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My youngest was completely breach when I went into labor, but no one knew it at the onset. When nothing was happening right, other than the contractions from hell, they took me for an ultrasound and found out that his butt was where his head was supposed to be and his ankles where next to his ears. So... C-Section it was.
That wasn't a bit problem. Some pain, but I was up and around within a few hours. They told me to walk as much as possible while I was in the hospital. Well... after having a baby all you ladies know they won't let you go home until they know the plumbing is all working correctly. For some reason mine wasn't. I had the nurses constantly telling me to walk ..walk...walk.. and I did and did and did. Still nothing working right.
After 8 days in the hospital, my son (they kept him there because I hadn't been released) developed a fever. After some tests it was determined that he had spinal meningitus. He did not show any of the classic signs, but the tests were positive. If we had gone home after a day or two as scheduled, it's likely I would have put it off as a bug, took him to the peds doc and got meds, etc. Likely he would have ended up brain damaged or dead.
At day 10, they decided to open me up and literally pull everything out and check it. They found a hole in my large intestine that was likely made during the C-section. Everything that was supposed to be going through my body and out the other end, was instead spilling into my abdomen and slowly poisoning me. They repaired the hole, put everything back where it belonged, and there I stayeds for another 10 days. My son was there for 21 total.
When I came home I had my C-section incision and an incision from the second surgery that began a couple of inches below my boobs and ran all the way down to the C-section incision. They told me not to sit for long periods, not to drive for 6 weeks, etc while the muscles heeled up (never thought you used stomach muscles to drive, but believe me..you do). I did too much too soon, because that's just how I am. I have a high pain threshold and if it hurts I just work through it.
But.. all in all.. if things hadn't been wrong with me, we'd have gone home on time after a day or two. It would have delayed my son's diagnosis and I would have thought my problems were just related to the C-section and not complained because "I'm a tough girl and don't want to be a whiney baby". One or the both of us would have likely be dead.
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