posture, can it make this big of difference?

Yes, Connie...you are returning to your natural pelvic organ support system!

What you are doing is OK, but you will suffer neck and shoulder pain if you do not keep your shoulders down, your upper back flat and broad, and your head pulled up at the crown...think of pulling up through the back of your neck. The shoulders down/chest lifted/head pulled up gives a wonderful stretch that leads the whole body.

I have listened to you struggle and am so thrilled to hear of this improvement. It will be an up and down thing forever, but now you understand what we are all trying to convey - that pelvic organ support depends upon the shape of the spine. Don't be too surprised if your back wall comes in a bit, as that is how prolapse settles out in the vast majority of women.

Hooray!

Christine

That's the best news I've heard all week Connie!!! I hope you keep having better days ahead! Like the previous posters, I was quite concerned about you. It's discouraging when you aren't getting any better after trying so hard! Hard work and patience pays off! Keep us posted on your progress!

That's great Connie, that WW posture has made a difference! I too have watched you struggling, and have not been able to figure out what you were or were not doing right.

I have been struggling with some bellydance steps, and my teacher keeps telling me that you just gotta keep practising. It is frustrating, but eventually your brain clicks in and it *suddenly* becomes easy. It think old ways get in the way of brain changes sometimes.

I just read Christine's two comments, saying to lift from the back of the neck. I have not thought about it this way before, but I will be changing my thinking from breast thinking to back of neck thinking. I really do think we need to start at the top and lift up, rather than make specific curves or stick particular bits out. Otherwise we overwork some muscles in order to get particular positioning. This is a recipe for disaster for me. Also we are all different shapes, whether we have a particularly straight back, or a big butt to start with, or big boobs that stick out in the first place, or no butt at all, or a belly that has a mind of its own.

Cheers

Louise

Hi Connie

So it didn't stay up for long? Big deal. It did stay up for a while, and that shows you what is possible. I can see from these later posts, and from your false unicorn post that your attitude has changed. You no longer seem so desperate. You are now willing to try things, knowing that they might or might not work, and accept the result as just the next stage, and not the be all and end all. This is called progress, when you begin to have some successes, even if you are not sure why. It is constant work. Maybe we just get better at using our bodies and avoiding things that aggravate our POPs?

Some smart researcher once said that the human being needs to be hugged every day, but followed that up by saying that they would settle for one good hug a month. Half full - half empty? You choose.

((Hugs))

Louise

ps The reason for it coming down again is probably that it is not possible to wrap ourselves in cottonwool 24/7. We have lives to live, and there are things that we do that are not very forgiving on our damaged structures. You will get used to being the detective, and you will also get used to not solving every case. That's life. They will rise again. Cottonwool gets a bit boring after a while.

Hi Connie and everyone,

Thanks for sharing this. I 've found myself in the same or at least similar situation these days. Some days I feel great and fine, some days I am about to die. That is just the way it is I guess.
Wishing you better and better days along the way!
Liv

Hi Connie,

Great to hear that you had some good days and are more optimistic. Sorry things are "down" again, but that is to be expected. The important thing, in my mind, is to understand why. When I first started this I kept a diary of what I did and what I ate every day. I noted whether or not it was a good day. When I had a bad day, I could look at the day before and see what I did, or ate, that might have made that happen. It was not long before I figured out what I could do to ensure good days. Not that I don't do things that I know are going to give me a bad day the next day once in a while, like eating meat, pasta, having a heavy meal and/or lifting things that are too heavy for me, but I least then I know why my prolapse isn't behaving.

You might want to try that. It went a long in helping me figure things out.

Wishing you many more good days,
~Mae

Hi Connie

Re "Did everyone else make faster progress than me?" Forums like Wholewoman are a twin-edged sword. There are stories of success and failure, and many words of encouragement uttered. It is a pretty positive environment. When you are feeling discouraged, and everyone else is reporting the wonderful progress they are making, it can make it hard for you to accept your own level of progress. I guess all I can say is that it is a long road back to trusting your body.

It is just like a marriage (which it indeed is), where trust has been seriously breached. Having made the decision to try and patch it up, they both have to realise that the marriage that they took for granted will never be the same, but month by month, and year by year, trust can be rebuilt, especially if the untrusted party is willing to have their fidelity challenged continually, and the non-trusting person is willing to take risks, and push on to re-establishing trust again. No two marriages will become healthy again at the same rate. There will be hard work, setbacks, and subsequent recovery. There will be celebrations along the way.

You cannot compare marriages, and you cannot compare one woman's POP healing with another. It is purely personal. I wonder if there is a level of symptoms that you consider to be 'good enough'? Or are you hoping for 100% remission of symptoms? Once you reach your first level of 'good enough', you can shift the bar up a bit, and walk towards a new 'good enough' if you feel it is warrented.

How can a person who goes about their life in a wheelchair be contented? I know one, and I am in awe of him. How can a breadwinner who suffers a trauma that means being pensioned off be satisfied that they can still raise their family satisfactorily? To what degree can we reconcile doing more with less, and being at peace with that?

I am sure that physical remission of symptoms is only one part of managing POP without surgery. The other parts for me are acceptance of setbacks, acceptance of some symptoms sometimes, preventing worsening of the physical damage, optimum health in other respects and healing of our hearts from the grief of what we have lost in terms of physical integrity and loss of self esteem. We also need to heal our hearts of other pain that has come from earlier parts of our lives. It is also about giving thanks for what we have, and exploring new possibilities that we previously had ignored.

There are 168 hours in a week, and up to 110 years in a lifetime, of which probably over 50% is full, active, unlimited life, often more, sometimes less. I cannot do everything. There is so much to do and so little time. I am just going to choose the things that are most worthwhile, that I can do, and work around or ignore the rest.

Well, that was a flowery little conclusion, wasn't it? But I think that is basically the nub of it.

Cheers

Louise