:-\Prolapse: Surgery or Not, Other methods to deal with Prolapse (s)
Good morning, US time. I wake up thinking prolapse, I go through my day having to lie down because of prolapse, I woke up this morning daydreaming about a belt or something other than an internal pessary to support my cystocele. I was on the posture forum (I'll call it that)in the US where they are almost violently opposed to surgery. I could not take the anger towards the medical profession and seemingly toward those of us who have had surgery. I think successful surgery is threatening to those who are trying desperately to avoid it *but* this is so silly because surgery is *always* a risk and success is far from guaranteed. My hyst at 32 was totally successful for thirty years. My mother had a hyst at 55 and has no prolapse issues. Friends have had successful repairs, *but* many have had repeated repairs and now the horrible issues with the mesh and erosion of tissues. I know no one who has prolapse and I have lots of friends and neighbors?
My only solution for prolapse has been HRT. My friends on HRT since surgery have no prolapse.
I worked as an office RN for three years in a urology surgery office and did not hear much of failure of repair.
Something seems wrong to me in that I am hearing of so much prolapse in the younger set of post partum ladies. I never heard of this when working at Stanford Medical Center (a well known US teaching hospital in California). I should not say never - but never in young women. So what has changed??? The only thing that has changed in the peri-menopause group and older is the study on HRT that had women (like me) stopping HRT and then getting prolapse. But that does not explain younger ladies getting prolapse now.
I am trying the posture that the US website advises. I am watching my diet to go as anti-inflammatory as possible. I am exercising. I used to be a ranked tennis player (not professional, but very good) and was in great shape. I am now 70 years old (yee gads) and still work out and find the prolapse infuriating as it limits the time I can stand and it forces me not to lift or create intra abdominal pressure. I packed for three moves as I may have mentioned and cared for my husband when he was severely ill (better now) and all the lifting did me in this second time. The HRT saved me for about eight years the first time.
So I am avoiding surgery because of the high failure rate. I am hoping they will come up with a laparoscopic surgery that will shorten ligaments to support whatever has fallen. I am not a good surgical candidate because I am allergic to almost all antibiotics and other meds are problematic. So, right now, I am afraid of surgery, but I have not ruled it out. I want my life back. But I must consider that I have other bigger issues (cervical spine) and not be ungrateful that I am basically very healthy. So I use methods to help me deal with it - I believe in acupressure and myofascial release and trigger point therapy for many things. I am all for natural, but remember, I did chose hysterectomy and I have had an emergency appendectomy (at 61) so I am not opposed to surgery - only surgery that has a high failure rate and prolapse surgery has a high failure rate in my mind.
I love this forum because of its acceptance of a wide variety of views and its tolerance level. We all need the support of each other and who knows maybe the wonderful doctor (s)? who support this forum will learn from us and come up with workable solutions. Trey
