Vaginal Prolapse

[wendymac]

I was told I had a prolapsed uterus 5 years ago... I am now 34 years old. I have had 4 very large babies. At the time I had no idea what it was. I just knew it felt like something was falling out and it hurt like my husband was poking me during sex. I don't know the degree of the prolapse. I know it is about 1 1/2 inches above the vaginal opening? Is this bad? My question is that recently I found this site looking at PID symptoms. I have pain and a full feeling only when my bowels are full. I have always thought that my bowels being full was pushing on my cervix - if this makes any sense? Has my bowel moved forward into my vaginal opening? Has this been the issue all along. 5 years ago, my Gyno said I was lucky to have just this much damage. By the way I HATE doctors. Always had bad luck with them... Anyway, she never told me there was help! Always figured I just needed a hystorectomy, which I didn't want. My sex drive is low enough right now. I think my pain during sex has scared me physicologically? Anyone else with this issue? If anyone out there can answer any of my questions, that would be great. Once again I am glad to have found this forum. I will be calling a new Gyno tomorrow to make an appointment. THanks.

[loisanne]

Hi, I am 67 years old and just had the repair done on June 4, 2008. To say I am better is putting it mildly. I am MUCH better. The thing is, get yourself to several surgeons for opinions. I went to 4 of them. Found one at Penns Hospital in Philadelphia. He is a specialist in URO_gynecological surgery. That is what you need. I was told by my gyno that he was not trained in the newer procedures and it was better for me to see hte uro-gynecological surgeon. He was right.

I had a cystocele which dropped into the vagina and also a dropped vagina. Both were repaired and I am feeling much better. It takes time, time to heal, and time to get used to voiding differently. Do your homework and get the best there is in your area. It really paid off for me.

When I had the surgery I made up my mind to drink alot of water afterwards. I had no trouble voiding and went home with not a catheter, nothing. Alot of prayer went into this and my prayers were answered. Hope you do well.
Loisanne

[nonna]

Dear Loisanne,
Did you have just the cystocele repair without a bladder suspension? I've also had numerous opinions and my problem is that all of the surgeons seem very good, but they differ about how extensive a repair I should do. My most severe problem is a rectocele but I also have a cystocele which several doctors think I should fix and just to make sure that the rectocele doesn't
"unmask" problems with my bladder, they want to do the suspension so that I won't develop incontinence (I have none of that now). My other surgeon only wants to repair the rectocele because he thinks it could make my bladder irritation worse if they mess with my bladder (I have interstitial cystitis or irritable bladder syndrome). I'm trying to figure out what to do. On top of that my uterus has dropped down quite a bit, but again, the surgeons differ as to whether I should do a hysterectomy because several of them think it's not that bad. So I'm left to figure out what the best solution is. Did you have a lot of pain with your procedure? Also, I'm concerned about the weight lifting limits. I was told that even after recovery I should never again lift more than 20 pounds and I regularly lift my grandson and do other stuff, all of which is in the 30 lb. range. Any input about all this I'd love to hear. Thanks, Nancy

[loisanne]

Hi, got your message. If you mean by bladder suspension you mean what they call a sling, I did not have that. I have post polio and a weak bladder. Everyone who did the uro-dynamics test on me(2 surgeons) told me that I was using other muscles to empty my bladder. They told me that if they used the sling, that sometimes you have problems emptying your bladder. That with me, that could mean learning to self catherize myself three times a day for the rest of my life.!

The surgeon who operated on me told me he was not going to use this sling, that I did NOT leak during the testing and that he did not want to take a chance that I would have difficulty emptying my bladder later. I thank God that I am better. As I said, they pulled up my bladder using the Apogee system and also corrected the vagina which had dropped. I drank like a fish the day of my surgery and on the next day they took out the catheter and told me I had 6 hours to pee. I started peeing right away(they told me I was the poster child for drinking water like I was told). Then they told me that I had to empty my bladder with less than 100cc to go home with no catheter. They did one test an d it was 74 cc. YEAH! Then right before I left for home they did it again and it was 0cc!!

I came home black and blue where you sit. I was told to drink and to empy my bladder every two hours for the first two weeks. I did just that. Not much pain at all.

I did not ask about lifting more than 20 pounds for the rest of my life. I will when I see the dr tomorrow. I would not worry about that. Get better.

One of the surgeons I saw insisted that he was going to insert a supra pubic tube into my bladder for up to 2 weeks. Thankfully, my surgeon told me that was not necessary.

If you live near Phila I can give you the name of my surgeon. I wish you well.
Feel free to ask more questions. I was so worried about my surgery I drove everyone nuts!
Loisanne