Sudden change and now I am here.

Submitted by Mum2five on March 6, 2018 - 5:19am
Body: 

Hi! I have just come from the Gyn and he dx a within normal range prolapse & cystocele for someone my age (48) who has had five children. His suggestions: get to use to the feeling and try to live with it, or have a hysterectomy. He said no amount of physio is going to change anything.

It all seems very sudden. Two weeks ago I was oblivious. My biggest problem was getting my teens to clean up after themselves. My uterus just seemed to drop during my period - I could feel it happening. I joked to my partner that it felt like my insides were falling out... and they were falling little to my knowledge.Now, I am here with an painful aching bulgy pelvic region. I can't handle the sensations inside me when walking or going to the toilet (the physio told me to sit forward and barrel out so I have been trying to that)

I am so uncomfortable and have absolutely no idea of how I am going to endure this throughout full days at work. How do women cope with this? I asked about a pessary (at this point I just don't want to feel my uterus and had been using a tampon the last couple of days to hold it back) but the Gyn said it was not something he would recommend for me.

I have read through the forum over the last week but I am just so exhausted with what is a happening to me that I don't know if I have the energy at this point to move forward. I want to curl up and cry again. Finally my kids are old enough to be doing stuff themselves and I have the chance to have 'me time' and it has been commandeered by my uterus.

I know the answer is to push forward but at the moment all I can do is wallow in self pity. I am off for a scan to ensure that there is nothing else wrong and I seen the Gyn in five weeks for a follow-up.

I feel physically awful and emotionally crushed. I have barely slept for over a week. I am bursting into tears as I write this. I don't mean to sound melodramatic and whiny but there is absolutely no one else I can share this with apart from my partner.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for having this site.

Forum:

Aging gracefully

March 6, 2018 - 6:21am

Hi Mum2five,
I had the same feeling when first finding my prolapse. I cried and searched the internet, and freaked out and kept searching until I found Whole Woman. Everything here made such sense to me that I knew that I found my answers and hope for the future. Keep looking around here and you too will find that connection to the real truth about pelvic organ prolapse and the real fact that you can actually do something about it.
Our thoughts are with you.

Typicalme

March 6, 2018 - 11:30am

I can safely say that all of us here have been where you are so don't worry - you're not whiny or overreacting - a few months ago I felt like you felt - like I was broken and my life was over. I read online that there's no cure for prolapsed organs and I freaked out...
and i hate to say - there isn't..... a cure..... but there are ways to improve.
like you - my first feeling that something wasn't right was an uncomfortable bulge - my bladder was right at the opening of my vagina and i felt it ALL.the. time. it was so annoying I thought - I can't live like this...how do people live like this??
if you can get your organs in the right position, that feeling *should* subside. it has for me.... I can still *feel* my vagina but it's not that uncomfortable feeling I had a few months ago and it's definitely not all the time. there are almost whole days where I don't feel anything at all. and I'm still new to this! I'm hoping as I get better at the posture this continues to improve.
I've read on here about women who've had their organs coming right out of them and they were able to stabilise and get them back inside and live without surgery... that gives me hope.
you're going to be ok.
try to get down on all 4s as often as you can, keep reading on here, and get your hands on some of the materials.

Mum2five

March 6, 2018 - 4:34pm

Thank you for your replies. My irrational impulsive side wants it all out, be gone, nothing that reminds me of this every second of the day. The research-the-heck side of me says there is a reason why you are reading this forum repeatedly. I sit here wondering why I haven't heard a single prolapse story in real life. When my mother had her bladder restrung (her words) I was totally oblivious and not once was the word prolapse said. Why didn't a single midwife or bloody overpriced obstetrician say a single thing - having five children means I seen more than my fair share of them?

I know it is probably not the case but I am blaming a heavy fall the week before for all this - I can't help thinking they are connected.

Has anyone had a mirena put in - I was barely dealing with perimenopausal menstruation & migraines before this happened. Not sure I can emotionally cope with menstruating and the feeling of my insides.

I am seeing a pelvic floor physio this afternoon. I am hoping she has some solutions for me.

Thank you for listening. I am just so tired and teary. We have a very unwell child who will soon be hospitalised for an extended time so I really thought my plate was full enough already.

I just have to keep telling myself that this is not an emergency life threatening situation - this is the only way I can rationalise what is happening.

Surviving60

March 7, 2018 - 3:42am

You do have a full plate right now, and I'm sorry for what you are going through. But.....if indeed you have spent a lot of time reading on this site, I fear you have missed the message, if the only plan you are formulating so far to deal with prolapse is to see a PT. Please try to take enough time for yourself before you get there, to read and grasp what Whole Woman is all about. Because you will not get helpful direction from PT, which is largely based on kegel concepts of how hard you can squeeze. Pretty much a waste of time, as so many of our members have discovered. It's all part of the medical system's misguided approach to female pelvic health. You've found WW - now use it! - Surviving

Mum2five

March 7, 2018 - 4:56am

Thank you for responding Surviving60. I haven't missed the message. I have read quite a few of your posts over the last couple of days and have appreciated the time and energy you have put into helping other women.

I am following through with doctor's investigations. I know that is the medical route for now but ensuring there is nothing else going on will help ease my anxiety. Tomorrow I am having a full pelvic ultrasound ordered by the Gyno. I'm a worrier and anxiety over health conditions seems to be my trigger. Once everything is covered I will be able to focus.

The PT session was very helpful this afternoon - she told me more than the gyno did about my situation. She staged my prolapse, ran an ultrasound on my bladder, told me that surgery is not the way and only leads to further intervention, told me how to correct my posture (belly forward), checked my back muscles which a laxed due to an disc being ruptured. My pelvis is out of line to thanks to my back.

I do intend to read more from this forum and get the first aid kit.

Perhaps you would be so kind as to answer this question for me - what is the verdict on the use of a mirena in prolapsed uteruses? I would really avoid the pain I had with this prolapse which occurred while I was menstruating. If I do not menstruate perhaps the pain will be less and my menstrual migraines will go as well.

Thanks for chatting with me.

Surviving60

March 7, 2018 - 8:27am

This isn't a medical forum, and having no personal experience to share, the best I can do is to direct you to the search function up above. I came up with these threads:

http://wholewoman.com/forum/search/node/Mirena

You can go over to the blog page and do the same [edit: I did not find anything on the blog or library pages....but keep these resources in mind when you are looking for information. Click on Resources above]. - Surviving

Surviving60

March 7, 2018 - 8:33am

Mum2five, we will never advise women to go against the advice of their doctors etc., if that is the route they are choosing. Christine has pointed out on numerous occasions, that the women who are most wedded to the standard medical protocol, are the women who will have the least success with the WW work. I personally have never even sought a formal Dx of my prolapse, and never will, and I know I'm not alone in that. And even your own doc told you not to bother with PT. I will post some links for you to read, with regard to that. - Surviving

https://wholewoman.com/blog/?p=420
https://wholewoman.com/blog/?p=1074
https://wholewoman.com/blog/?p=1145

UnCloudyDay

March 7, 2018 - 2:37pm

My experience with PT was that body balancing attempts and some stretches they gave me may have been of value, but the posture taught to me as well as a few other things, like using stool to place my feet on to defecate, was not helpful. To the degree that I did any kegel or core strengthening based exercises I was not able to eliminate my bowel and my problems seemed to get worse. I was told I needed to correct my anterior pelvic tilt and they wanted me to drop my ribs and tighten my core and it did rotate my pelvis more posteriorly- none of this helped me. I did find some of the stretches helpful but those were similar to some things in whole woman materials anyway. I did not do the whole woman posture correctly with my first attempts and I hyperextended by not keeping my shoulders down- something i have come to see as my default posture weakness. For that reason it exaggerated my pain and that was brought back under control by relaxing and doing some releases and stretches and lots of walking and also focusing on doing the posture correctly exactly as Christine teaches it.

My experience is that PTs and doctors will all give you their opinion and the way they grade and stage prolapsed differs from person to person. Also the organs move around and things vary according to your cycle as well.

It seems that some doctors know nothing and give no advice, others push surgery, and some are more conservative and do not (that’s good). My doctor referred me to PT and told me I didn’t want surgery. I somewhere along the way researched it all enough that i formed my own opinions and went with whole woman mostly because it makes sense, and my own body bears witness to me that it works better than anything else I tried. But I think everyone has to do that for herself.

I think some women get comfort from their PT emotionally becauee finally they have found someone who will tak about it, make them feel like they belong to a group with other people in it, etc.

That is comforting. I had that experience myself to a degree with one of my PTs and certainly with one of my chiropractors that was a lady and also with a Mayan abdominal massage lady that helped me greatly. In the end the PT didn’t really help me physically though... so the value I placed in PT was very low all things being equal.

I personally would not use Mirena but I have no experience with it. I just don’t like hormonal birth control, nor would I want something placed inside of me. But I can’t tell you what is best but only give an opinion. I would be more inclined to learn all I could about herbs and diet and movement and lifestyle in affecting my prolapse and my hormones and my cycles and my migraines. But I have always been more inclined to natural routes so take that for what it is worth.

Sylvia4

March 7, 2018 - 3:29pm

I am excited for the Whole Woman supporter to be released. The posture works but there are times when I just need that extra feeling of security especially if I'm going to be on my feet for a while. Then you can truly relax everything (in posture) & not worry about the pressure at the vaginal opening. :)

Surviving60

March 8, 2018 - 12:33pm

Thanks UnCloudyDay, this is a VERY helpful post. And it reminds me to remind any newbies that traditional "core" bodywork is what we need to avoid. It is one of the contributing factors to prolapse. Men and women do not have same "core" - it is lower in women, at the level of the sacrum, and all posture and exercise that stresses the abdominal "core" will just keep making prolapse worse and worse. Whole Woman job #1 is to learn to keep the belly relaxed so there is room in there for the pelvic organs. It's the hardest habit to change, for many of us. - Surviving

UnCloudyDay

March 9, 2018 - 7:37am

It is difficult for me to relay any thoughts without some anxiety that I have articulated things as they should be. This is mostly because I know every situation is going to be unique, and I still don’t understand the full totality of all that has transpired in my own life since my prolapse and other pelvic problems came to the forefront. But that is a good summary of my thoughts that your wrote surviving60. I found some beneficial things from every bodyworker and PT that I have seen (some more than others), and I think that was an answer to prayer- but at some point I realized that my body needed whole woman principles as a baseline and the things that were in opposition to that were the true bones I had to spit out.

everhale

March 11, 2018 - 7:31am

Hi mum2five,
I applaud your path, getting all the information you can from all sides. Your PT actually sounds like she might be helpful, which is wonderful to hear. Many aren't , but I also found one who "gets" the WW approach and doesn't contradict it so it was a good start for me after years of unhelpful medical providers ("you're a great candidate for surgery!"). Once I got some of Christine's books and videos I really got down to work and it's helped me tremendously.
Regarding the Mirena--I did have one for 10 years but because it was before I was really aware of my prolapse, I can't say if it hurt or didn't hurt my prolapse. I believe what helped my migraines was getting through being perimenopausal, which perhaps is where you are at, plus cutting out some of the triggers like wine and wheat. I did stop having a period completely on the mirena and it was easy and can be a great choice for you in many ways, but it will put hormones in your body which does change your body. Just a side note: I believe the IUD suppressed all menopausal symptoms, so when I had it taken out at 50 years old, they came rushing in and I was having hot flashes on an almost hourly basis at first. Getting acupuncture as quickly as possible really helped, but it's something I still struggle with. Looking back, I kind of regret having a birth control method that changed my body rhythm so much that I couldn't really track what was happening. They say prolapse can be a gift, and end up giving you a level of awareness about your body that you didn't have before and I see that is true and wish I had had it earlier. It's why I'm becoming a Whole Woman practitioner now, to hopefully help other women learn to listen earlier!

Surviving60

March 11, 2018 - 8:29am

Nothing is more gratifying than to watch this network of practitioners growing and growing every year. Congrats and many thanks for caring enough to help spread the word in that manner. I completely agree with you about prolapse being a blessing, and in fact I've made that very statement on this forum numerous times. I know there are many who will never be able to see it that way, and to them I would say, that's OK......just keep studying it, doing it, and trusting your body; you will reap the benefits. The fact remains that there is nothing else out there. Thanks so much for posting and best wishes to you. - Surviving