This was the less fun part.
I can’t remember the exact order in which this happened, but this is about right. I was in recovery, and I wasn’t feeling perfect, but I didn’t expect to. My OB came in and explained that my hemoglobin had been only 9.8 before surgery. (I have to accept some blame here—I should’ve been better with my iron tablets.) They’d done their best to minimize blood loss, but it had still been nearly 1L. Add in the spinal, and my blood pressure was in the toilet. My unmedicated blood pressure normally runs 160/105. Medicated, I’d been 120/80 or just under prior to birth. After? They were having trouble keeping me up to 90/50 and I don’t know how low my hemoglobin got. She said that if my blood pressure and labs stayed at that level, I was looking at a transfusion. I managed to avoid that, but I felt awful—sick and dizzy. I couldn’t hold the baby at times. I must have looked terrible, too, because the next day the OB commented on how much better I looked.
As a result, I kept my IV in for over 24 hours, and my catheter for about 20. Neil stayed in the hospital till nearly 10pm to help. My hospital is optional night nursery only, from 10pm to 6am, and he didn’t want to leave me alone with the baby, as I was having trouble with moving and picking him up. So he stayed until the nurse was ready to bring him to the nursery. I was sick enough that when they asked if I wanted him brought back for feeding, I said no. I wasn’t even sure I could manage to position him without help.
The good part is that I felt much better in the morning. I was able to get up and go to the bathroom (provided the nurse disconnected my monitors from the wall and helped me drag in the pole), my head had stopped spinning, and I could sit up. I even cared enough to put a pajama top on instead of the hospital gown that kept falling off. (TMI time: When you’re bleeding straight onto the chux, you lose all sense of modesty. Day 2, at least I had the mesh on. By day 3, I was wearing real pj’s.) They were good with pain management. I had Duramorph in my spinal and Toradol IV. The pre-op consult had mentioned IV PCA instead, but I’m fine with Duramorph. I don’t itch. After that, it was Percs PRN, 2 every 4 hours max. I am a tiny little bit macho, so I tried 1 the first time. It didn’t do it, so I went to 2, but I tried to push it to every 6. When I got my discharge meds, I discovered why I’d needed 2: They’d only given me 5/325 Percocet. I also got Advil on request, which I knew I’d need for the afterpains. They were grown up enough to just give me a card of tablets and a sheet where I could write down what I’d taken.
Originally, I’d been hoping to get out on Wednesday, before the holiday. This was overly optimistic on two counts: One, I needed that 3rd night, which had been my original estimate. Two, and more importantly, Isaac’s direct Coombs test came back positive. It took longer to hit this time, and not as badly, but I got a second jaundiced baby. With Aliza, being a bit earlier, it hit within 24 hours. Isaac was a little older, which helps, and his bili levels didn’t go high enough for phototherapy until Wednesday. He needed the full lights, so he had to go to the nursery for a day. So we didn’t get out till Thursday, at which point I was feeling pretty good.
I pushed myself too far when I got out and paid for it, but overall, I’ve recovered well. I took Percocet regularly through Friday, a couple of times over the weekend, and not after that; Advil lasted a few days longer.
