Am i doing this right?

Submitted by luckysmum on April 26, 2017 - 8:51pm
Body: 

I don't quite know where to start. I have so many questions but I have to start somewhere!!! Sorry for the long post.

I'm 38 with a 10 month old bub. He's my first baby. Following what in my opinion was a good pregnancy (despite the first trimester with my head in the toilet) and a quick and relatively painless birth (intense but not what I would describe as painful - Calmbirth was amazing!!!) I have a cystocele which protrudes slightly from my vaginal opening - it used to move up and down from day to day, hour to hour. I've been told I have 'issues' in my bowel by my former PT I only started to notice this a few months ago when it started to feel like I was sitting on a sausage on bad days.

I started seeing my PT about 8 weeks PP. She was highly recommended as a pelvic floor specialist. Some of her instructions remind me of WW however, she's still an advocate of Kegels and is a Pilates instructor.
In my opinion my prolapse went from being relatively minor to something that I'm struggling with daily. She also gave me one of those electronic stimulators for the pelvic floor which i'm convinced made this much worse. I started to trust my gut and stopped seeing her and discovered WW. I wish I had discovered WW before I saw her. Anyway - can't dwell on the past.

I have a feeling that I already had non symptomatic prolapse before the pregnancy. I loved to recline, I was a chronic stomach sucker, wore tight clothing around my stomach, lifted weights in non WW way - I basically thought I was invincible.... could lift anything with 'the guys'. Idiot.

And yes I first noticed the protrusion PP the day after I helped lifted our lounge. Stupid I know. I was only 7 weeks PP. But I think this would have happened anyway. Renovations make us do stupid things.

One day I thought i'm going to be really good and do my kegels everyday. This was a bad ideas as my pelvic floor started to spasm and I couldn't control it. I feel like that made the prolapse much worse. It doesn't do it as much but I still feel myself involuntarily clenching.

I've bought the First Aid for prolapse and the book. I spend hours trawling through this site. I can understand why it takes so long to get your head around this - I'm undoing years of bad habits. Every time I think I have it.... I forget.

My first success with WW is the disappearance of the twisting/spasm sensation I felt in my urethra (felt like a UTI). I realized this was due to the Kegels. Since I stopped Kegels its gone!!! Yay!!!

So my first question to the group is this.....

Since I've stopped Kegels and while I have done my best to maintain the posture etc, I feel like my prolapse protrudes more on a daily basis. It doesn't go up and down like it used to. Now I can feel its squishiness (is that a word?) all the time and it aches and sometimes feels sharp or pointy. Does this sound normal - or is this the next step until I get my pelvic organs back in the right spot. At least I don't have the spasming urethra feeling which is amazing.

I feel like I've taken one step forward and one step back. Any thoughts or is patience and practice the prescription?

Thanks x

Forum:

Surviving60

April 27, 2017 - 5:39am

Hi luckysmum and welcome. I feel that you are totally on the right track. You have done the work of really studying to wrap your mind around these concepts - and that is what so many women just can't seem to do. They come here looking for a quick fix and they want the information spoon-fed. It doesn't work that way. You have to immerse yourself, which isn''t easy with a baby in your life. So I congratulate you and I thank you for giving us a good starting point for the discussion, unlike some who want us to start at the beginning and explain everything.

I found my best improvements took place after the one-year mark. It is a process and not the same for everyone. Learn firebreathing and use it. Jiggle your organs forward and get down on hands and knees when you are feeling especially bulgy - just let those organs hang gently in the belly, then stand up and try to maintain that dynamic when you're upright. Picture yourself as the four-legged animal who is horizontal from the hips down. Are you walking? When I first started walking, I had a perception that things were worse. But I persisted.....slow and deliberate strides being very mindful of all the posture elements. It was good for my head. One day I reached a point where I knew I was feeling my torso seating itself correctly over my hips. I felt good and the longer I walked, the better my prolapse felt.

I too had my first babe at 38. He was a whopper and of course I did all the wrong things in the weeks and months (and years) following that. Add to this, a lifetime of horrendous posture. If I knew at your age what I know now, I can only imagine what a difference it would have made.

So keep up the excellent work and thanks for sharing. We are always here! - Surviving