My doctor's appointment

Submitted by mommynow on June 27, 2006 - 2:25pm
Body: 

I finally got into my Gyn. since finding this site and starting Christine's work. I told him how I have worked on my posture and exercises and since then do not have any problems with my cyctocele or uterus prolapse. However I still have pressure further back from my rectocele. I told him that I want to try a diet change but have to wait until I am done nursing (since I am already on a restricted diet with her allergies). He was very positive about trying natural ways to heal. I asked about a pessary and he said, "If you were 70 or 80 I would recommend it but since you are so young then I am 99% sure you won't like it!" Then he went on to say all the negative symptoms from one. He also said you can't have intercourse with it (are we behind on technology here? I thought there were ones you could have sex with?) Anyway, he said I could try it but he really made it sound BAD. Then he said, "If you are still suffering with this after you're done having kids then you could think about surgery." He went on to explain a hysterectomy and suspending the bladder and rectum back in place. He asked me if I researched this type of surgery (can't remember the name) and I told him I read all about them and they do not appeal to me at all! He said it is totally up to me and the quality of life I want. He said if you can live with what you have then you don't have to go the surgery route. He also said that my prolape probably won't get much worse after more children (all the damage is done with the first baby). I told him about taking the uterus out and then leaving room for the other organs to fall. He said that if he left the uterus there and pulled the bladder and rectum back into place, the uterus would fall more. He was expaining how my bladder is preventing my uterus from falling further down right now because it is pushing into the vaginal wall.
So................after all that I just need to find a way to eliminate the pressure I am feeling from the rectocele. Do you think changing my diet will be enough to make that big of a difference. The posture and exercises have helped eliminate the symptoms from my other two prolapses.

Christine

June 27, 2006 - 3:38pm

I think you can improve the pressure greatly with diet. Jane comes to mind as someone who has struggled with her rectocele and prevailed. Also, several times a day I would bend forward at the waist as far as is comfortable (at least 90 degrees) and do a series of toe raises (maybe you are doing this already). So much of our tissue framework has been pulled downward and outward by poor bodily positions and it’s very important that we find ways to bring energy back up through the soles of our feet, legs and buttocks as often as is practical.

I’m a great believer in this postural work and feel at first it has to be more positive (i.e. moving into it) than the taking away of bad habits that Alexander taught. He had no concept of the female spine and pelvis and furthermore, his technique has been around for a hundred years and has had no affect on the conditions of prolapse.

Prolapsed women have experienced a serious oozing out of our soft tissue support system and I know for a fact that to really affect these conditions we have to utilize counteracting forces to move our fascial network back toward normal.

There was just a brief comment about breath that I’d like to respond to a bit. Those of you who’ve been here awhile know that the basic premise of this work is that over the course of seventeen or eighteen years the breath literally sculpts the shape of the mature female pelvic organ support system.

Bringing our body back to its functional design implies returning to the shape that allows natural flow of the breath. As we’ve discussed here on the forum, we can facilitate that process by breathing in and out through our nose and letting our lower belly expand with each breath. Holding the organs over the pubic bone allows them protection from the normal pathway of intraabdominal pressure.

Trying to memorize which set of abdominal muscles to contract and which to relax while breathing is a lot of confusing, basically unnecessary information. This happens naturally when we provide an appropriately shaped vessel through which the breath can flow.