pessary

I know what it is to be in a mess that you can't get out of--- I have so many issues in my life rite now--My cervix and vagina hang outside my body if I stand... It was my cervix and uterus but i let the health tech guys remove my uterus and fix the cervix with a Y shaped mesh to my sacral area to keep my vagina up...where was my head... this had all went wrong after 2 yrs and now I am what I am... i feel the mesh... I leak miserably day and nite... and to get rid of mesh and infection i take risk of perforating/cut my bowel, bladder, urethra and things i can't remember... I feel slightly sick all the time.... Can i live like this -- OF Course I can... Should i live like this? how do i know?? If mesh and discharge is stopped then I stille have cervix and vagina and will need pessary or surgery??
I also need to decide to quit my job or not...decsions... PS a famed doctor in Toront told me he has patient who have use pessaries for over 30 years.... they do work.. He reduced the premarin i take (cream) from 3 X week to 1 X week (.5 grams) it does keep me moistier.... I also watch for diverticulitis--- having had MRi to find mesh which disclosed severe diverticulosis..... Thank you all for sharing

Snickspar...some women do very well with a pessary, while others cannot wear them at all. I believe it is women with primary cystocele who can wear the ring-with-support pessary most successfully. A low cervix or significant rectocele will often push anything in the vagina right out. The other option is this postural work. Some serious firebreathing both on hands and knees and standing before starting out on your walk should make a difference. If my cervix is too low I actually push it all the way forward before I firebreathe. I create more vaginal wall bulginess by holding my cervix forward as I bear down, which helps to hold my cervix up higher. Mine is a special condition, though, and I'm very careful to suggest other women do this unless you have severe UP with no cysocele/rectocele. The nauli I demonstrate in the DVD is miraculous for pulling the uterus forward, which it does by lifting the guts so the uterus can re-position. Walk in the posture - and stop and bend over as many times as you need to bring things inside the labia. You should experience improvement.

Sammy...I don't think you can go on like this! I have read in the literature that an infected sacrocolpopexy can often be easily removed vaginally by making an incision in the top-back vaginal wall. A light tug on the polypropylene will sometimes bring it out in one piece with no serious damage. I think it would be worth it to find a skilled surgeon to do this, as the festering is probably not going to stop. You don't want to court a blood infection. Lots of love and prayers coming your way.

Wishing you both well,

Christine

Thanks Christine;
I will keep you informed---

Hi, Snickspar:
I'm a pessary user, with primary cystocele. When I first got fitted for the pessary, I walked out with the knobby design you mention. The knob is there to put some pressure on the urethra and kink it off to prevent urinary leakage. Once I got home and tried to urinate, I found it was quite difficult to do so. I took the pessary out later that evening and called the office the next day for a new appointment.

I had to wait several weeks after the next fitting because my size was out of stock. At any rate, I now have the plain ring with support and no knob, and it does the job just fine. (Any health care practitioner fitting women with pessaries ought to send the patient to the washroom before sending her home with the new device.) I certainly hope you can get this worked out quickly. You ought to be able to walk and barely know the device is in there, if the style and size are appropriate for your body.

Also, I found I had to start taking fiber and drinking more. Hard stools are not compatible with pessary use and are not good for us who are dealing with prolapse anyway. One of the soluble fiber brands works for me.

I hope that your practitioner explained to you how a pessary folds, along one axis only, like a taco shell. Hook a finger into one of the large holes in the silicone membrane and fold the ring as you remove it, with the knob aligned with the fold. It is helpful to put your foot up on a toilet seat or chair for inserting and removing the device.

A pessary should help you live your life, not hinder you. If your current practitioner can't get it right, find someone else to fit you. Best wishes for an improved quality of life.

Saddleup

Hi there:

Please accept the sympathy and best wishes of Forum users for your situation. You are in a rough position. I absolutely support Christine's response. Find a specialized surgeon who has removed mesh many times from women's bodies. Ask your gynecologist or surgeon what practitioners they would trust with a family member who had your difficulties.

I know of a urogynecologist in Ohio who does this, which may or may not help you if you are near Toronto. He gets lots of referrals for this procedure because mesh causes problems frequently.

I have no special credentials, I must add, and your decisions are up to you. It just seems like you would be better off getting the mesh out of there before things get worse (which may be hard to imagine, but infection would be worse).

Take care,

Saddleup

snickspar,
I too have both conditions, however I do not use a pessary. I do know that it takes a long time to recover from a bowel infection. Hang in there.

I was diagnosed with diverticular disease in 2005 and have had three infections since then. Do not forget to take your fiber. That is how my second infection occurred. I also know tht you need to be very careful with your diet. I have found that I cannot eat popcorn, strawberries, raspberries, poppyseeds, sesame seeds, nuts, peanuts, etc. I am sure you know the drill. BE careful! My last episode occurred in November, I had a handful of popcorn and realized too late what I had done and ended up with a bleeding diverticula. I have it under control now and have found that my prolapses are also "behaving".

I have found that changing my eating habits has helped me tremendously with the diverticular disease and subsequently with my rectocele. (my rectocele is the worst of my prolapses.. I have four- UP, cystocele, rectocele and urethracele)
Every morning I eat a large bowl of fruit and high fiber breakfast bar and of course my Metamucil... I will never forget to take it again. At lunch I try to eat soup or small sandwich with more fruit and veggies. at dinner I eat chicken/fish/cooked veggies/ veggie burger or maybe an egg. I have found that raw veggies are also hard on my bowel.

The biggest thing that I have done is to eliminate dairy products (including yogurt) from my diet and I very seldom eat red meat. They are both too hard to digest.

I have been thinking about this for a while... Are humans the only animal to drink/eat breast milk from another species? I don't know?

I also do whole woman exercises every morning. I have found that they make a difference as well.

Anyway I am now rambling.. so just wanted to say hang in there and you will discover what works for you.

Thanks Saddleup
I hope to get an appointment tomorrow. There aren't too many urogynecologists in my neck of the woods....

Not too comfortable with all these complications.

I have asked for the eroded mesh in my pelvis be removed and have been told the surgeons in this field are booked to their maximum and that there are 100's and 100's of women awaiting help. I may have developed ulcers but am still trudging on with increased pain and discharge. My primary care doctor has seen no need to even look at the situation he is not skilled in this area since he is new in the profession and about 60 years old
It is not sensible to me that my quality of life was made much much worse by a speclialized procedure and the Canadian health system is so slack I still consider leaving a job whose activities i thrive upon and whose social connections are precious to me - it hurts more and more to walk and the bulge is so big and the mesh so apparent in my prolapsed vagina. Shame Shame on the specialists....

this sounds so hopeless. You did what you needed to do, you asked for it to be removed, and now you have to wait? Cause there is a line of women waiting? Oh my gosh. It's worse than I ever imagined.
If you have the money, you could travel for the surgery to remove it. There really is not a waiting list in the U.S.
How are you going to manage? You sound like you really don't want to leave your job.....maybe while you wait you can get a wheelchair and handicap status. At least that would help with pain management.

Sammy, I am so sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble, and that you are faced with a queue to get help.

Remember the fuss that was made with all the silicone breast implants that burst and ruined the health of all those women? I wonder if the manufacturers paid for any of that removal surgery?

I wonder if the mesh manufacturing company should be contributing to helping all those women in the queue to have their problems addressed? It seems stupid to me that a government-sponsored healthcare system should by itself carry the burden of fixing problems related to procedures that were done with materials that caused problems. All these erosion problems are only going to give your healthcare system a heavier load of more serious problems if they are left in. Crazy.

Perhaps it is time to get the women in the queue into a team to create a bit of noise and give the health system and the manufacturer a hurry along?

I don't know what the potential complications of mesh removal are. It sounds from this article, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Erosion,+pain+often+cited+in+POP+mesh+remo... , like the problems associated with removal are considerably less than the problems of leaving it in, in many cases. I would urge you to research this yourself.

Yes, shame, shame, shame on all of them!

Louise

Dear Sammy:

Though I have not allowed my local urogynecologist to operate on my cystocele, I know that other doctors refer patients to him to remove mesh. He is in northern Ohio. It isn't that far from Ontario, really. Yes, it would be self-pay, and I don't know the cost, plus there would be travel and lodging expenses. But you may not be able to wait for government health care to fit you into its scheme. God bless you. I am sorry for the pain you are experiencing. E-mail me if you want the contact information.

Take care,
Saddleup