Recovery

It's been 3 weeks since my daughter's birth, and I'm still recovering from the C-section surgery and the pregnancy itself.  Immediately following my surgery, my numbers shot up to the 300s for the next several hours.  I think the spike had more to do with the fact that I hadn't eaten anything in 36 hours.  I was still wearing my CGM and pump, so I was able to keep tabs on my numbers pretty well.  However, the morning after, the soreness started to settle in so I was given some acetaminophen-based medicine.  I took off my CGM and kept it off until we went home that Friday.  

The soreness was centralized in my core ab muscles, which is perplexing since my incision was down near my bikini line.  I never got a good look at my cut until we got home because the hospital didn't have any full-length mirrors, thankfully.  I honestly didn't want to look at first.  I was afraid of seeing myself as some sort of Frankenstein creature with the staples and all.  But the first time I saw them, it actually wasn't too bad.  The scar is below my bikini line, so I have the option of wearing two-piece bathing suits (Someday, way WAY in the future because my ab muscles currently look like a sad, deflated balloon).  It's about 8 in. long and has a slight pinkish red hue to it now.  It doesn't look near as bad as I thought it would while I imagined it in the hospital. 

I went to my doctor's office the next week to have the staples removed and replaced with medical tape.  The nurse who saw me said everyone was so proud of me for making it as far as I did and were sad to hear that I had to be sectioned.  But after learning what my other "option" was for a vaginal delivery, I was quite pleased to have a C-section.  Basically, if I had attempted a vaginal delivery, my vagina and rear end would have become roommates instead of neighbors.  My doctor calls it a "vaginal section".  The recovery of this procedure would have been substantial, and it might have taken me longer to be released for intimacy or bowel movements any time soon.  

Once we got home, I was instructed to lay out on the couch and not move.  My parents and Trey took care of everything around the house while I stayed busy feeding my little girl on demand.  I had 2 prescriptions filled for pain:  one with acetaminophen and one without (Motrin).  After a few days, I was able to handle just the Motrin and was able to put a sensor back on.  This was probably the best thing I could do for my diabetes management at the moment because taking care of  newborn has pushed testing to the back burner.  I am lucky to get in 4 tests all day long, so if Constance is accurate, I rely on her a lot throughout the day.  I know this isn't the proper way to use a CGM and it doesn't replace finger tests and blah blah blah, but I'm giving myself a little wiggle room while I get used to parenthood.  I'm pretty convinced that CGMs were solely created for type 1 pregnant women and moms because it has been invaluable to me for those occasions. 

I certainly don't consider myself "healed" yet, especially since I haven't seen my doctor for my 6-week follow up appointment yet.  But I feel like I'm ready to start getting my body back to where it was before I got pregnant.  I'm currently +15 lbs. from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm not doing any hard exercising until I'm released to do so.  The only exercise I'm doing right now is keeping up with small housework while feeding my daughter every few hours (breastfeeding burns calories!), and I'm eating roughly the same without decreasing my calories because I want to stay nourished for my milk supply.  I'm hoping in the next 3 weeks that I'll be slightly closer to my pre-pregnancy weight, because thinking about losing twice the amount of my daughter's weight is exhausting me already.