nine months on and rectocele/cystocele worse than ever!!!!

thank you so much for getting back to my post. I am very much grateful. I am ready for some pain and discomfort after the op.  I have previously had two ovarian surgeries ansd a tumour removed from my head so I keep telling myself I will have to deal with all this brings!  If there is a light at the end of the tunnel then I have no choice. Your story gives me faith.  I am so pleased you are better and a success story.  thank you again

Hi Matron,

We conversed on many occasions over the last 4 months and a bit - my surgery was July 3rd for hysterectomy with anterior and posterior repairs.  It turned out I also needed a bladder resection due to the damage to my bladder over the years.

I am a 71 year old Canadian.  I resumed all pre-surgery activities iincluding heavy lifting at exactly 6 weeks so when I got the bleeding at 7 weeks, you thought it might be because I was doing too much.  We are all so different though.  I had a cystocopy yesterday, November 10th.  It was as my surgeon thought - a small blood clot inside the bladder which worked itself out.  Yesterday the bladder is totally clear, healed and there is no sign of any return of either of the prolapses.  I also had an ultra-sound to ensure all was well in the posterior area.

So I am all good.  I was again given the phone number to call if something crops up in the next year.

So again, thank you for your concern and advice.  It was much appreciated throughout especially the first two weeks post surgery.

Best wishes for the future.  Please do keep up the good work helping us ladies out.

Nickie

Hello nickie I am really pleased everything turned out well and you have recovered. I hope you continue to remain well. It's over 5 years now since my operation and I've not had any problems and there's no reason why you won't have the same outcome. Take care and thank you for letting me know.

thanks so much for replying to my post and for your re-assurance.  I am so pleased you report something good after only 2.5 weeks.  this gives me hope.  Do you mind me asking what sort of symptoms you had before the op as mine are pretty intolerable and my bladder and bowel have both been affected in a very big way with recurrent UTIs and much pain and discomfort etc...  I am praying my story will be as positive as yours.  I will be sure to rest up.  Hope you dont mind me asking you about your symptoms just that I have been suffering for so long that I am yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel  xx

Well at first I didn't realise I had any symptoms! I had been living with a prolapse for 15 years after the birth of my first child. I went on to have a further 2 very large babies (biggest 11lb 4oz ) I just thought that my bits were meant to look like that after a baby, the nurse never said anything during my smears. Then after the 3rd child I noticed the 'lump' was bigger and to completely empty my bowls had to brace my perineum . I started getting a dull dragging feeling and I was often bloated with shooting pains up my bottom. Turns out I had a large prolapse and although I had never any major tears during labour when they did sew me up they only did the top layer of my perineum. Obviously this meant there was no support in that area either making the prolapse worse . They repaired my perineum at the same time as the rectocele, for the first time in ages I don't feel my insides are falling out x

wow you have really been through it too. I am really pleased to hear it worked out for you and assisted with the problem.  I havent had children so it is a little more rare that I have a grade !!! rectocele and smaller cystocele but had a rare illness in 1998 which they think has contributed to general muscle weakness which they think has affected the pelvic floor thus leaving me with this awful problem which is quite literally taking over my life.  I have been through some pretty awful stuff but can honestly say that I have never felt as bad as this and cannot be far from the toilet so cannot conduct normal day to day activities.  I have literally been in tears for best part of the last year and have seen more doctors than I believe most see in a liftetime infact if I recover and get some strength back I am seriously thinking of writing about all of this because I think it is so important for other people in such despair to hear and see it all from a patients point of view rather than just hearing it from their specialists point of view.

I am so pleased you feel stronger and hope it continues that way for you

thank you for your help and for listening.. I am beyond petrified re surgery xx

Just come back from the BMI Gingernic:-))))) Ms Salmon asked how you were getting on when I said she'd got a fan club going on here, and I told her you were doing well - she knew who I was talking about straight away.  AND...... I've now got a pessary fitted!  I was smiling so much, all the way home and husband popped in to get some petrol and said he could see me smiling from where he was queueing to pay LOL!  It wasn't painful at all and I'm just SO SO happy with it.  The test now will be going to the loo in the morning but the problems before were weeing, so I'm not expecting a problem in the morning.  It was SO wonderful walking round the supermarkets not feeling the bulge!  And now I'm even comfortable enough to go and get on the exercise bike and treadmill - not something I thought I'd be up to today!

Hello Chris Just seen your message , that's fantasitic news . Bet you're so pleased . I'm all ok here too , a bit sore some days but nothing to write home about. Looking forward to seeing Dr Salmon so she can confirm I'm doing as well as I feel x Funny you should mention the exercise bike , I found myself dancing around the kitchen without the fear of my bits dropping out today ..so rock n roll.

Oh LOL!  Just go a bit easy on that dancing LOL!  I'm so pleased it's so good!:-)))))   And when you see Miss Salmon do give her my love and tell her I'm SO SO pleased with the pessary - she'll remember Chris with the shelf.  I had a couple of questions last week, a couple of days after she fitted it, and asked her secretary, Hazel, who got back to me later in the day - so helpful.   It's so brilliant when life feels normal, isn't it!  It might sound weird but I'm having difficulty remembering what the prolapse felt like now!  I can remember my words to explain it ('a lemon half up there'), but the actual memory of the discomfort is fading fast!  I'm so glad that life is so good for you, and for me, and hope that the other ladies on here can find the right solution for them.

Hi, i think i have a rectocele and am terrified. I have terrible rectum pain and pressure. I cant have a bowel movement unless I apply pressure. my colon specialist ordered a defocography. Did you have any of these symptoms? I'm miserable any my quality of life sucks right now.

thanks so much for getting back to me I am pleased you report something positive and that your sugery worked well for you. I am in utter despair with all these horrid symptoms which are making my life on a day to day basis more o less impossible as I cannot be far from the toilet at any one time.  I am worn out from it in all honesty and pray the rectocele/cystocele surgery will help aid atleast some of my symptoms so that I can resume some form of normality.  I will be sure to follow your instructions re bowels and already take psyllium husk capsules twice a day to help the bowels move a little easier.    I will also take it very easy afterwards but am very very anxious and I wish I wasnt.  I think it is because it has taken me so very long to get an actual diagnosis and not be fobbed off telling me it is all in my mind... No woman on earth would make this kind of thing up as it is beyond debilitating. I will try to find some of the previous comments from others too but am not great with this site and not sure where to look.  thanks so much xx

thank you so much for your words of encouragement. I am so pleased your experience was a good one and that you now feel better.  I hope and pray I will have a similar story to tell following my surgery.  I am extremely anxious about it all which doesnt help. 

Hopefully the surgery will go some way to help me resume normality!  I have forgotten what it is like to feel normal and live a normal life sadly and right now, cannot see a light at the end of the tunnel. I am now suffering terrible nausea too which the doctor thinks may be anxiety related.  I have given up evaluating because all in in I just feel terrible  thank you again xxx

Lorelli, I can imagine you being anxious, but what might help is to know that being anxious now won't actually make any difference in the long run - the outcome will still be as good for you.  I hope I'm making sense here:-)))  It's OK to be anxious but that's just short term, whereas looking at the bigger picture, the long term outcome is what's important:-)))  There is a light at the end of the tunnel for you NOW:-))))  Focus on that:-))))  Take care:-)))

thank you for your kind words of encouragment... I know you are right but being a born worrier just like my dear father and having had an extensive and complex medical history with several surgeries etc... I tend to worry more than most and also I have suffered with this for so very long (am sure this has been undetected over a very lenghty period which is why it has gotten progressively worse) that I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel but I am trying somewhere inside to be positive and tell myself that this is all going to help   I pray it does.  thank you again  xx