Vaginal Prolapse

[livingwith]

I am 33 and have 3 children under the age of 5. After delivering my last child I felt something was wrong. After being referred to the gynaecologist [gynecologist] I was told I have a prolapse.
Surgery is an option for me however my partner andI had planned on having another child and if I have surgery I either couldn’t have any more children or would have to have a c section.
This is so distressing on so many levels. Most of my friends are relitively young and trendy, I don’t know a...Read the full article

[Belliveau]

Don't feel alone. I am 32 and have 2 children under 5. I am fit and very healthy. I too, do not fit the "profile"!

I had vaginal prolapse, cystocele, rectocele and a deficient perinium. I felt, for lack of a better term, Gross. It does alot to your self esteem to know that you are falling apart like a ninety year old!

On March 6th, 2008 I had surgury to repair those issues and am still recovering. It's a big deal.

I am still unsure how I feel about the whole process and am getting frustated with myself.

My friends look at me as though I have 10 heads when they ask what type of surgury I had. Thank God for my friends who are nurses. They atleast had an idea of what I was talking about.

How does your partner feel about this? My husband never actualy said too much but I could tell that he was a bit turned off by it. And so am I. It just felt so abnormal. Did you have large babies or difficult deliveries? I had both and within a year of each other. Your children must be close together too. Please feel free to chat. I am so excited to find someone of my own age and situation to talk with!! Have you thought of a pessiary?

I a

[cola]

ok i had to comment on your post. i too am sceduled for surgery to fix this same problem. i am scared. i dont have anybody to talk to about it let alone anyone who knows what it is. i am only 28 years old and i first went to the doctor for this almost 7 yrs ago. i had 2 children at a young age. my first pregnancy was when i was 16 and the second at 17. that is the only thing that i think could have caused this for me. my body just wasnt ready. my husband shocked me though. he has been very supportive through all of this. what im wondering is how difficult is the recovery going to be? my job requires me to be on my feet for 12 hrs a day. will i be in alot of pain at first and how long if so. im glad to have looked this up. i feel better knowing im not the only one going through this. thank you for sharing your story.

[Belliveau]

I was so scared that the nurses had to hold my hand during the surgury. Don't feel alone. Thank god the OR staff were so nice. They joked with me throughout the whole thing. It really helped

The recovery is still going on. I am now 3 weeks post op and just went to see the Gyn this am. I have developed my second infection since the operation. The first was a bladder infection that I received from the catheter and this is an infection of the incision. I am still uncomfortable and have to say that if you have a job where you spend 12 hrs on your feet I hope they will let you have time off. I still get a lot of pressure and soreness when I stand for any amount of time. I don't know what else to tell you but I am open to any questions you have. It was scary. I'm still nervous. Hope I can atleast help you out where I had no one to turn to.

Belliveau

[Belliveau]

Dear cola,

I wanted to add that I don't go online often so don't feel that i am ignoring your posts if I do not reply right away. When is your surgury?

[cola]

my surgery is on may 8th. it will be day surgery so i will be home the same day. they will send a nurse to my house. im a little worried about being home so soon but i think i will be more comfortable.

[cola]

wow 3 weeks and still lots of pain. thats what im most affraid of i think. were you awake during the surgery? for me they plan to do it as day surgery and send me home the same day. did you stay in the hospital? im worried about having a cathater at home mostly because of infection. i will be getting time off work i booked off 8 weeks just in case. doctor said about 6 weeks depending on how much needs to be fixed. based on how i feel and what ive read i think its pretty bad. the worst part is never being comfortable and always rushing to the washroom. im very embarassed by it. thank you so much for getting back to me. you definately have helped.

[Belliveau]

I had a spinal & was awake for the whole thing. It was not as a bad as I thought it would be. I had been told that I would be put under general but when I got there it was decided for me that I would just have the spinal. They gave me something to calm my nerves and that helped alot. I had never had any type of surgury before & was quite anxious about the whole needle in the spine thing.

I stayed in hospital for 1 night but nurses said that it should have been longer. I bled more than normal & they waited to remove the packing until the next morning. That really hurt!!! I wish they could have removed it while I was still frozen! Anyhow I fainted in the bathroom at the hospital and had a bp of 60/32. Not good. However the dr said that this was not related to the surgury
(yeh, right!) and that I was discharged. The nurses made me stay another 12 hours ( as long as they were allowed to) before letting me go home. I was definitly not ready to be home. I had an infection that I did not know about and that was what was throwing my body off. I got it from the cathetar.

Just please listen to your body & report anything that seems odd. You can never ask too many questions. Your surgury is the day after my daughters birthday. I'll be thinking of you. That's only 6 weeks away.

Make sure that they give you something for pain and I would advise you to buy one of those inflatable rings to sit on!

[Honey Bee]

I am due to have a vaginal repair in May. I know I will be sore and uncomfortable afterwards but my biggest worry is the amount of support needed once I return home. My husband will be home for two weeks but then will have to return to work, possibly abroad. I have two children aged 4 and 6 who are very full on, If anyone reading this has had a vaginal repair can you tell me how much you yourself were able to do after two weeks, were you very uncomfortable or OK, did you need ongoing support for weeks or were you able to just get on with it? Has anyone had any ongoing problems after surgery. Has anyone gained great benefit from having the surgery? All thoughts, feelings and experiences appreciated.

Honey

[femforty]

Hi Honey. I am 46 and I have had stress incontinence for about 20 years. It started after my third child. I have 5 children. I tried exercising and physio but nothing helped. It gradually worsened and I too had a vaginal bulge. When I saw a specialist he told me I had 2 prolapses and that I needed to have them fixed sooner, rather than later. He also said he would remove my uterus because I had heavy and painful periods. He explained what he was going to do but spoke in medical terminology which I did not fully understand. I know he mentioned that he was going to insert mesh to hold everything in place.

Ten weeks ago, on a Monday, I was admitted to hospital for the op. The doctor told me I would be in hospital for about 4 or 5 days and that I could not fly home until 2 weeks had passed, 'just in case something goes wrong'. On the Wednesday after, my catheter was removed. Six hours later I still had not passed urine and I was in pain and very bloated. The nursing staff could not insert another catheter and they had to call in the doctor. He managed to insert it with some difficulty, but was unsure what the problem was. The next morning, he told me he was going to operate again to fix the problem by loosening the mesh!!! So, on Thursday evening I went to theatre. They removed the catheter the next day and eventually I passed some urine. I was then shown how to self-catheterise. I had to do this after every wee to completely empty my bladder. I ended up having to do this for about 10 days until my residual was down to 50 mils or less.

I don't want to bore you with all the details, but basically I have never been in so much pain and wished I had not done the operation. I could not sit comfortably for 7 weeks after the op. For the first 4 weeks I could hardly walk. At that stage I started being able to make myself a cup of tea. At about 5 weeks I started preparing light meals. At 7 weeks I was able to start doing housework, washing and cooking again.

You really do need someone to help you for at least 4 weeks. If you have a similar operation to mine, there is no way you will be able to look after 2 young children. You will need help with the children for at least 6 weeks.

You can't lift anything heavier than 2 kgs (about 4 pounds) for the first 6 weeks, and the internal sutures take about 3 months to heal. My GP told me that it will take me 6 to 12 months to feel like myself again.

I have had 2 UTIs since the operation and I am now on medication for 2 - 3 months to hopefully cure the urge incontinence which has developed since the op. I'm still not sure if the operation was a complete success, but it had to be done. Good luck with yours.