New to the website and forums, new to prolapse, who to contact?

Hi Bertilsgirl

Welcome to the world of Wholewoman, where you will find many women with similar things as you. Just wait. They will reply. Congratulations on finding us.

You are coping with a lot aren't you, and your family just want you to just 'get fixed up' surgically because that is all they know about, and they love you very much and want 'what is best for you'.

No doubt your prolapses have been developing for some time, so that has added to the pressure.

The first thing for you to do is take a deep breath, and breathe out again. The experience of most of us is that with some specific improvements in posture, some attention to your diet, avoidance of clothing that compresses the abdomen, and awareness of what types of exercise you can do safely, and perhaps use of a suitable support garment, there is no reason why your prolapses should get any worse, perhaps ever! There is no cure for prolapse, but most women find that there is no need for surgery either, though it may take anything from a day to several weeks to see big improvements in your symptoms. Many women find that after a few weeks or months, their prolapses, which were previously regarded as quite serious, are barely noticable, and surgery has gone completely off the agenda. Give these techniques a try.

You can always decide later to have surgery, but if you have the surgery unnecessarily now, your body will have been changed irreversibly, and these non-surgical techniques will not be as effective. If you have surgery you will not be able to go back to the point you were before.

Go to www.wholewoman.com and have a look at the FAQ's, which will explain about what we suggest you do and why, and give you the basics of posture, diet, clothing etc. Also have a good look at the whole site. There is also The Wholewoman Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Christine Kent works from, if you are lucky enough to be in that part of the world.

Christine's book, Saving the Wholewoman, edition 2 is due for release very, very soon. Even the first edition, which you may be able to purchase secondhand from Amazon.com , will be very helpful for you. It has a comprehensive summary of most of the surgery available, including complications and risk factors, which is very well-researched from mainstream scientific journals, ie it is good material.

Please don't sign up for surgery until you have read this. It will be time well-spent, although I can see that time is a precious commodity for you.

Just keep trying things with the Forum. Typing in keywords into the Search box at the left will bring up posts that have these words in them. Try variations of the words too, like gynaecologist vs gynecologist. There is a heap of women's wisdom here.

Cheers

Louise

I would agree with the above comment. Do not let your family talk you into anything - Sometimes what seems to be a 'quick fix' is not the fix all the Doctors try to tell us it is.

Read the site - Adopt the posture - If yu choose to chnage your road down the line then it is your choice and yours alone.

In the beginning - I noticed my prolapse every day. Every time I walked i could feel it. It annoyed and scared me no end...

Now - A year or so on - I rarely think about it and the only time I might ever feel it is if I have been standing for too long (As in ages) then it is just a slight 'different' feeling no pain or peeking out etc. Or at period time it may feel different - But it is nowhere near like it was a year ago.

I wuld read the FAQs on this site about the posture etc. make sure constipation is not a problem. And then - Over time (Took about a month for me to notice a REAL big difference) You should find whether this is something that works for you or not. The FAQs are really helpful.

If you find that the posture is not working as you need it to - This does not mean ya hafta jump into surgery. My motherhas a worse prolapse than I do and she opted for the pessary and she says it is such a fabulous help. No more dragging feeling for her. Posture would not really have worked for my mother as she is pretty disabled through Arthritis - So we sought another way and she says it has been a fantastic thing.

I was so very scared when I came here - So I know how you must feel.

Take time and read through the site - Take things one step at a time :)

Sue

hello bertilsgirl:

let me add a welcome to you. you are in the right place.

you know, when i was first diagnosed, my best friend really talked me off a ledge (metaphorically speaking) and told me about someone she had worked with a number of years earlier who was ALSO a martial arts expert with a universal prolapse and she had refused surgery and found other ways to live her life with it -- without giving up her martial arts practice. so i know it IS possible.

i can also tell you it's possible to see and get improvement with the basic principles here -- the posture, diet, life style shifts. just reading your post, i was thinking that perhaps you could look at the posture in the faq section and possibly get a small pillow to help your posture in the car as you mention you do a lot of driving. maybe some tweaks in your life like that could make substantial differences.

as louise, i believe, has already said, you could get the surgery at any time. there is no expiration date on that, on when you could opt for that. however, why not explore the possibility that are other ways to feel markedly improved without any invasive intervention, one that will keep your body just as intact as it is right now? you know, i've only been coming to this site for about two months, i think, and i am being as proactive with it as i can. i am working with the posture and diet and am, also, seeing a physical therapist for pelvic floor work. i went today and she did an internal examination and moved me from a grade 1.5 rectocele to a grade 1. obviously, i am crazy thrilled and i honestly think the majority was from the posture, diet changes, and christine's exercises. oh, and implementing the posture when i walk and, with the encouragement of everyone on this site, exercising even though the pt discouraged it. i always felt better after exercising -- just so long as i was conscious of the posture.

okay, long winded post here. my point here is why don't you give this a try for a few months, see how you feel. i know how hard it is when there's pressure around you from people who you care about and care about YOU to have surgery. are you being emotional about the issue? who cares! it's your body! and, personally, i think you have every right to be emotional as hell about it! i know i was extremely emotional about the possibility of having surgery when i was initially diagnosed, afraid that that might be the only option. this site is proof to the fact that surgery in, in fact, NOT the only option. take your time and look around here.

(oh...and as to the support, i think there is something called a v-2 belt that provides external support. maybe you could do a search on the site about it or just start a post asking about women's experiences with it. the ulcer thing the doctor said?...i don't know. that doesn't really make much sense to me, frankly.)

please take your time with all this information and the choices that are out there. and the choices really do exist.

take care.
xsusan