25 days post op update

3 weeks and some change out from a traditional rectocele repair and feeling great. Im 26 and physically fit. No pain, just twinges here and there, when doing every day things. Ive been driving for about a week now with no options to otherwise not, and its not uncomfortable at all at this point (it was a little to begin with) and i can easily make an abrupt stop without pain.

I was of the mindset that after my surgery i must basically act as though i was paralized from the waist down so as to not distrupt any of the work or put any pressure on the developing scar tissue... but i really started to lose my mind doing absolutely nothing all day... started feeling depressed and stir crazy...and the house started falling apart, husband got pneumonia and some other craziness was happening. I truly AM taking it easy for the most part, but i have started lifting and carrying my 22 lb baby around again... ive not experienced any pain when doing this... My dr said before surgery this would not be a problem for me and i was weary (seems most US doctors treat this "procedure" pretty lightly, not like a major surgery)

At my 2 week check up the surgeon seemed a bit blown away at how well i was healing, said id be ok to have sex in a couple weeks, then corrected himself to wait til 6. He said the sutures on the outside where my perineum was built up a little bit had tucked themselves under nicely. To me it looks like a tiny bit of excess labia minora has flapped over it but i dont dare poke around. If this wasnt through insurance and was a cosmetic procedure, i would probably ask for this to be revised... it looks a little weird to me.

Out of curiousity, i asked him how ripped up was my rectovaginal fascia truly was, asking if it was torn all the way back or just needing site specific repairs etc. His reply was interesting. In laymens terms he seemed to say that there are 2 types of tissues, collegen and elastin. Collegen is firm and elastin is stretchy. He said women with a lot of collegen in their tissues tend to get tears or snap/break during child birth... whereas elastin can stretch a lot. Well he says that my rectovaginal fascia was completely intact, no rips, no tears, and that it was just very stretchy, whicj he found very easy to bunch together when placing stitches. Ive never heard of anything like this i hope this is true as he went on to say he doesnt think my surgery could even possible fail due to this.

I suppose after that news i felt a little safer doing simple things such as squatting down to pet the dog or lifting my daughter... but i also got pretty curious as to the status of down there after my appt and I did end up using a surgical glove to place a finger inside to become reaquainted. I know youre not supposed to and I do NOT reccomend this as it made my stitches sting... but sadly, 1cm past the entrence it honestly left as loose as ever. Now that i think of it im not sure thay he did anything in terms of cutting out excess tissue😑😣😭 What i did feel was rather raised tissue, like a scar, which i could tell the stitches where still intact underneath. While i knew this was the surgery site i think once the stitches desolved it will feel far less noticable. My tissue inside is normally very smooth on the bottom and a little bit of ridges on the top... those seem to have vanished, but perhaps thats normal for me so close to my period.

If youve read my previous posts you know that my major reason for this surgery was because i felt very stretched out after having 2 large babies and an episiotomy that left me very open. After a year of physio with a womens health professional, i was unable to gain almost any pelvic muscle strength that put me in a range of feeling normal. I was able to manage my rectocele with stool softeners and a squatty potty. My mild cystocele and urinary incontinence wasnt ever terrible enough to warrant having extra work done but i can at least say the rectocele surgery, or perhaps just the peritoneal work, did cure my urinary incontinence! I have not peed from laughing in 3 weeks! So theres a little victory ill have to focus on.

But as far as having this done in hopes of improving my sex life, i feel extremely foolish. I had asked the dr if he did any work on my weak muscles, he said no. The girth of my canal feels the same so im assuming he didnt do anything in that regard either. My fascia didnt actually have any tears so theres a good chance i wont notice any change from that either. Only difference now is the entrance is much smaller and possibly uncomfortably so... i dont plan to start having sex until 12 weeks post op if i can hold out. But i do plan to use my apex again around 6 weeks.

Anyway, just wanted to share my story... not sure how helpful it is but i know others stories were very consoling for me.

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