Sponges or Pessaries ? pro and con ?

Body: 

Hey All,

Sea Sponges. Pessaries.

I'm leaning towards the sponge but am very unhappy about the environmental aspect. Very very.
I'm too broke for doc visits and suspicious of man-made materials as I got Toxic Shock from a
diaphragm - the first and only time I used one. My (good) Doc at the time - saved my life - felt
that it would be wise for me to not use anything internal. Tampons or BC. Haven't stuck anything
but my husband in there for 20 yrs. ! I've always wondered what weird foreign substance gave me that
infection? Doc , however, seemed to lean more towards it being an immune system issue, it would seem.
I like my theory better.

Any opinions out there, wisdoms or warnings, regarding this kind of technical "support" ?

I admit to pushing this ahead of me for that complex myriad of reasons - I am presently sorting out. I have been
having a hard time finding much specific conversation here as I really don't have much time to read, and then
possibly my computer "challenges" are more to blame. I'm pretty sure there's a way to organize a search for a subject
in this forum.. any Advice Very Welcome !!! A big Thank You to you All. I'm grateful this community has found each
other as I'm finding the "straights" to be annoying human beings right now. The way they casually live their lives (and
then mete out advice to ME !) Do any of you got as irrationally angry with advice or even worse - suggestions - from
well-meaning and totally !@#$% clueless friends and family ? As I Do ?
Yeah I know - I've been a real lump of sunshine lately.
Zelda

ya. maybe you could try the diva cup- I don't know if it would work but it is reuseable and doesn't kill sponges.
lump of sunshine- that's funny
oh and on the left of the screen is a search function. type a keyword in and see tonz of info.

Hi Zelda

Alemama's right about the search box. It will bring up a string of posts that were started in one particular topic. The first time I did it was useless because I couldn't find the search term, because it was buried somewhere in a post with a different subject a long way down a long string - hopeless.

Then I realised that once I had the string I could use my browser's "Find on this page" function. You can always get to it by going to the menu bar at the top of the browser window and doing Edit > Find on this page, once you have the page of search results. Type in the character string you are looking for. You might then have to tell it to "Highlight all" and it will highlight all occurrences on the page. If you type in two words it will probably highlight them in different colours. This makes it really easy to scroll down through millions of posts and just look for the pretty colours instead of having to skim read each one. It is really quick. If you have to look on a subsequent page you just do a highlight all, again for each new page. Works like a charm.

I think your doctor might be right about the immune thing. After all, would the almighty have designed a vagina so it could happily accommodate a lump of plastic and not react in some way? I don't think so. All the stuff I have read about pessaries has warnings about wierd discharges and irritation and possible ulceration, so you wouldn't be the first to have a bad reaction to a foreign body (which is what a pessary is, no matter what it is made of). Some women obviously tolerate them but you need to listen to your own body.

Yeah, straights can be a bit of a pain. What ya gotta remember though, is that some of them have their own stuff they are dealing with, that you don't know about. There by the Grace of God go you or I. Just try not to judge them. I am sure they are probably only trying to be helpful, as annoying as it is. The really annoying ones are the professionals who have not only ignored offers of the book Saving the Whole Woman, but will criticise the Wholewoman approach and still tell you that you will need surgery. It is like $@**#& dripping water torture. I wish my doctor would just get over it. Unfortunately she is the first thorough doctor I have had for about 10 years, and I think her heart is in the right place, but in this respect she seems to be so $@**#& ignorant. (Thinks, don't judge her. She is a youngish woman with two little kids and a career to juggle, of course she doesn't have time to read STWW ..grumble, grumble!).

My advice would be that you probably know who these annoying people are in your life. Just smile sweetly at them, say you are fine, and change the subject or walk away. If they are toxic for you, don't go anywhere near them for now.

Cheers

Louise

Hi Zelda,
Maybe this will help. Check with your Doctor. I was told by the nurse to boil my pessary to avoid infection. I also reduced wearing time. I don't really think it was helping much wearing it at night. I still had problems with the pessary fit, but this helped stop my infections.
theodora