Post vaginal repair

Submitted by hmackenz on April 17, 2010 - 7:45pm
Body: 

I had 8 weeks ago now, a Burch procudure and post vaginal repair. The reason was that I had incontinence that was very frustrating and getting worse. The DR said the post vaginal repair is always done with the Burch. I am 40 and have been healthy other than this and did not even have a stitch after vaginal deliveries of my 3 kids.

I came home after surgery and was back at the DR in 10 days to to agonizing pain that made it so I could barely walk. The DR did a quick exam and said I had a hematoma and don't worry about it. 2 days later I was in emerg in pain where they said I was constipated and gave me an enema, which did relieve some of the angonizing pain until another 2 days when I was bleeding very heavily and was back in emergency and re-admitted.

My DR 'packed' my vagina and watched for 2 days saying that I'd probably torn a stitch. I was sent home and took it easy. Back in 8 days with more bleeding, sent home, said it was just healing. Then another 2 days and serious hemorhhaging and ultimately the post vaginal repair was re-sewn, double this time according to the DR.

I am home and it's been 3 weeks since I've been back. But I am taking it very easy, almost entirely in bed first week and very light walking and no driving or really even leaving the house since. I once again have a thick, discharge that they say is yeast and have little energy. I did not need a blood transfusion but am on iron pills due to the drop in my hemoglobin level.

I don't have my post op for a couple of weeks, and if I make it to that date without being re-admitted to the hospital with bleeding again (fingers crossed), I don't want anyone looking down there!

Has anyone ever heard of a recovery taking so much time and does it seems normal to be terrified to even sit normally for fear of ripping the stitches again? I'm worried I'll add back pains to my list of problems now since I lay back or lay to the side!

The Doctors (uro-gyny & my GP) say that this is extremely rare, almost unheard of....

saddleup

April 17, 2010 - 11:29pm

Dear hmackenz:

Hugs and healing thoughts to you! I am so sorry to hear of your pain and distress. Nature does bad things to us sometimes. Then, we trust our health care providers to help and not exacerbate the problem. It is so frustrating when things don't work out well.

It sounds as if your intense pain is no longer present. I'd take that as a very good sign. You are wise to rest and give your body as little physical stress as possible. I know of some women who have had the "repair" and have done well for twenty years. Others have had experiences like yours, or worse.

Our bodies work very hard to heal themselves following injuries and operations. No one can say what the long term results will be. The important thing now is for you heal up from the second procedure without infection, tearing, or other complications. Then you will be able to go on from there, one day at a time.

Please keep us posted here at Whole Woman and let us know how you are feeling. We truly care about you. My prayers go out for your healing and peace of mind.

Best wishes,
Saddleup

aza

April 18, 2010 - 2:16am

Hi hmackenz,
Oh my goodness....so sorry to hear about what you have been through! Hopefully someone a bit more knowledgeable will be along soon with more info. I am certainly no expert but not much about your 'healing' sounds normal at all to me. Surgery to fix something usually has an accepted time of healing but this should not involve such a violent reaction from the body. It seems like you have been either treading water or going backwards rather than getting better. So no, from what you have written it does not sound normal at all and hopefully the 2nd repair to fix what the 1st surgery clearly did not accomplish will actually work this time. I am so sorry for what you are experiencing!
Reading that you are on iron tabs caught my eye. Are they the form that is constipating? This is usually ferrous sulfate and is often a cause of horrid digestive problems, which you clearly do not need right now!

Christine

April 18, 2010 - 6:37pm

Hello,

I am so sorry to hear of your suffering. Especially since a bladder neck suspension was the start of my prolapse troubles. I wish I could tell you to take it easy and be patient while you heal, but unfortunately you have endured a couple of operations that will likely cause you much additional trouble.

The Burch procedure and similar operations secure the fascia around the bladder neck to the front of the body. It is important to know exactly what was done - a classic Burch sutures to “Cooper’s ligament” near the pubic bones and some forms of the operation place screws directly into the pubic bones. This operation was originally developed in 1949 for men who had lost their prostate to cancer and were completely incontinent of urine.

I presume you mean you also had a repair of your back vaginal wall. sigh. There is no standard of care for these procedures...absolutely no data that a posterior repair will help prevent potential problems with the Burch. I think Alemama and the rest of our “radical perineum defenders” will just cry at reading about a woman who birthed three babies without a stitch only later to be given a “double” stitched recto repair. sigh. You will get past the hematoma, dear lady, but prepare yourself for years of healing to come.

The Burch pulls your front vaginal wall forward. If you don’t have a uterus, this operation can solve urinary incontinence. If you do have your uterus, you are at extreme risk of profound uterine prolapse. This has been clearly stated again and again in gynecologic literature over the past twenty years. There are also urinary difficulties common to bladder neck suspensions - most significantly having to strain to empty your bladder.

These are terrible operations that should never be performed on a young woman who still has her uterus. I am angry and disgusted. All I can do is continue to work toward change.

Wishing you well,

Christine

louiseds

April 19, 2010 - 9:28am

Hi Hmackenz

I too am floored by the amount of suffering you are experiencing after this repair. I'm sorry, but I can only encourage you to let your body heal for now, in as comfortable a way as possible, until you are feeling stronger. It is no comfort to you for a doctor to say that this is extremely rare. This is your *only* body that they have messed up. It is not like you went down to the shop and bought a dress that ripped when you put it on, and you can just pop down to the boutique and get it replaced!

It makes me so sad and angry that this could happen. I hope your improvement continues, even if it is very slow. Just take it a day at a time, and try not to measure your progress too often.

Keeping a diary of how you are feeling every day might give you the opportunity to see tiny improvements in what you can do over the weeks, and give you some encouragement.

I echo Aza's comments on iron and constipation. I am sure there is another form, or other ways of getting iron that will not constipate you. Much of the early constipation was probably caused by narcotics you may have been given in the first few days post-op, but as long as you are not taking codeine or other narcotic type painkillers, or other pain killers now, that might cause constipation, that post-op constipation should be in the past.

I would also suggest that you take a month long course of good quality probiotic supplement to help repopulate your gut with good bacteria, and help your body overcome any yeast infection. You may also have had antibiotics which would not help the yeast either.

I am so sorry I cannot offer you more help.

Louise

kiki

April 20, 2010 - 11:47pm

I just wanted to echo that I am so sorry to hear of the pain and problems you are having. Do go easy on yourself and give yourself time to slowly heal, as the others have said. You now know about WW and hopefully with the posture and strengthening your body when you have healed (at that point you can get guidance from Christine about what would be safe as some of the exercises might not be safe with the surgery), you can minimise future problems.
But for the moment, rest and heal.

Iron--Flurodix is a gentle, non constipating iron which is worth trying. it's a liquid made from herbs and not heavy duty iron, but that combined with lots of beet root and other iron rich foods often does the trick, w/o the side effects. if you need something stronger whilst pregnant i ended up on on a liquid iron from the doctor that wasn't constipating (seemed to be the reverse) that was probably full of all sorts of nasties (but i wouldn't get a home birth if i didn't get my levels way up so i did it for a couple weeks).

re yeast also worth cutting out sugar / white / refined products, which will also help your digestion.

take care of yourself and please keep us updated on how you are doing.
Kiki