Lingering Effects of Pregnancy

One of the strangest pregnancy symptoms I had was some odd numbness on the top of my right thigh. The numbness was only on the skin, not the flesh or muscle, and so minor that I never even remembered it when I was at the doctor so I never mentioned it to her. I figured that it was because I always slept on that side, putting my considerable weight on right leg. I often would wake up with that tingly pins and needles feeling there.

I assumed when I delivered the baby, it would go away. But it hasn’t. When I went for my post-delivery check up in December, I mentioned it to my OB who looked at me blankly and said, “That’s weird!” as though she had never heard of this pregnancy symptom in her life. So I left it at that. I felt like I had remembered seeing this particular symptom online somewhere so I wasn’t really worried about it. I went to my regular family doctor a month or so after that for something else, and mentioned it to him, just to see if he had ever heard of this. Before I even finished explaining it to him, he was nodding and said he knew exactly what it was. The weight of pregnancy had caused pressure on some specific nerves in my lower back, the nerves that effect feeling in my right thigh. OK, great. So he adjusted my back (I had never had that done before and it felt wonderful) and then prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug. Unfortunately I can’t take the drug because according to the pharmacist, it is not compatible with breast feeding.

So here I am, almost five months after delivery with a numb right thigh. I suppose that, like feet that have grown half a shoe size and fingers that most assuredly will never comfortably fit into my wedding rings again, this particular reminder of pregnancy is here to stay. I guess it’s not that bad. Really it only bothers me when I have an itch there. You know, because no matter how much I scratch it, it never feels better. Actually, that is pretty maddening.

Filed under Fertile Myrtle |