I think I mentioned that I did indeed have a tear giving birth. Apparently, it was not severe but in a weird "y" shape. I was never able to see it, so I'll just have to take the midwife's word for it. I also, strangely, never really asked Rob to investigate it.
So, they say that you are supposed to be fully healed after 6 week right? Well six weeks came and I had my check up. The midwife reported that the tear had not yet fully healed. Of course I knew this already for a few reasons: 1. I still seemed to bleed a little, 2. pooping still hurt in certain areas and 3. when cleaning myself, I was generally pretty sensitive still. However, the midwife told me to wait another week and it should be all cleared up.
So I ended up waiting until about ten weeks before deciding I was really not ok. I remember mentioning to a friend at eight weeks that I was still having pain and she had had two kids already and said that was not "ok" and I needed to get it checked out. Of course, I waited until ten weeks.
At this point, I did start to investigate with a mirror and let Rob take a look. I'll warn you know, that from here on out this post will get pretty graphic. Basically I had a tear at the base of my oval shaped opening. Now this is embarrassing, I don't really know what anything is specifically called down there from an anatomy point of view, so I will do my best to describe. The tear was basically right above the taint at the bottom of my vagina? Do women have taints? So when Rob and I investigated, it looked, to me, like I had a blood blister growing in this general vicinity. I couldn't tell if there was still an open tear there. It kinda looked like it , but we are not medical doctors.
So I could not get a follow up appointment with the midwife and ended up going to the nurse practitioner associated with the obgyn side of the practice to get things checked out. Let me take a moment here to say if given the option, I am pretty much always happy to see a nurse practitioner or physicians assistant instead of a doctor. I find them to be more laid back and just easier to talk to.
So I went in, undressed and the lady took a look and started commenting that the tear had not healed and that I might need to go in for stitches, which was not a procedure they could take care of in the office. I'm all like "WTF? Whose got time to go do an outpatient procedure. I am hoping to not see the inside of a hospital again for some time." She says that she is going to get the doctor though to come and take a look and whisks out of the room. She did not tell me that a) the doctor was a man or that b) he and another nurse would be coming in to take a look at my hoo haw. Now generally, this wouldn't have bothered me. Especially since giving birth, I have gotten a lot less concerned about my nakedness in front of strangers. I was just a little annoyed that she didn't talk through this with me. This is the first difference I noted between the midwife approach vs. obgyn approach.
The doctor came in, got down there and said I had Granulation Tissue that had grown over the wound. He got up, went to the cabinet and came back with something in his hand. He told me he was going to use silver nitrate to burn off the tissue. This was difference number two compared to the midwives. He just assumed he could do this to me without really any consultation or allowing me to ask any questions. At the time, I was more concerned from hearing I might have to get surgery so if he could take care of it now, fine by me.
So I let him burn off the skin and boy howdy it was painful. Not as rough as giving birth, but it stung... alot. I left the office with an appointment to come back in a week to check on things. I was sore/ in pain for the following three days.
I went back the following week and he said everything looked good. To be honest it all feels a lot better, but I think there might be some lingering issues even now. I'm just too lazy to go back and get it looked at and clearly they are not bothersome enough to motivate me or prevent me from any of my regularly scheduled activities.
