pain isn't letting up, which is the part that is worrying me. I know that I can't expect to be fully healed the day after discharge, but I did expect the pain to start to lessen gradually, and that isn't happening. The episiotomy site still isn't bothering me even a little bit (hooray!).

My feet have both been swollen since after labor, as well. The RN who looked said that that is normal, and that it would go away pretty quickly. It is now 95 hours since labor ended and they are just as swollen, if not more, than they were on day 1. They are not discolored at all, and my legs don't seem swollen.. But my feet are starting to feel tingly (Sort of the way a limb feels when it is about to fall asleep), and they are painful to the touch.

The pain in my stomach radiates across the entire "pelvic" area.. Where menstrual cramps would generally be (except all the way across, versus the side/side pain of menstrual cramps).

The bleeding after labor has lessened significantly.. Sometimes I will go to change the pad and there will be no blood on the pad at all, and sometimes there will be a normal "period" amount. I had a couple large clots that came out in those first two days after labor.. And one "golf ball" sized clot the early morning before I was discharged.. She said if I had any more that size to let them know.

Well right after we left the hospital, my husband decided THAT was the appropriate time to stop by the bank and add me onto the new account he opened.. So I went from sitting in the car for an hour long drive from the hospital, to the bank.. I had to go into the bank to sign a paper or two.. Then back into the car for about another 30 minutes while my husband took my prescription into the pharmacy to be filled.

Once we finally got home, I was about to get out of the car, but before I did, I felt a significant sized clot slide out. (Gross, sorry)

Anyhow I got out, went to the bathroom.. Prepped my Peri bottle and commenced changing the pads.. There were two clots there. One the size of about a quarter and the other the size of a half-dollar.

I currently have had a headache all day (Pretty dull, but noticeable at times.)

I don't know what all could be related, but I have tried to include everything I can think of here.

I *think* that is everything.. But I could be forgetting something.

If anyone has any further questions, feel free to ask..

What I am looking for is a bit of advice on what it could possibly be, whether this is all normal..

Whether it warrants an after hours call to my OB.. Or really what I can do to "fix" it all.

I am resting as I was told to.. My husband has been taking care of the house and our 16 month old son..

I'm not lifting anything heavier than my newborn son.. I don't smoke, drink or do drugs..

I'm just unsure and could use some guidance.

I appreciate any help that anyone can give me!

Thanks to you all!!

AND thank you ALL for what you do. My nurses were my angels in these last few days, and I could never thank them enough. Every one of you are so incredibly special for what you do, and I can never find the words to thank you all enough.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

I'm sorry we can't give medical advice on this board, I would seek care from your physician for advice.

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All I can say is call your OB/GYN right away and tell her/him everything you put here--well not the delivery since they were there but what's going on since. I am just saying this as that is what I would do. As far as actual medical advice we can't give that but I will tell you I would be concerned enough to at least call--there will be an on-call for your office. If it's normal then you can relax and maybe they can tell you what to do to feel better and if it's not normal you can be sure you get the care you need. Either way you will be safe. But yeah definately call asap. Good luck and CONGRATS on the new baby!!!

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Thanks.. I am not asking for medical advice in the sense of replacing my doctor with this board.. Not at all. I am just wondering if the majority of people would see that as something that warrants a call to the OB.

Thank you to MentalHealthRN for making me feel better about calling lol

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Any time that you are experiencing something you feel is out of the ordinary for you, it's your option to call your doc and ask questions. An ob/gyn office should always have someone on call. After all, babies who want to be born can't tell time. This is one of the reasons ob docs make the big bucks.

Another idea is to call the unit you just left and speak with one of the nurses. She should be able to triage your concerns and help you decide what to do.

Please, call someone, if for no other reason than you will not rest well until you get some peace of mind.

Take good care of yourself and your wee one.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Please head the advice of our experts: your concerns are justified, call your OB!

Since unable to provide individual advice, closing thread.

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