Post rectocele repair nightmare. Advice welcome!

Hi Gen

I do sympathise and it’s hard not to worry. It’s very early days yet to be feeling around inside!!! I didn’t dare do that till at least 6 weeks and yes it is lumpy and bumpy. 

I had an anterior repair in 2016 and a posterior repair 8 weeks ago. I too had a haematoma with the anterior and it scared me witless. All I can tell you is that my surgeon reassured me it would drain and heal and it did. Just take it easy and follow the guidelines to rest. Lifting and straining will only make it worse. 

There aren't many good news stories on patient forums  - inevitably it’s going to be the people with problems who post the most. When I was at my most down and depressed, they were a great help with reassurance. But now I’m through to the end of it all I can tell you from my experience that 8 weeks on I’m feeling absolutely great, everything has healed, I’m back at the gym and we have resumed bedroom activities with no problems!! It’s not all doom and gloom.  

Good luck Jean xx 

Hi Gen. The first few weeks of healing after this pelvic floor surgery are quite bad for some. The 'mess' you feel is the stitches holding everything together. Please don't try to touch or feel the wound again as this introduces bacteria and will cause infection.  It will take approx. 6-8 weeks to heal and even then will be tender and maybe sore. If you go to the top of this page and click on 'Genitourinary Prolapse' and follow the links until you find a post from South Tees. This and other posts should help you learn how to deal with your surgery post op. In the meantime take things easy, don't bend, lift or do anything like housework or gardening until you are fully healed, your doctor should tell you when after a post op check. If he does not, ask him for advice or see your GP/Primary care doctor. Try not to get constipated, use stool softeners and or laxatives as straining could undo all the good work! There are lots of us posting on this forum and I'm sure they will come on and help and advise you. Best wishes, Poll x

Oh NO. Fingers out!!! You MUST not feel about at this stage, one week , it is still raw, nothing in at all for at least six weeks or longer. The stitches and the lumpy tissue you felt is where you have had the slack taken up, so to speak, and it's been cut and sewn back together. The stitches take weeks to dissolve and need to be left alone to do just that, and heal up. As the others have said, take it as easy as you can for at least a month, even then, no lifting anything heavy, squatting ir heavy housework. If you do too much you risk the repair failing, it's not worth it.

Things do get easier, but you had a major op, and need to recover. 

Try to get help with the children, then you can rest more. I know it's difficult with a young family, but you need some "you" time right now.

 

Oh NOOOOOOOO - keep your poking around completely away! Yes of course it's all lumpy and bumpy and swollen. Our vaginas aren't ever smooth anyway. I can't believe actually that you would let yourself poke around and especially with post-op complications already. It's just lucky you probably still have antibiotics flowing around your blood stream. Some of the stitches can take 8wks Plus to dissolve. NOTHING must go inside there. Imagine if you penetrated the suture line which won't have hardly healed due to time since surgery & the presence of infection. I wonder if the infection was introduced when they loosened off the packing as I gather that wasn't done in theatre. The packing is there to help minimize hematoma formation, help minimize bleeding etc. etc. I'm surprised they didn't just try better stronger painrelief first as the feeling of tightness was probably more just that you were swollen and in pain. Maybe they did do that. No baths either. 

Thankyou ladies for all your replies. I’m fully aware I’m abit silly and I appreciate the telling off! I only felt about 1cm inside. I have stitches on the outside too and I was just dabbing them with warm water and just got abit curious. 

I’ve had 3 internal examinations since my surgery, one of which involved a speculum and it was agony. So I can tell you now I won’t go poking any more for a longtime. 

It’s just such a frustrating process isn’t it. 

Jean, how long did it take for your bleeding to stop after the hematoma?

My 3 year old just wants her mommy to be able to come out and play and do all I could before, and she gets upset. That’s what I find the hardest sad 

I’m just really fed up. I can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel at the moment. My daughters 10th birthday party is a week today and it’ll break my heart to miss it. I’m also bleeding abit more today which is frustrating as it had started to slow. 

Sorry for moaning on. I know people go through a lot worse and it’s only temporary (hopefully) 

It’s just been such a shock to the system and much more difficult than I’d ever anticipated. Made me really appreciate my life beforehand though and how you really do take things for granted. I definitely won’t be anymore once I’m healed. At least that’s a positive to take from it all. 

My two were two and six years old when I had to have my spine fused. Children are resilient. Make it an easy birthday party. Lat's face it, you aren't going to be back to normal in a week. No more lifting of the three year old, you won't be able to do that with a prolapse repair, you have to learn to do things differently. It will most definitely break your heart if it fails and you have to go through it again. No, they don't tell you the half of it beforehand, I don't think anyone would have a repair if they did!

It is hard, and emotional at times because you feel so hopeless and can't really do much to speed recovery up. But, you out will get through it, and hopefully be better for it doing, at least that's what I told myself. Just give it time.

Three year olds are comical, but they can cope with a lot more than we expect. Just tell her she's Mummy's little helper, and get her to do her bit😇

I felt inside at 6 weeks and I could feel huge lumpy stiches.  It made me think of frankenstein.   Needless to say, its all fine now.  Ive seen a lot of people think their repair failed bc everything was so lumpy and swollen.  The standard thing is for them to post that everything is fine at their followup.  There are also ladies who look with a mirror and are horrified and worried.  I’m sure repairs can fail, but i think the swelling and disturbing appearance postop are normal.

for me, everything looks normal from the exterior (i didnt have exterior stitches, so maybe that is irrelevant) and inside I can feel a small scar but it is just a thin line of thicker scar tissue.  My husband has never noticed it during sex.

My youngest was 3 when I had my surgery.  I tried to lay on the couch and be available for snuggling and reading, once I was well enough to be out of bed.  That helped.  Once I was able to kneel, if ne wanted to be picked up bc he was sad or something would kneel with one leg up for him to sit on so I could snuggle him.  I also just think it made him feel better if I responded with something (even just holding hands to walk to the couch where we could lay down and snuggle) instead of just saying I cant pick him up.

i hope you feel better aoon.  Oh, I had a rectocele repair.