does your #$% c/s scar still hurt?

[chinaKat]

mods - please move this if you need to - I wasn't sure where to post.

DD is 7mo old and my scar is still bugging me. Is this normal?

I guess it doesn't actually *hurt* as in pain (it was never actually all that painful, thankfully). But I really dislike having it touched, that does NOT feel good at all.

Initially I was pleased that the ob made the incision so low (below the bikini line), I figured that if I HAD to have the damn procedure, at least the scar wouldn't be visible. But now it's bumming me out... between this issue and sore bfing nips, it's tough to get my groove on, if you know what I mean.

Anybody?

[Tizzy]

Oh oh I know the answer to this one! *raises hand*

I bet it's adhesions!

I asked the same question because I still was having VERY painful twinges if I twisted the wrong way, sat up, sneezed, coughed etc. Plus I was just a couple months pregnant and worried that if it was that bad THEN, how bad will it be when I'm 8-9 months pregnant!

My pain was still there a year after my surgery.

So I asked on here and got a lot of good tips about adhesions. You can google "c-section adhesions" or go to http://www.adhesions.org for tons of information.

I only did the massaging for a week and voila! My pain is 100% gone.
Now everyone is different of course, but mine must were really easy to break up and I wish more people knew about this problem after surgeries, especially C-sections. I know it would have saved me a lot of internal worrying about my scar if I had known...

Hope this helps

[crazydiamond]

Yup, mine bugs me some, but it has gotten better. It'll be 3 years this April. Thankfully it's mostly numb now, but it's still sensitive and doesn't feel pleasant to be touched at all. My mom had a C-section with both me and my brother and said her scar still feels weird all these years later. My OB told me that it often gets better and less sensitive with a lot of time, but that it often stays numb or somewhat uncomfortable just because they have to cut through so many nerves.

I also had a major abdominal surgery this past year for a completely unrelated reason and that scar is just as sensitive as the C-section one. I think it's just an unfortunate consequence of the location and the trauma.

But do not lose hope. . but it could still get better over time. Nerves are very slow to heal, too.

[Storm Bride]

It could be lots of things. I had pain in one end of my incision for 7-8 months after I had dd. It went away on its own, and I neer found out what caused it.

With ds1 (15 years ago in March), I can't remember how long my scar felt weird, but it was a LONG time...and once broke into burning stinging pain when I saw a c-section performed on tv.

After ds2, it was at least a year and a half before the scar didn't bother me, anymore, but it didn't really hurt. My abdomen and part of my pelvis (including my bladder) have been numb ever since, though - ds2 is 2.5.

There's a lot of nerves in that area, and lots of strange things can happen. I haven't really liked having that area touched since dd arrived (she'll be 5 in May) and it's really bothered me since ds2 arrived. OTOH - doesn't seem any worse since Aaron's stillbirth, and that was only 2.5 months ago.

[Otterella]

Mine still bothers me a LOT, especially during PMS. DS is 13 months. It's still numb in spots, which bothers me as much as the sensitivity.

[chinaKat]

oh, no, StormBride. I didn't know about Aaron. I am so sorry.

[stellimamo]

nak

mine bothered me until about 18-20 months pp. Its still numbish/tingly sometimes. i'm curious how my newest scar will end up.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by chinaKat

oh, no, StormBride. I didn't know about Aaron. I am so sorry.

Thank you. It's been a rough few months. DH and I are still trying to decide exactly what we want to do next time, but I won't be able to make up my mind until I work up the nerve to request my records and find out why he died (if I do).

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by Otterella

It's still numb in spots, which bothers me as much as the sensitivity.

I actually find the numbness bothers me more than the pain. I hate feeling out of touch with my body, and I just can't feel in touch with something I can't feel, yk?

[OnTheFence]

I am ten months out from my last csection and my scar does not bother me at all. This was my fourth csection btw.

Normally you will have pain or itching at the incision site for about a year. This is pretty common with most surgeries, as the nerves get some feeling back and the site area begins to heal.

Kim, Mother to Five, Cesarean Goddess

[Lkg4dmcrc]

Mine miraculously felt fine after my VBAC! I did get the pain again after watching the cesarean on the Business of Being Born though!

[turtlewomyn]

DD is over two years old and my scar still bothers me when it rains and around the anniversary of her arrival.

Around 6/7 months post partum it was still bothering me, or hurting on a regular basis.

[Otterella]

Originally Posted by Little grey mare

I only did the massaging for a week and voila! My pain is 100% gone.
Now everyone is different of course, but mine must were really easy to break up and I wish more people knew about this problem after surgeries, especially C-sections. I know it would have saved me a lot of internal worrying about my scar if I had known...

Hope this helps

What massaging are you talking about? Where do I find out more about that? If it worked for you, I'm interested in giving it a try.

[danotoyou2]

nak

mine still feels 'weird' and icky 22 months and 1 vbac later. sorry.

[kltroy]

Mine didn't bother me at all after a couple months. I did make sure to massage it with Body Butter as it was healing, and I think this helped quite a lot. Now I'm 20 months pp and preg with #2 - my MW says it's actually the nicest looking c/s scar she's ever seen. *shrug* I'd say try the massage to break up adhesions.

I know for many women who had really traumatic c/s births (mine was scheduled b/c my son was breech, so while it sucked, at least I knew it was coming) a lot of their scar pain/discomfort is also psychological.

[sparkle&shine]

My scar only hurt while it healed and then I felt nothing. I have no feelings in about an inch section over the scar and my c/s was 3 years ago.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by chinaKat

But now it's bumming me out... between this issue and sore bfing nips, it's tough to get my groove on, if you know what I mean.

I missed this part at first. It took fully a year before getting my groove on was any fun at all after I had ds2. It wasn't about the pain, although there was an occasional random twinge. It was because of all the unpredictable numbness through my pelvis. Sex didn't really hurt most of the time, but it wasn't pleasurable, either...hard to build up the good feelings, when something is feeling good, and then isn't feeling anything. (TMI, maybe - but my clitoris was almost completely numb for over six months.)

This time, I was ready to jump back into our sex life long before I was physically up to it. (I'm not sure if that's because of the lack of breastfeeding, or if it was more one of those cases of needing to reaffirm that I'm really alive.) Anyway - things were back to more-or-less normal, sexually, after about 6 weeks, when the incision had finally completely healed - it took a long time to close.

[Robinna]

Originally Posted by danotoyou2

nak

mine still feels 'weird' and icky 22 months and 1 vbac later. sorry.

Yep. at 21 mos, still a combination of itchy itchy (I have a massive keloid) and no sensation to touch. VERY bizarre & disconcerting. no *pain* though. and some of the nerves have regenerated very strangely and if you stroke the skin above the right hand side of the scar, I feel it in my bikini line.

[felix23]

I had no problem with my scar after the first month or two. There was some numbness for the first six months, but after that everything felt normal. Two years later my scar has faded to the point that I can barely see it.

[trystrid]

My scar has only recently stopped bothering me. DD will be a year old in two weeks. I used to have a profoundly uncomfortable grating feeling if I rubbed it or touched it, even. Some areas were still numb 10 months on.

But I'm happy to say that it all feels normal again.