sea sponges good and bad for prolapse

Hi rubybaby,
I'm sorry, I don't have any helpful info for you, but just wanted to say that you might benefit from searching for 'sea sponge' in the search box in the upper left of the screen and reading through some of the old posts. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along soon, too.
Do you think the chafing is from the size of the sponge or could it be from the texture?

I can't use them because of the scratchy texture.
Someone once suggested putting them inside a condom (Louise was that you). Maybe you could try that.
You know if you are up for an experiment you could use some cheese cloth or muslin or something and make yourself a little drawstring bag- let the string hang out like a tampon string and maybe it would remove easily that way.

That's exactly what happens to me with the sponge. Heck of a time getting it out of the high corners and bloody to boot. We need a new pessary! I have written about it for ages - it would be like a squishy silicone sea anemone with rounded nubs for softly grasping tissue, but no large areas to create pressure. Will try again to work on the problem...hard now coz I'm busy making potholders and bean casseroles :-/

P.S. Some women can wear the sponge with ease - from what I can determine they have primary cystocele that moves forward by tucking the sponge up on top of their pubic bones.

I'd like to see one that you could insert with an applicator and then 'fill' to your specific specifications-
they would have different shapes- umbrella, doughnut, tampon, etc
and the fill tube would hang out like a tampon string for easy filling and removal.

Sounds good, Alemama. The only thing I feel certain about is that the vaginal space has to be able to close against intraabdominal pressure as much as possible. A squishy pessary might allow for that.

Ingenious thinking, alemama. I just had a flashback from years ago of taking a box of stuff to a UPS place to be shipped, and watched in amazement as they placed this bizarre foam-like stuff around my things and then it just expanded to fit around and protect everything perfectly. Far superior to bubble wrap and the foamy bits, that is for sure! Clearly, whatever toxic material was used would not be anything to be let near the vagina, but the idea is the same...

I have not used sea sponges, but I wonder if they tumble them or some similar process to soften the outside layer, like stonewashing jeans. If you cut a bit off maybe that is what creates the scratchy surface (where the bit has been trimmed off, exposing another scratchy surface).

Yes, I think it was me who suggested the condom, and I would love to hear if it works. But I think one of the advantages of the sea sponge is that it has such such a large surface area, like Christine's squishy sea anemone. Putting it in a condom would seriously reduce the surface area, so it might slip out more easily. One of the advantages of a condom is that its material specifications are suitable for use in the vagina, as long as your body can handle the PVC or latex. However, condoms are not designed to be worn continually.

I am thinking that there might be a squishy sea anemone type baby toy, that is suitable for sucking and teething, that would be suitable as a pessary.

I wonder what there is in the Nemo merchandise range? Or perhaps Sponge Bob?

Louise

Well, how do you get the blooming things in???? And where they will stay in? I have read and read and really can't find a good 1,2,3, step in here.

It's difficult enough just to bend over without getting vertigo, holding onto a mirror, and the sponge using a vinyl glove(cause the skin on my hand is peeling from the reaction to Avelox) and trying to keep my glasses on!!!! Ok, I know, I guess the visual is funny! So, go ahead, laugh - it's good for the soul. Just don't spew on your computers.
Frustrated GJ

Hi Grandma Joy

I just put experimental applicator instructions in the "Sea Sponges" topic. I would suggest not even trying to peer up your vagina. Take your glasses off and do it by feel. Much safer.

I am thinking of Grandma Joy falling in the bathroom and being carted off to the hospital, and the paramedics having a whipered conversation in the back of the ambulance, trying to work out exactly what the little old lady was trying to do when she fell. I think even the paramedics would be thinking it was TMI! ;-)

The glasses dilemma is real for me too. You can get neoprene thingies for your specs that you slip over the arms of your specs and go around the back of your head. It has an adjustable toggle thingy to tighten it so your specs won't fall off while surfing, wrestling or doing jobs which need you to be face down.

Good luck Grandma Joy!

Louise

I have followed the posts on how to insert a sea sponge or a tampon far enough in to help. A tool that might help is medical forceps. I happen to have some because of a craft I do and I used it to place a sea sponge. I obviously did not get it into the right spot because it came right back down but I am going to try again tomorrow.

Forceps are available at medical supply stores, online stores, fishing stores (I do recall seeing some at Sports Chalet in the lure section). There are forceps with rounded ends so possibility of pinching would be less. I have a pair of Kelly, which are about 5 1/2 inches and also a 10 inch pair of forceps. Mosquito forceps are too small to hold a tampon or sea sponge. Hope this helps others.

going to go look for a sponge to use as a pessary. thanks, everyone, for all the advice and tips.

Christine has speculated in this thread that sponges might be helpful for someone with primary cystocele, which does not describe you. I don't think there are many on this forum who have had good luck with the sponges. Pessaries may have a slightly better track record, if you have a doctor who is patient and willing to work with you to get the right one. I suggest this because I know you are seriously considering hysterectomy, which I believe is the worst of the possible paths you might take. - Surviving

Go to the support garment section of whole woman?? Where exactly is that, Tanglefoot????

I would caution anyone reading tanglefoot's responses on here. She has an agenda that doesn't really have Whole Woman in mind.

I find your posts confusing at best most of the time, tanglefoot. Especially since we have asked and you have confirmed that you have not purchased any of the materials that whole woman has to offer.
Yet you continue to give advice while not really understanding whole woman yourself.

I will continue to caution people about your posts, so that they will not be confused by them. And yes, I still believe you have an agenda coming to this forum that will help sell your product.

Following months of immense patience from our forum staff, I have made the decision that we are no longer going to tolerate any posts naming or referring to the hideaway support garment. For two reasons. First, the constant, underhanded marketing of it on the forums. Secondly, it is an inferior product. The only support garment with the WW stamp of approval is the V2 supporter, and I demonstrate in the new Saving the Post-Hysterectomy Woman video how to make a truly comfortable and supportive alternative.

Aging Gracefully, I find your responses to Tanglefoot over the top and very offensive for new people to read on this forum.
I din't see anywhere where Tanglefoot mentioned the word hideaway. I felt that she just wanted to help.
There was so much hostility in your response to her.
I would think that people would be afraid to ask any questions or give advice on this forum for fear of saying the wrong thing.

Been there,
That post above is just one in a long line of posts in which tanglefoot has been infiltrating the forum to sell her product. She has used other aliases as well as learned not to mention her product by name, just because we have been calling her out for the advertising she has been doing on this forum for months now. Some threads have even been deleted because of the steady and insistent advertising she was doing.

Judge me how you want to, but I won't apologize for keeping these kinds of people in check on the forum.

Dear been there: Once Christine has spoken her piece, it is not appropriate for you to chime in like that. It is actually a situation with which you are not familiar. That much should be clear from the posts. It is an improper use of this Forum. - Surviving

Thank you so much, Surviving60, for your sympathy and good advice. I feel encouraged to go on with my exercises and posture efforts, and to step up my firebreathing. I appreciate all your support. Question: can a person with a severe full genital prolapse expect to completely control it eventually through exercise--especially fire-breathing--and WW posture?

Thanks for the heads-up about sponges, Surviving60. I wanted to try a pessary, but the two gynos I saw week-before-last wanted to hear nothing about a pessary for me. In fact, neither of them would even talk about a pessary with me. They just immediately recommended surgery. I am going to see two gynos this evening and I will ask them about a pessary. I will let you know what they say. Just want to say that yesterday, I came to the point of desperation and I had no sponge in the house and no time to go look for one, so I wetted and wadded up a clean cotton handkerchief and inserted it into my vagina. I was in ecstasy for hours, and then when I removed it, because it started to feel a little dry, I gently pulled it out (it took me two minutes, because I was being really careful not to pull too hard) and gave my innards a break for a while before inserting it again. Has anyone else admitted to trying this?

If you want to experiment with sponges, based on your success with the handkerchief, I'd recommend you go to a website like Jade and Pearl and get the kind that are specifically made for this purpose. And if this seems to work for you, then I would say that you might be a candidate for a pessary, but only if you can find a doc willing to work with you on this. Not everyone can wear them, there are lots of different types, and most of them tend to hold the vagina open, which is only going to encourage further prolapsing of the organs into that space. And be sure you are taught how to remove and insert. Some docs want you to keep it in for weeks or months at a time, and come back to them for periodic cleaning. This isn't good enough!

I feel that a pessary, if it helps at all, is a viable alternative if you are otherwise set on surgery. And I do understand that when doctors and family members are pushing surgery, it is hard to stand up to everyone. I think the solution to family pressure is simply not to talk to family about this!

You are never going to have "complete control" over a severely prolapse uterus. What you are going for is management. You want to work up to the point where it stays at or inside the opening most if not all of the time. Christine had a profound surgically-induced uterine prolapse. Others of us (Aging Gracefully in particular) have learned to manage theirs through diligent posture and body work, firebreathing and jiggling, improved diet to help make elimination better, good toilet posture and no straining, and really, just a full-on commitment and a thorough understanding of what prolapse really is. There is so much bad information out there in the world! Keep your uterus! You need it for the rest of your life. You need to immerse yourself in this work; it will make sense and you will be much better all around, health-wise, if you do. - Surviving

Thanks, Surviving. I just got back from the hospital where I had a PAP smear and then the doctor inserted a pessary. She and her partner, whom I had a consultation with last night, both recommended that I make the decision myself whether to go for surgery or not. So I opt to avoid it at all costs. When they understood that, they said they would try a pessary. So one of them went looking all over town today and found two pessaries that might fit. She inserted one, then the other, and the second one seems good so far. So now I have some relief and will continue with exercises, posture, and fire-breathing to continue to strengthen muscles and ligaments and correct the position of my poor little displaced organs. Love you! Thanks for all your good advice!

I'm so happy that this is working out for you. Your docs may not know as much as we wish they did, about the dynamics of prolapse and the huge risks of surgery. But at least they respect your choices and are willing to work with you. We have heard many stories on this Forum from women who were not so fortunate.

As you proceed with the Whole Woman work, do try to go without that pessary as much as possible, because the feedback you get from the constant shifting around of your organs is very important to your understanding and progress. Stay with the Forum because it is really a two-way street - we all have much to gain from each others' stories and questions.

Good luck and keep us posted. - Surviving

Hi, Christine,

I just finished your comment from 8/15/10 about how
"We need a new pessary!"

I've been thinking, after being tentatively fitted, a couple of years back, with a very large, clunky, 3-compartment-level , concave- spaced rigid pessary, as a last resort, with the severe degree of pelvic organ prolapse I have, that was very uncomfortable, & could only be inserted and removed by the gynecologist, such that I decided not to wear it, that maybe someone could cover the almost sharp, rigid edges of it with the kind of plastic on my CPAP mask, that starts out rigid, then flows into a sort of semi-soft, fleshy face-conforming plastic...

Maybe this semi-soft, fleshy-feeling CPAP mask plastic has a place in some form of pessary, where it would gently conform to the inside of one's vagina...

I studied design in college, & my mind still works in that way, of creative problem solving...still have possibilities of how to invent new, more Saving-the-Whole-Woman-Friendly Pessaries percolating on my "back burner," [in the back of my mind,] also...

I would love to hear other people's ideas about how to create SWW-friendly pessaries, too...