add one more to the list

i'm trying very hard not to feel guilty about having requested more pain meds at this morning's doctor appointment. seems we are making a daily pilgrimage to the clinic for one reason or another these days - brian had an eye appointment, hannah has her weight issues, and me - well, i'm just a mess. as if labor and delivery weren't enough, i now also have a urinary tract infection. joy!

before we left the hospital my doctor wrote me a prescription for norco, which is similar to vicodin but has less acetaminophen. it's working well at controlling the pain from my cesarean, but i was down to the last couple pills, and when i slept through my reminder alarm and woke up in quite a bit of pain i decided that maybe now was not quite the best time to try to wean myself off of it. i'd rather not be taking highly addictive narcotics, but i'd rather more not experience the pain just yet. i've just had major abdominal surgery, thank you very much. i don't understand these women who go through this postpartum recovery basically without pain meds. one of my girlfriends only took vicodin for the first day after all three of her cesareans. another took only ibuprofen afterwards. i admire them for being able to do that because i'm no hero. the twinges and cramps send me crying into brian's arms. so we got more norco.

speaking of cramping, i thought we were done with that. i thought we had 2-3 days of afterpains and then my uterus would be relatively shrunk back to size and no more cramps. turns out i am not necessarily wrong in this, but lucky me, i have something else going on altogether: the day after hannah was born, the doctor came to me in the hospital and asked if i knew that i had uterine fibroids. i said yes, they've been there for a while and my ob can feel them, she just keeps an eye on them. they're small. he said, um, not exactly. apparently when he opened me up he found a fibroid the size of a baseball sitting on top of my uterus. he did not remove it because there was a risk of vascular problems and too much bleeding as my uterus contracted. also, removal would weaken that area of my uterus and i would be at a much higher risk of uterine rupture during labor for the next kiddo. so unless it starts causing me problems (i'm thinking that's unlikely as i didn't even know it was there until now) then it stays in until we are 100% sure we are done having children. and here brian and i thought it was hannah's bottom the whole time.

the fibroid shouldn't really cause any problems anyway, he said - i might have more cramping and heavier flow when i have my period. big deal. i've had that all my life. the only "problem" it is currently causing is these abdominal cramps. fibroids are apparently very sensitive to estrogen, so it was hanging out and getting fat and happy while i was pregnant and making estrogen like there was no tomorrow. once hannah was born, my estrogen production dropped like a mob man with cement shoes. as a result the fibroid is probably shrinking and causing my cramps.

the urinary tract infection is lots of fun because i can't feel anything down there. i've heard this is not uncommon after vaginal births. granted, i didn't have one, but since i pushed for almost 3 hours i get to claim vaginal birth aftereffects. i don't feel that pressure and urgency when i need to go, so i have to keep reminding myself to head to the bathroom every couple hours. but! not to worry! i can still feel that resistance to go, and the burning. yay! i was put on keflex for the uti, which should be an interesting experience as i've never taken it. usually i get cipro instead, because i'm allergic to the sulfa drugs that are commonly used to treat uti's. however, cipro does turn up in breastmilk and can cause problems for baby so keflex it is.

the printout of my "active medications" includes my prenatal vitamin (huh?) and is a bit horrifying to me:
- prenatal vitamin once a day
- motrin every 8 hours
- norco every 4 hours
- keflex twice a day
- stool softener twice a day
- nor-q-d (minipill birth control) once a day

i feel like my grandparents, with 86 pills spread before me at the breakfast table.