Tweaking exercises for less flexibility? bowel help...

Submitted by farmgirl on May 5, 2017 - 11:16pm
Body: 

I have had some success so far with the posture, toileting, firebreathing, and pelvic tilts. I noticed that keeping posture while weeding on hands and knees was very protective to my pelvic floor and prolapse (compared to before when I was tucking my tailbone under), although it still tires easily. It seems instinctive to engage my core when pulling weeds and at that time also tuck in my tailbone and kegel... that adds alot of intraabdominal stress to the system I think. I'm pretty sure that I've been tucking my tailbone in and stressing that area lots in that activity since my more active gardening started five years ago. Any weeding advice is welcome so that I don't aggravate my condition this summer! The other chore I have the most trouble with is mucking out (shoveling heavy manure). I try to leave this to the rest of the family if I can... does anyone have any tips for this? Also when carrying heavy loads (buckets of water, etc.), what else should I keep in mind other than holding whole woman posture? Is there any concept of engaging your core or pelvic floor in the whole woman method?

Yesterday I started the exercise program in Whole Woman Solution to Pelvic Organ Prolapse. I felt less blockage right away (I think my uterus is prolapsed retroverted on my rectum). I'm amazed at how flexible Christine is! Is there a way to modify the exercises if you aren't as limber? Or should I focus on the exercises recommended on one of the other videos instead?

I have a rectal prolapse (which is what is giving me the worst symptoms: difficulty emptying my bowels) along with vaginal prolapse. Also, I am having to manually help defecation often and have never understood or had any success with splinting. I don't want to stretch things out further (not to mention the sanitariness, etc.). Is it possible splinting could help me? I'm not sure if I'm anatomically understanding everything, but it doesn't seem like the BM gets stuck in a rectocele, but in the prolapsed rectal tissue and blocked by the uterus. I'm actually wondering if I have had an interior prolapsed rectum since childhood (when my diet was the standard white bread, etc., I do remember having painful sores one winter for a few weeks in my middle school years which I'm suspecting were probably from straining). My stools are typically soft, but come in small amounts (I'm thinking because of the colon/rectum blockage).

I want to work on getting my connective tissue healthier too. We've been fermenting our own sauer kraut and dilly beans since we moved out to the country four years ago. I'm planning on trying the wheat grass juice soon. I did find out that I am very Vitamin D deficient, don't know if that is part of any of this or not. I was starting to have brain fog from it and am now on 10,000 IU a day. I had hoped that all my summer gardening would have helped more with that, but I eat very little processed foods and drink raw milk, so my foods are not fortified, and I live up north, so winter is a full half of the year. Has anyone had any success with boneset? The amish recommended it last year when I spoke with one of their midwives about my prolapse. I didn't use it at the time because it seemed to affect my milk supply for nursing. Interestingly, she had only seen one case of prolapse in all of her years. She says that she always tells her moms to recline for the first 9 days as much as possible for optimal uterine health. They also have a great support system and hire a teen to come for the first month to help--the women are told no gardening, laundry, or heavy housework for the first 6 weeks.

I'm also going to go get a vitamin c supplement as I saw that was anti-inflammatory to help the connective tissue. We eat seasonally from our land and have not used a cold frame yet to add to our seasons. Right now we are still using our frozen spinach, although we did harvest our first asparagus for dinner the other night. We planted it our second year and it takes three years to establish before you can start harvesting some. We planted 400 strawberry plants a few weeks ago to increase our fruit options until our fruit trees start producing (that landed me in bed a couple weeks ago and aided to my prolapses worsening--the only good thing about that was finding your site!). I do also can pears, peaches, and apple sauce (without sugar) that I buy in bulk. I've been disappointed to not use dehydrating more. With ten people to feed, it is hard to get the volume needed that way. We're too far north for efficient solar dehydrators. I've tried apples with our woodstove, but it was extremely time intensive. Any ideas on other things I should try from a nutrition, vitamin/mineral standpoint?

Thank you so much for all of the help and advice.

Forum:

Aging gracefully

May 6, 2017 - 6:38am

Hi farmgirl,
Of course you can modify the exercises. I know I have, but if you don't have any other issues besides the muscle tightness, do try, over time, to keep stretching it out.
Christine writes about our load bearing ability and the past and present history of it. Think about the women who in other cultures who can carry those huge bundles on top of their heads, or their children front and back. It is a strong natural posture that gives them this ability with out creating prolapse.
The advice of women lying down for that long after having a baby may be a little misguided also. In the same example, Christine describes how women of history or other cultures have their babies, and then are up working and healing as they go. Again. because of strong whole woman posture.
These are things Christine has talked about that I find very interesting from an anthropological view, considering her vast study of the subject.
When doing tasks, developing a nice strong lumbar curvature is really key, and that only happens over time. It can't be forced right away. Keep breathing deeply into your belly, and when in a bent over position, really jiggle those organs into the belly and be mindful of the position of your back.
Your uterus could be resting on the rectum. I had that issue also, but it took time and dedication to this work to lift it off, creating a much better flow of stool through me. After time, this will also happen with the rectocele, so then you won't have to splint as much.
It takes time and dedication. And, lots of patience.