Sounds similar to something the doctor told me. “It’s just pressure.” Um, no that’s pain.

Something I LOATHE is when people (docs, nurses, mothers, husbands) try to tell you what you feel/want. Like the previous entry. “You don’t want to try that.” “You can’t feel anything.” Don’t even BEGIN to think that you can get inside MY head and know what I’M thinking! This is MY body. If I say I want to try something, don’t tell me I don’t want to. If I feel something, don’t tell me I don’t. It’s arrogant, inconsiderate, rude and just downright WRONG!

/soapbox

Why does someone take up a career involving others’ pain when s/he doesn’t actually care if others are hurting?

I moved my legs during the cesarean and the Dr. told me “You can’t move your legs!”

Doc I just did…and I can FEEL EVERYTHING. (Serious PTSD came from that let me tell you)

Some women have great painless c-sections, but don’t try to minimize the rest of us who have horrible, painful, tramatic c-sections. Every woman is different, every birth different, I wish they would start treating every woman individually instead of clumping us all together.

Even I know, (and I’m not a ‘professional’ or anything, anyone 9can read it on Wikipedia) that spinals and epidurals can leave ‘windows’ of sensation. So even if the mother can’t move her feet, it is a real possibility for her to have total sensation in a different area.
OP, you didn’t deserve to be disrespected/ignored that way. That’s just horrible.

Last Saturday I had a c-section where I couldn’t move my legs but could feel absolutely everything, and my anesthesiologist frantically tried to find something that would stop the pain. Then when the meds finally kicked in but my son had to be rushed to the NICU, he sat with me and talked to me so I wouldn’t be scared.

THAT is how a real anesthesiologist does it.

*waves hand slowly* This is not the provider you’re looking for.

Jedi mind tricks in the OR. Awesome. Too bad you pretty much can’t choose your anesthesiologist.

I could completely use my legs during my epidural and even put weight on them. After I gave birth they made me wait to stand up to go pee and were so concerned that I would fall over. Does that mean according to this doc my epidural didn’t take??

This was mine. My epi, prior to my c-section, had worn off on one side. After they got my son out and my husband went to be with him at my request, I started feeling everything. I kept telling everyone that I could feel. My OB was talking to another doc and either didn’t hear me or chose to ignore me, and the anesthesiologist kept shoving the puke bowl at me. I finally yelled at her “I’m not going to throw up! I can feel what they’re doing!”, which is when she said the above.

The only person who was an advocate for me was the OB nurse. She kept telling them to give me something, but she was ignored. She apologized profusely to me in the recovery room, and explained the situation to the family back in my room.

The only good that has come out of this, besides my beautiful son, is that I am now determined to educate myself and my family about VBAC. I’m literally scared to death of another c-section.

Sounds like what they told me during my section. My epi hadn’t worked all labor to begin with (only numbed me from the crotch down), and they somehow amped it up enough to work for the section until the end when they were putting me back together. I tried to say that I could feel it, but they dismissed it as feeling ‘movement.’

This time I will be going for a VBAC with no epi..why bother if it didn’t work last time.

I honestly think that if an anesthesiologist dismisses a patient’s self-report of feeling pain, that should be considered medical malpractice.

I’m sorry all you went through that.

After my c-section w/o medication some relatives didn’t believe me, they said I was lying because “of course the Dr’s would have given you SOMETHING” It’s been an uphill battle. There are PLENTY of us out here, unfortunately (

I kind of tried to start a facebook group for those of us who have and this experience called “AWAKE” but I’m now a mom to 3 and it’s a little hard to keep it up…lol.

BTW – I NEVER wanted to have another baby after this because I was scared to DEATH of another c-section, I even had to go to PTSD therapists. I did fertility treatments for the oldest 2 so I figured I was “safe” Anyway #3 was a huge surprise but after he was born (SUCCESSFUL VBAC with wonderful Dr’s who held my hand the whole way and didn’t do anything until I was ok) I realized how damaged I was due to my unmedicated c-section.

Life goes on, but the wounds are there and sometimes hard to heal.

I also had a c/s like this and it was terrible. The outright denial in the medical community about inadeqaute anesthesia is incredible. “Oh that’s not pain, just pressure.” Uh, no, I can tell the difference and this was PAIN. BIG-TIME pain.

Risk factors for this occurring include a long labor with many epidural top-ups, a posterior baby, unusual anatomy inside your spinal cord (like an extra membrane) that can keep the meds from spreading evenly, or a multi-orifice catheter that came out partially and deposited some of the pain meds outside the epidural space. Lots of possibilities, but often you get few clear answers for why.

It happens more than docs want to admit. And it’s very common for women to have PTSD after an experience like this, especially if the medical personnel deny there was any problem at all, as they so often do.

Many women think twice about any more children after such an experience. I know I did. But it’s important to know that it does NOT have to repeat and that birth CAN be different next time, either via a VBAC or with a different form of anesthesia. I had a second c/s with a spinal and it worked FINE. I then had 2 VBACs which were even better.

You’re not crazy, it’s normal to feel traumatized……but it doesn’t have to happen again.

I was able to feel EVERYTHING and DESCRIBED IT TO THE DOC. (“stretching”, “pulling” “ripping” “cutting”, etc.)
The anesthesiologist was amazed and started giving me ativan to “calm me down”.

I too had a similar experience. After undergoing induced labor for about 42 hrs, my dr decided it was time for a c-section. I felt the whole thing! It was a very scary time. In between throwing-up while c-section was happening(I am very sensitive to pain killers), I kept telling the anesthesiologist that I could feel everything. They kept pumping more pain meds. I remember the dr saying how much my daughter weighed and I remember seeing her (very briefly). But I woke up 3 1/2 hrs later in the recovery room. It was a very horrible experience. To top it off, my scar got infected and I had another 6 months of healing after that. I am now pregnant with number two and I have to have another c-section. I am terrified!