The first 24 hours were by far the worst. I was doped into a state of confusion and disorientation. Every movement of my body hurt, and the incision site felt so fresh and gaping that I felt sure my guts were going to fall out at any moment. The pain was pretty intense, making me regret the csection completely, despite the fact that I had gone into my induction half wishing I'd just elected to do a csection instead. Moving from bed to bed when they moved me from recovery to the postpartum room was agony. When the nurse had me get up for the first time twelve hours after my surgery, I wanted to cry.
To add to the discomfort, I couldn't eat anything at all for a while and when they did allow me to eat, it was only from the clear liquids menu. I was hungry, but I was also petrified that anything I ate might cause me abdominal pain. Lastly, I was still catheterized. Obviously this was a good thing since I couldn't even fathom getting up to use the bathroom, but it didn't help in the comfort department.
So the first 24 hours were hellish, but after that, I improved at an exponential rate. In the second day, I was able to get up and go to the bathroom. I was shaky and slow, but my mobility and my pain were much much better. I believe it was the third day when I began refusing the prescription pain meds and just made due with motrin. I think it was the second day when I changed out of my hospital gown and took a (albiet very gimpy) shower.
I hear that they often take out the staples from the incision and replace them with steristrips before leaving the hospital, but my doctor decided to have me come into the office a week after my surgery and have them removed then. That day I had a fair amount of bleeding, enough to stain my shirt slowly throughout the day, and that freaked me out a fair amount. By the next day, however, the bleeding had clotted and stopped. It did not bleed again or reopen.
As far as movement, I was able to walk well but slowly when we left the hospital, but the stairs at my house were troublesome in the first few days home. I tried to limit the number of times I went up and down them, and in the first few days at home I had someone else carry the babies up and down the stairs rather than me. By a week after the surgery, I was doing to stairs a little better and getting around better.
In the second week after the surgery, I was able to take the boys on a 1/2 mile to a mile walk a couple of times. Other people still had to carry the car seats and set up the snap n go though. In my third week I started to carry the boys in the car seats for short stretches, and I set up the snap n go if no one else was around. Our last walk was a full mile, and while I was slow, I did the whole thing. Still, I probably shouldn't push the issue, and I'd recommend not doing lifting if there are other people around who could do the lifting instead.
Now, at 3.5 weeks, my steristrips have all fallen off (they fell off a number of days ago), and my incision is pretty nicely healed. It has definitely gotten smaller and less freakish looking then it did initially. Remember that the skin on your stomach shrinks after delivery and therefore so does the incision scar. It will not be as big forever as it'll look the day of the surgery. Also in the recovery department, I've been able to sleep on my stomach for the first time in about 7-8 months. I still feel the occasional pain or electric sensation in my incision site, but I do feel a lot better and a lot healthier than I did 3 weeks ago. Whenever I feel a little bit of tension, cramping, or abdominal pain I just sit down and take it easy for an hour or so. Overall, it gets better pretty quickly, even if the initial pain and discomfort is pretty intense.
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