Ever wonder what goes through the minds of (almost) doctors?
A few weeks ago, a friend updated his status on facebook to:
"F is SO PROUD of his wife for completing a 100 mile bicycle ride only 6 weeks after giving birth!!!"
Somewhat surprisingly, none of the comments said, "I hope her vagina is doing ok!" I suppose that's because the word "vagina" does not belong on a facebook wall.
I contemplated whether she was more likely to have had a c-section (no damage to the perineum) versus a vaginal delivery (no post-op recovery time).
I concluded she'd had to have had a vaginal delivery. The post-op recovery post c-section can be a real bitch.
Poor perineum.
I struggled to restrain myself from commenting, "I'm so pleased that your wife's vagina was sufficiently healed post-delivery to participate in a 100 mile bike ride. No 4th degree tears, I take it?"
Instead I just asked who her ob was.
They didn't respond.
Maybe she has some sort of collagen mutation that makes her extra stretchy.
Ahem.
Either way, you will not catch me near a bike 6 weeks post-vaginal delivery. No freaking way. 100 miles does a number on a perineum even without also pushing a baby through it a few weeks prior.
See how medical school has warped my mind?
13 Pearls of Wisdom:
OMG. I biked to work (6 miles RT) two days ago and my vagina still hurts. I cannot even imagine how she did that.
Oh my goodness, I'm in pain just thinking about that bike ride. It's not just doctors who think about these things-- women who have just given birth are right there with you.
I gave birth about 7 weeks ago, and there is just NO WAY I'd do something like that. I mean, how could you train for that kind of a bike ride? It's not like the average person could ride 100 miles without training. Did she train while pregnant? Or did she train a few weeks after giving birth? Ouch.
Ha!
In your defense when I read 100 mile ride 6 weeks after delivery, I too thought "Ouch, that had to hurt".
It's not just doctors-to-be and doctors who think like that! :-)
After watching my bf's sister-in-law hobble for a few weeks after a vaginal delivery I was like "Uh, yeah I'll be that stays in bed after I have kids and visitors can visit me there."
You're all totally right. It's not a med school thing. It's a "I have a vagina," thing. Maybe because this was a dude it never actually occurred to him what it felt like.
Use pussy instead of vagina...LOL...
Maybe it's just selective memory or maybe it's that I don't bike much (I could NEVER do 100 miles, baby or not), but I honestly felt pretty much back to normal 6 weeks after my vaginal delivery of an 8 pound baby. I mean, that's when I went back on contraceptives and was told to, you know, resume activities as normal :)
Yeah but Fizzy, it takes training to ride 100 miles. Did you feel up to a 70 mile ride the week after you gave birth? Or how about the week before. Because that's pretty much what she had to be doing. Unless she's bionic and didn't have to train.
Wellll.... just theorizing how this might have happened, since I'm assuming the story is true.... couldn't she have trained on a stationary bike with some, uh... padding? I'm not a biker, so I don't know if that's an acceptable substitute, but I'd guess that the peddling is the part that needs to be trained for. It only hurt for me to sit for about a week :)
Actually, what impresses me more is that she had people available to watch the newborn while she was completing her training. I couldn't even manage to eat one dinner without an interruption.
F -- Stationary bike is likely +/- the padding you suggest. Heck, maybe she even sat on an icepack for the first few days.
(OMG they are so boring though! Have you ever tried to do a 40 mile workout on one? Ugh!)
You are very apt in pointing out that her social support network must have been phenomenal. I am VERY jealous.
Can't quite see it because "I'm not freaking doing that" was the first thing going through my mind as well.
she must've had a wet-nurse, a housekeeper, and more babysitters than the octo-mom.
wonder what she had to prove.
And I'm just irritated because he's all, "I'm SO PROUD of my wife" and my first reaction is, "Patronizing much?"
But: Ow, yeah, my cooch.
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