Help! Can't find my cervix!

Submitted by Judith on May 6, 2009 - 2:50am
Body: 

Not sure whether this is the right forum, so apologies if it isn't. Over the last week I've been experiencing slightly different symptoms from the usual rectocele ones (that I only get occasionally,thanks to this site/book), rather variable but basically bladderish with a little bit of cystitis. Last night I thought I'd have a feel inside and couldn't find my cervix, rather alarming. If I squat I think that I can just about touch the very tip, sort of wedged against the back wall of my vagina. I've always had a retroverted uterus, well before my two pregnancies - I was told this when it took ages to have an IUD removed at age 20. Could the uterus have slipped very far back? And what can I do to get it back to where it should be? Yesterday afternoon (before my exploration) I got into dog pose, hoping it would alleviate the prolapse feeling but actually it seemed to make it worse. I would be very grateful if anyone could shed some light on this. I live in the UK, in my experience GPs are hopeless with this sort of thing, so I don't think I can go and get an instant diagnosis. Besides, the only time I visited my current GP she was very unpleasant but I never really go anyway as we use homoeopathy and other alternative therapies. Many thanks, Frances

louiseds

May 6, 2009 - 3:23am

Hi Frances

When you do downward dog, if your hamstrings are a bit tight, you might find that you cannot keep the lumbar curve in place and the pelvis is tilted back a bit. This will put pressure on your pelvic floor. Try bending your legs slightly, and/or lifting your heels slightly and/or moving your hands and feet a little closer to each other, until you are a bit more flexible. The weight should be evenly distributed between hands and feet (I think).

Re the lost cervix, I too have had half a lifetime of retroverted uterus. How it got to be like that is not resolved. Now my cervix is a little lower, my uterus has flipped into normal position (forwards and resting on top of my bladder). My cervix now points backwards most of the time. Sometimes it goes back to retroverted, eg when I am lying on my back, but not that often when I am upright. Yes, I do lose it sometimes, it goes so far up. I am thrilled because I know it can still go up really high. Don't worry about it. It will be somewhere in there! But I can relate to the alarm of losing track of a cherished a body part.

Louise

Judith

May 6, 2009 - 3:48am

Thank you thank you thank you. The stuff about the downward dog makes total sense, my hamstrings are tight and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my lumbar curve may be diminished anyway as a result of spinal changes. It's a bit hard to tell because, according to my cranial osteopath, the place where I've actually lost movement is higher up, just below the shoulder blades, and that area has lost its curve, become flattened, so that it makes lower down look less curved, if you see what I mean.

I think that, instead of doing downward dog to stretch my hamstings I may just bend forwards to touch the floor.

As I notice other people have remarked, you are a mine of information and your replies are indeed so clear and generous, can't thank you enough.

BTW, on a totally different subject, as an ex-homoeopath and practising hypnotherapist, I refuse to believe that damaged fascia can't repair itself. Our cells are constantly being renewed and our bodies have a memory of how they used to be before pathology. So I'm about to write myself a self-hypnosis programme to repair any damage done, in my case probably by a very forceful first labour. Of course I have tried this before but I've had some new ideas for how to tackle it differently. I'll report back though obviously repair isn't going to happen instantly. But one suggestion I can make for anyone who's interested is to keep talking to your organs, in a very kind, respectful way, to encourage them to find a comfortable healthy position within the pelvis (probably best to not do this out loud in company). I've used this many times, very effectively, at the onset of symptoms. I remember reading a while ago that research was done on the efficacy of thinking muscles through an exercise routine, rather than doing it, and it was effective (can't remember how effective but it made a noticeable difference). The drawback was that participants said they would have found it easier to just physically do the exercise rather than concentrate on thinking it. But my point is that our thoughts go directly to our cells and it's easy and rather pleasant to talk to your own body in the way I suggest.

I can't find any instructions for jiggling, might it be on the DVD?

best wishes Frances

louiseds

May 6, 2009 - 4:27am

Hi Frances

I can just see it now. You're on the crowded bus on the way home from a big morning of shopping, and your pre-schooler turns around and says loudly, "Mummy, why are you whispering to your bladder?" Hmmm...

Re thinking through an exercise if you cannot actually do it, Feldenkrais teaches that thinking through trains the brain, which can then in turn teach the body. I think a lot of body problems are caused by 'erroneous movement memories', and it is only by doing/thinking a lot of the revised version, that we can change the wiring.

Re jiggling, you are right. It was coming up in the searches but is now not as easy to find. Here goes.
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Breathe out, and bend over from the hips so your belly button is lower than your vulva. You can bend your knees as much as you find comfortable. Get your belly hanging between your thighs so you can go deeper. Now rest your elbows on your knees so you can relax your abs and your whole belly, and jiggle from one foot to the other, a kind of shimmy, or bobbing up and down quickly with tiny knee bends. This jiggles all your pelvic organs towards the upper part of your torso, aided by gravity. Air may enter your vagina. This is s good sign in this case, cos it shows that the organs in there are really moving up (downwards) and into there normal position. You can help to suck them in by bracing your epiglottis in eating, rather than breathing, position and use your diaphragm as if to breathe in. You can't breathe in, so your diaphragm moves up and makes a vacuum in the abdominal and pelvic regions, and can only suck your pelvic organs inwards and 'up'. Evidence of this vacuum in the whole torso is the little depression that grows at the centre of your collarbone. If you feel there is a lot of air in your vagina after you have jiggled for a bit, just bear down slightly so most of it comes out, then unfurl into WW posture with a nice loose belly. This is easy to do, even in public, by putting your bag on the ground, and rummaging around in it while you jiggle gently with your butt facing the wall.

Cheers

Louise

Judith

May 6, 2009 - 4:50am

Hi Louise

Ha ha. That reminds me of when I was telling friends about my bladder retraining several years ago - lots of comments about teaching it to cook, use computers etc. BTW, I haven't noticed the subject of bladder training on the site, though I'm sure it must be here somewhere. It was one of the other things that made a big difference to POP symptoms, going to the loo a lot less frequently.

Thank you very much for the clear instructions for jiggling, I definitely wouldn't have arrived at that on my own. I'll report back later on, going for a warm-up walk before my exercises. Frances xx

Judith

May 6, 2009 - 5:09am

Hi Louise

Just did some jiggling, good fun (even more so for spectating 18yr old son). I just wanted to check that I'm doing it right ie only raise my heels from the floor, not whole foot? Seems to work the thighs (in a good way)?
Haven't mastered the epiglottis thing, do you do it whilst in the jiggling position? I get the depression at the centre of my collarbone if I do it in standing but not in the jiggling position. Frances xx

louiseds

May 6, 2009 - 5:26am

Mmmm, that sounds OK. I think it is what works for you to get the organs to actually move, cos sometimes mine get stuck, and I cannot get the air thing happening unless I do the epiglottis thing. Sometimes my organs will move without making the vacuum. I see no reason for waiting until you are bent over, except that it seems to need less effort when you are down (gravity assisted). If I do it when I am standing, then bend over, I get a bit of heartburn. Yuk. Style is nothing in this jiggling business. It's not like we are entering the Synchronised Pairs Jiggling at the next Olympics or something, in lycra and waterproof sequins, is it?

18 year old sons are great. You know that they do things far more weird and potentially gross with their friends, so they are pretty 'gross-tolerant', *except* when it is their sensible, motherly mother is being gross. You really can't offend them, but it is fun trying. ;-)

DH and I usually get "Why don't you two get a room!", or I get, "Mother, put some clothes on" or "Mother, stop right there. Do not say one more word!" But he still loves me, and I still love him, and we both know it.

Cheers

Louise

Judith

May 6, 2009 - 5:53am

Thanks Louise. Quite right re 18 year old sons. My efforts are generally greeted with great mirth, I sometimes think that they see me as as belonging to a completely different species.

I think you're wrong about the Lycra though, jiggling should definitely be an Olympic event. I tried it with lifting my feet completely off the ground, not possible (for me anyway). I never know whether people who don't have a spinal condition can do the things that I can't or whether some of my limitations are completely normal ones. Anyway, I don't think I could describe what I'm doing as jiggling, more a sort of raised heel not-going-anywhere shuffle.

Thanks again. I'm now going for a walk with 18 year old son (well, soon to be 18 actually. Frances xx

granolamom

May 6, 2009 - 5:59am

thank you frances for the reminder.
in my early prolapse days I did plenty of talking to my bladder and I believe it was helpful, even if only to connect me to my pelvic organs. I was very angry at the time, and feeling let down by my body, the 'conversations' helped me get to a better place.

about bladder training, we've done that with my ds, who has an 'idiopathic hyperactive bladder and bladder neck' or something like that. its a long story.
but he had the vibrating alarm on his watch reminding him to go urinate every four hours. in his case it wasn't terribly helpful but thats possibly because of the other issues he has.
as a PT student we learned about bladder retraining programs for people who had sustained spinal cord injuries, but I never had the opportunity to get any practical experience with that, having worked in acute care and then outpatient clinics. I think the bladder retraining probably happens in rehab right after acute care.

Judith

May 6, 2009 - 7:25am

Hi Granolamum

Thanks for the reply, interesting. So are you a practicing physio? If so, how brilliant to have one somewhere that really understands prolapse. What's a ds?

granolamom

May 6, 2009 - 9:41am

I'm not currently practicing, aside from screening all my neurotic friends' babies and nagging my mother about her chronic shoulder pain (I think all she needs is WW posture!)

ds = dear/darling son (dh = dear husband, dd = dear daughter, etc)

Judith

May 6, 2009 - 2:22pm

Thank you for that, now some other posts make more sense too. Frances