Recent diagnosis of POP

I obsess all the time too and find myself occasionally beating myself up for not being proactive about this much earlier. Most people grow up knowing about the flu, even hip replacement surgery... but not prolapse. Recently a receptionist at Kaiser needed me to spell it for him. I'm not so sure how to deal with the emotions. I'm having a test this wednesday for rectal prolapse where they stick a balloon with a camera up your behind... I'm worried about being absolutely humiliated or having ptsd flashbacks as I have been through some tough times. I'd love to know how to deal with the this stuff too if anyone has worked through some of the emotional bit... sometimes that's harder to deal with than the physical symptoms. I am still so insecure to put myself out into the world. I can really empathize with you!

Dear Cloudbliss 7 & Tree Woman,
Be gentle with yourselves - there can be a grieving process which is normal.
What I can say is to immerse yourselves in the information both on this site & Christine's journal reviews, books and videos, which is a helpful, proactive, empowering way to move forward, a focus & distraction from worrying about the future & past.
Tree Woman - we are all there in spirit with you as you go through your examinations.
Practice belly breathing as we forget to breath properly when worried or stressed, keeping your shoulders down is beneficial & relaxing also -it seems simple but it works.
Every time you start to think worrying thoughts bring your attention to your breathing & belly. I am learning to do that & to stop dwelling on the past or worry about the future.
I was so relieved, grateful & excited to find this forum of lovely supportive ladies, including Christine & Lanny, after waiting 17years to find an alternative to surgery for rectocele.
You have come to the right place & you are not alone,
As we journey together,
(((hugs))) & Best Wishes
Aussie Soul Sister

Hi cloudbliss and welcome! I too have cystocele and primary rectocele. This is the most common form of prolapse and Christine calls it "nature's pessary" because these 'celes provide support to keep the uterus/cervix from moving too far down and back. I am post-meno and have been doing this work for 3 years. I'm extremely active and find that the posture and habits for bending/lifting/carrying that I have learned from WW have enabled me to get on with everything I do. Without fear - that's the biggie! The value of making this posture correction before I got any older, has become so obvious to me, that far from resenting or being angry about my 'celes, I am grateful for where they have brought me. I have never felt better. It does take time and a real mental commitment to make this posture second nature, and then forever after you will still need to be mindful in so many day-to-day situations. It is so totally worth it. Good luck to you! - Surviving

Whenever we go through a life change such as prolapse and find we are reacting emotionally it is probably a little comforting to look at the stages of grief; a hypothesis by Kubler-Ross who spent many years working with the sick and dying. She talked about the stages that someone goes through and these stages resonated with people so that the concept became commonly accepted to apply to all life changers not just death. The first stage is the denial that you are talking about and the other stages include, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. If you Google her you will find details: wiki gives a nice summary. Not everyone will be affected in this way. For some of us, we will not go through the grief process and this is healthy too, we will just accept it as part of life and get on with it the best we can.
Whichever position you are coming from, the fact that WW exists empowers us by providing information and guidelines by which to cope. WW provides hope and a method of working to manage our prolapse and each little victory we earn for ourselves means we stem back the emotional tide inch by inch.
As you possibly may see yourself as a bit of a earth mother with your gardening and community activity for church (tradition, belief and strong moral standing) and library (knowledge and wisdom) as well as several homes (warmth and friendship) and a healthy lifestyle it is possible to see your journey through prolapse not as a negative useless thing but as a chance to grow in wisdom and an opportunity to extend your loving care to yourself.

Yep, this is a good summarization by Fab. I think I avoided the whole thing. I was probably no more than 48 hours into my discovery of prolapse when I located WW and started soaking up the information. Christine's book was already winging its way to me. I moved right from discovery to acceptance. We are the luckiest, who discovered our prolapse AFTER Whole Woman and the world wide web came into existence. These days there is no excuse to do anything but jump right into this. - Surviving

Cloudbliss, this is wonderful to hear, thanks so much for the update. Good inspiration for all of us who are committed to doing this work. I myself have much diet work still to do. I get some good motivation from posts like yours. Keep up the good work!! - Surviving