cystocele

Submitted by mariezee on March 31, 2004 - 5:39am
Body: 

Hi, I'm 74 years old and have had three children and only in the past two weeks I noticed a bulge in my vagina. I checked on the internet and decided it was a prolapsed uterus. My OB/GYN doctor moved to another state, so I had to call around and finally found someone that would see me. I went in last week and she said I had a prolapsed bladder and suggested I try a diaphram to hold things in place but the one she tried was very uncomfortable and she said a smaller size would fall out of me so then she showed me some pessaries but they looked so thick and rigid and she felt as tho I would have the same problem as with the diaphram and admitted they were only short term anyway so she made an appointment for me to see her partner who is more experienced with my problem and could do surgery to help me.
I went to her yesterday and after inserting a catheter and filling it with water (??????) she determined that I needed an operation to remove my uterus and tack up my bladder and then she told me all the problems I would have (like having to insert my own catherter if I couldn't urinate after surgery and how my vagina might not be straight anymore and I may need additional surgery if I had any more problems etc and then said if I would like another opinion she could arrange for me to see her teacher/mentor who is the head of the GYN/OB dept in a major teaching hospital in my city. I have heard that if you get a second opinion that you should not go to an associate because they will usually agree. She then suggested the easy way would be to sew my vagina shut (I guess due to my age). She told me to go home and think about it for a few day and she was going to send me some literature to read about my options.
I spent quite a bit of time surfing the net last night and this morning to read as much as I could on the positives and negatives of the surgery and most of what I read is negative and especially on the Vagina sewing called "colpocleisis" Yikes!
Then I found your "letter for anyone thinking about a hysterectomy" and I am so glad that I found you. I sent for your book today and am anxious to see if it will help me. Do you think I am too old for exercise and posture to work? I already eat pretty healthy following the South Beach Diet tho not vegetarian it does include whole grain bread and lots of fruit and vegetables, olive and flax seed oil.
I was feeling so sorry for myself and now after reading in your forum about all the young women having this problem I feel so fortunate that I have lived this long without any problems.
I really don't want to have an operation but didn't know what would happen if I didn't.

Christine

April 1, 2004 - 5:58am

Welcome Marie,

I'm so glad to hear from you! I believe absolutely this work will help you as it has so many others. Please read the book and study the posture download.

Because the work is new and I don't have all the data, I am going to say this cautiously, but I believe you can stabilize your cystocele through ONLY a change of posture and not a lot of additional exercises. This is why...as you have probably read already here, when the weight of the abdominal organs and pelvic contents are carried over the pubic bone the uterus and bladder become less vulnerable to intraabdominal energies pushing them through the vaginal opening. You will see this for yourself when you begin to change the way you hold and carry your body.

The body is extraordinarily fluid, with the stomach lining replacing itself every 3 days, the liver every six weeks, and the skeleton every three months. It is still a great mystery why we even age at all!

You must be dedicated to the posture, which will actually reshape your frame in time. At first it is tiring...rest, rest, rest. But it becomes much easier, more natural, and joyful - just stay with it. One day you will see for yourself that the cystocele is not going to drop further, because a different set of dynamics have been established in your body.

I agree about the pessary. Why don't you just see how you do without it. I so hope you will update us on your progress, and please enjoy the work...it is truly freeing, fun, and gives us back a much deeper sense of ourselves.

Wishing you well,

Christine

mariezee

April 1, 2004 - 2:35pm

Thanks so much Christine. I have printed the download on Posture and have spent most of last night and today reading all the posts in this forum. After listening to the doctor stating all the problems I may have after surgery such as leakage of urine, when I don't have it now and painful intercourse, I thought to myself why would anyone have this. My husband was the one that told me not to have it and that made me check all I could on the Internet to see what would/could happen if I didn't have it and I thank God that I found you. I will work very hard on the posture and other helps in your book when I get it and I will let you know how I progress. Thank you for all the help you have given to me and others.
Marie with a new lease on life.

Christine

April 1, 2004 - 2:36pm

You are so welcome, Marie, and remember...it's about awareness, not effort!

Cathy

April 7, 2004 - 1:40pm

Hi Marie:
I am 56 and thought it must be a tumour or sthg. After 5 hours at the emergency in the hospital a very young doctor told me it was a cystocele. I asked him how that was spelt and he turned to the nurse and said sthg about his not having to know how these words are spelt. The cystocele (which I now understand as a result of many internet hours) went away and my cervix has taken up a new home next to the entrance to my vagina. I push it back up somewhere at bed time.
In no hurry to have a very sharp knife and focused fingers snip at me.
Hope there is no sores or other problems and hope I too can learn a better posture to get my internal organs to go bacl to their original home.
It is just lovely to hear of a 74 year old who is now enjoying the information highway. You must be in position to know many peers who have dealt with this change in their bodies? I know some and except for the cancers and constant bleeding, there is negative feelings about having had sugery.
Happy Easter/springtime to you-
Cathy:D

mariezee

April 9, 2004 - 2:31pm

Hi Cathy, I would think that I would have peers with this problem too. After my conversation with my doctor and reading the Internet, I was suprised to find how common this or any prolapse is. I also assumed it was an old age thing so I was also surprised to find so many women in their 20's and 30's with this problem I guess it is not talked about, even with peers, because no one wants to talk about it. How do you start a conversation. "Oh, by the way I have a bulge in my vagina, have you ever heard of such a thing?" LOL. Seriously tho, after I returned home from the doctor with my news, my husband suggested I call some of my friends and neighbors and ask them if they have had the operation or not and did they have any problems. I just couldn't bring myself to do that tho so I turned to the internet instead.
Today I did talk to my one neighbor that I knew had a hysterectomy after her 5th baby 30 some years ago and she told me she stayed in the hospital for two weeks and had to take it easy after coming home. Imagine? Now if you are lucky they keep you for 2 days and then send you home to catherter yourself. She has had problems thru the years and is now having a problem that she is not getting much help with. Our problem with GYN/OB in Pennsylvania are the high insurance they have to pay to work in this state so all our really good doctors are leaving.
I have been doing the posture and it seems to be helping. I do not want an operation at my age. If the operation doesn't get you the bacterial infections so common in hospitals might. It's a scary proposition either way so I am trying Catherine's way before even considering any operation. That will be my last resort.
Thanks so much for posting and I hope Catherine's way works for all of us. She need to be on Oprah or some other talk show and get the word out.
Marie
What do you think Catherine?

Christine

April 9, 2004 - 2:37pm

That is the plan, Marie. I'm so glad you are with us!

mariezee

April 9, 2004 - 2:57pm

I'm so sorry Christine. I was just making supper and I realized that I called you Catherine. I guess it was a senior moment. I not only did it once but several times. Please accept by humble apology. Marie

Christine

April 9, 2004 - 3:24pm

I didn't even notice!! Another senior moment!!

COACH2211

April 14, 2004 - 6:14pm

Hi Marie, it's so fine to know there's another Pennsylvanian over 60 with a prolapse situation. Keep the faith, study your posture until it's natural, & read and reread Christines' book and ... experiment w/ ways to hold that stuff up. Tonight I have a little piece of sea sponge that's working ok.-not all that comfortable, but you know what, my bra's not comfortable either! KB

mariezee

April 14, 2004 - 9:30pm

Hi KB, I get so much good information and encouragement from your postings, thank you so much.
Good one about your bra not being comfortable either.

I have discovered that some days my cystocele is hardly noticable and others day I really know it's there. I wonder if the good days are when I am doing the posture correctly and the bad days are when I forget to really pay attention.
I still haven't been brave enough to give myself an internal exploration but I will one of these days. It took all my courage years ago to insert my diaphram for the first time. It's a shame that we are not taught to be more involved with out bodies, inside and out.
I guess I should get the sponge too so that nothing else falls down.

I took my grandchildren to their swimming lessons a couple of weeks ago and I noticed all the little children there walking with "the posture" They ranged in age from 3 to about 10 or 12.
Butts sticking out, curved backs and rounded tummies. I think that even their chins were down.

I love this forum and Christine for giving it to us.
Thanks again KB,

COACH2211

April 15, 2004 - 8:22am

Hi MarieZ, how wild, was it just the baby walk or were the instructors really teaching it? That's one of my fields, FYI-I'm Aquatic Dir at the community pool-bring those gkids of yours to me-haha. I do have those mixed sensations too. I just attribute it to being on my feet a bit too much all day. I'm tryng hard to keep going back to the posture-what really helps is sitting at my desk w/ my legs bent back, & pushing my belly button over my pubic bone. Have you tried that? gotta run-kids getting OOC-I work at a difficult school environment. KB

mariezee

April 15, 2004 - 11:09am

Hi KB, No, I hadn't tried the sitting posture yet but I am doing it right now. I admit that I haven't read Christine's book from cover to cover, just here and there and the parts I felt I needed right away. I must start a page one and move forward to last page like I am supposed to.

No these kids weren't instructed on the posture but it's a natural for them. It's a baby walk and I guess they keep it until they are instructed to straighten up and tuck in. Just something I never paid attention to before until I read it in Christine's book and noticed it with the children while I was there. It's the posture we were born with.

COACH2211

April 15, 2004 - 12:12pm

quick reply now; I'll be on later. o, if only we had just kept those postures! And to make matters worse, I enforced it too-encouraging the girls in my gymnastics program to 'suck and tuck' and carry an erect tall figure (If only I had realized)... enough tears; let's take care of bitness now, awright? KB

cbaxter

April 15, 2004 - 1:39pm

Hi everybody:

I'm one of the past prime timers here too at 55. KB: It was good to read you are doing so well after your knee surgery.

The difference between me and you others is that I've known about the prolapses for quite some years. Even before I learned of the posture and began changing my posture, I found that some days were better than others. I chalked it up to having to do something with my bowels. When they were completely empty it seemed to be better. Now that I've learned from the last newsletter about how everything is kind of flowing togetherin the abdomen it makes even more sense that one area such as the intestines could affect how everything else is positioned somewhat.

I'm trying to make it using the posture only at this point. I haven't tried a sponge as a pessary and my pessarys aren't something I feel comfortable using due to some problems I have with them. I don't know if I could even get a sea sponge to go inside me. I can't get a tampon in anymore.

Luckily the posture seems to be helping and I never had any pain even when the prolapses are at their worst. I will still get occasional bulging in the perineum/vaginal area in the evening on some evenings after a long day, but overall it's much better. I rarely have any tissue hanging out and that used to happen in addition to the bulging. So I'm very pleased with my progress.

My only regret is that I wish this information had been out there when I was a young woman. If I would have known the risks of modern delivery methods I would have insisted on giving birth squatting over a pillow with a midwife or at home by myself if necessary. I had my son exceptionally rapidly for a first delivery in just 5 hours after the first contraction and I bet he would have come out in an hour if I would have been squatting over a pillow and I wonder if I could have been spared the tear through to my rectum that came after the episotomy I was given.

I'm glad this forum is here so we can share our experiences. I'm glad the younger women who find this info will have a chance to do things to turn their situation around and will have more information in which to make childbirth option choices. Even though I do have some tears that it came so late for me, I'm grateful that it came at all. -Chris

COACH2211

April 15, 2004 - 5:13pm

Hi Chris, sounds like you've really had years of it! gads. I guess I've been blessed it wasn't much earlier as I seem to have been on the "right path" to prolapse. Four big babies, tears, episi, and all that. Athletic, which could be good and bad I guess. anyhoo, I'm glad we're all on together now, aren't you? good evenin' ... KB