Rectocele & Repairs continued....

[CAZ1958]

Rectocele & Repairs...continuation

Hiya Ladies...
Don't know if this will work, above is the Subject Title
Don't want to lose my friends.
Will come back with a link if poss !!!
Fingers crossed
ZZZ

Hi Footle and Tazzle - how are you both doing? I have not been on for a little while and can't seem to find the thread that I joined (although i think it was this one) and I recalled that you both responded to me. Tazzle - was it you that said you were taking or had taken overactive bladder tablets? I am the one who had the traumatic labour 14 weeks ago now (exactly 14 weeks ago tonight my DS was born) and for the last about 5 weeks i seem to have this nightmare bladder problem...permanently have the feeling that i need to wee, even when i have just been and it is particularly bad when walking about. Ive been back to see the uro-gynacologist and she did put me on 4 week course of overactive bladder tablets. I remembered that one of you, Tazzle or Footle and i'm sorry that i can't remember which if you it was who kindly offered your advice on the overactive bladder tablets but i remember that one of you said that you'd found the pills help but that you'd had to try a few to find the right one for you. I have been given Solifenacin and have now taken 14 pills out of the 30 days i have been given, i take one before bed each night. So far, no improvement at all. I just wondered if either of you had tried this one and if so, how long does it take before you noticed the difference they were making? And, if not which tablets did you find worked for you? I am going to take the full 30 days but might have to ask to try a different one. I'm still having a hard time as if i take my DS out anywhere, like for a walk in the park with the pram - i go for a wee before we go out but i can only walk for 15 to 20 mins before i feel desperate for a wee and like i'm going to flood myself. The uro gyno still insists that things take a while to go back after traumatic labour etc and thinks it will just take time but i am terrified in case it is anything worse. I have been told that i could have a cystoscopy to look at my bladder but i reallly don't fancy that at all, and i think you have to be put to sleep for that. Any help/advice about any of this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

thanks sure .... I have definately been drinking loads water as well as the juice etc.... just forgot to mention it . Even right aftet op I did loads ......so much so I was filling my catheter bag up so much the staff had to empty it way before it as due , one of the reasons they let me go early was I was "doing everything right" .

anyway ........ success this morning ... as nearly everyone says, its an important step to perform succesfully without straining !

hiya mrsm22

I certainly did talk about taking solfenacin for urge incontinence due to irritable / over active / unstable bladder ( its called all three interchangably lol). I have settled on that after trying a couple other drugs . Are you on 5mg daily ...... I started on that dose then settled at 10mg daily. When I first started taking tablets it did take a few weeks to have effect so please dont be disappointed its not hadimmediate effect. Sometimes they can have a good effect on the bladder but cause other side effects that bother like dry mouth, its all a matter of trying to you get something that suits.

alongside the meds and allowing for healing from the birth ( I think urogynae may have good point there) you might also get advised sooner or later to retrain the bladder to hold a decent amount. Thats cos if we keep emptying the bladder too frequently due to either the physical urge or the fear of incontinence then its gets used to having little amounts in and adapts ( bit like our stomachs "shrink" if we eat very small meals usually .... it does not really shrink its just what its used to feeling) .

I know its really upsetting thinking about losing control of the bladder but while no one likes it ever please,please try not to let it take over the enjoyment of your wonderful DS. The more anxious you get about it too the more tense you get and it exacerbates the situation. My advice would be .......... pad yourself up before you go out so that if you do leak no one will know and let yourself enjoy the walks. Try not to worry about it being anything more serious as you hav enough reasons already to explain why its occurring, if you have no other symptoms its highly unlikely to be anything else. [hug] . It might ( probably) feel like forever you have had the problem but in reality its not tha long and already you have a diagnosis and receiving treatment ....... you have not left it or put up with it for years like many of us older women so the likelihood is you may well revcover faster or even get "cured".

and I dont mean it as trite but it all certainly feels less stressful if you can get caught up in the humourous side of it a little ......(((0))) . even if only on here !

.... and its great that the topic is getting much more open these days..... I mean we even have adverts on mainstream tv for womens incontinence pads and products on the shelves in supermarkets :) :) :)

and great also forums like this ...... far cry from all women suffering in silence for years, housebound and ashamed to seek help.

and just remember ......you are not alone !!!!

Go Tazzle!!! (literally)

Just thought I would update with my bad day! I had to see my lovely consultant today about the lump/ haemotoma in the right pubic area that I have had since the TVT removal. It is proving to be pretty resistant to any treatment and I thought I had better go back as I am about 13 weeks post op now so time is cracking on. Unfortunately she seemed completely foxed by it and couldn't work out what was going on at all. I have an urgent MRI scan within two weeks but feel really anxious now. I had found some essential oil, Helichrysum, which is said to 'dissolve haemotoma' so I thought I would give it a try. I ended up half the night thinking I was going to land up in hospital yet again as the lump bubbled and gurgled away like something from MacBeth! It did go down a bit but boy did I smell odd! I seem to have a pretty unusual side effect for a very uncommon operation, how unlucky is that??
So a pretty pants day all in all really, and the weather was dreadful to!!
Good luck to you all, like Tazzle says we are not alone! xxx

Tazzle - thank you so much for that. You have made me feel so much better already by hearing what you have to say about this subject. I have only just taken 14 days and yes only one 5mg tablet a day, so hopefully after the 30 days i might feel some improvement (i'm probably far too impatient) and like you rightly said, it feels like it has been going on for ages but in reality it has only been 5 weeks. If i'm not much better after the 30 days, i could ask the question about increasing the dosage. I am also doing the bladder training - holding myself for 2 hours at a time or longer if i can. I think there's a lot of truth in what you say about not letting it get to you too much. On Monday for example, i went to the supermarket with my hubby and DS and i could only walk round so far and feel comfortable before i suddenly felt a desperate urge and because i was stood in the supermarket, i just panicked myself that i might wet myself and left DH with DS and ran to the car where i sat and cried! It has started really getting to me, and it's amazing how you can manage the feeling so much better in your own home but as soon as you're out in a public place the urge to go intensifies and it becomes something unmanageable. I am going to try and be more positive about it and give the tablets longer etc... I think when it's something so restricting, it is worse and i think i'm probably (well definitely) thinking about it far too much. Perhaps if i try put it out of my mind a bit more, the problem might also go. You're also right about it being less taboo than it used to be. I'm thinking of the advert of the woman in the supermarket when all the mini toilets appear on the conveyer belt. You're probably right in saying about trying to see the funny side, but with having my DS in December last year, right at the end of the year, i really hoped after a traumatic birth experience that i'd be feeling great now and back to normal but some people do say 9 months of being pregnant and 9 months to get back. I'm only 30 too but i know there are loads of people out there suffering the same and it can happen to people at any age. I think this site is wonderful for women to share information like this and to be able to offer support to each other on so many different things. Thanks again for your advice...think i will pad myself up when i next go for the walk in the park (if more to ease my mind than anything else) and i'll let you know how i'm getting on. x

awwwwww jackie .... gentle hugs to you

essential oils can be pretty powerful stff ..... macbeth indeed lol.........will be interesting to hear if it works.

I can empthise with being unlucky with side effects and ops lol... I had an unusual for my age op three years ago.... I had my bottom jaw split surgically and realigned to correct a misalignment and was left with the less than 1% change of permanant numbness/ altered sensation in lower lip and chin (feels like a cold slab stiff summat lol)

I hope the scan happens soon !!!!

(((0))))
!

glad to have helped mrsm22 (((0)))

being in public def more emotional .... its the fear of potentially having everyone knowing you have wet yourself...........but I bet in that supermarket at any one time threr is at least one other woman with bladder problems

It is a great advert that one lol

and I do empathise with the supermnarket ............many a time I stood for several minutes with legs crossed pretending to examine lables of food I had no intention of buying .....but sometimes even not near the shelves !!!!

Hi mrsm22 - Don't forget also that your hormones are all over the place at the moment, especially if you are breast feeding (?) and that in itself can cause problems in other areas, namely bladder and urge to wee. Apparently you need to wait quite a few months for your hormones to settle before you can tell if you have a definite problem or not. If you are breast feeding then things won't get back to normal until a few months after you have stopped, so 'they' say !!! lol!
Keep positive and enjoy your DS to the full.
XXXX

Jackie. Sorry not replied earlier. I'm in the hospital now waiting to go in. They are running an hour late.
My hematoma was internal(where my womb had been) so not sure it's the same. I'll find out if it's gone today but at last scan it had reduced from 5x6cm to only 1.5x1cm. I was told it can take 6 months to reabsorb.
Will update later.
Hope everyone has a good day

14k hope it goes well (when you finally get in!)

Hi folks. I couldn't face talking lately, and hope you are all doing ok. I finaslly got my results (from the MR defecography) today, and guess what, there is a leak of the dye, which the urogynae chap thinks may be an intusseption (looked more like a fistula to me, as it only seems to go off in one, narrow channel, not all round the rectum, but we'll see). I'm being referred to yet another colorectal surgeon, to establish the full picture, but he said it was possible it could be cancer (how's that for straight-talking!). I hope it's just a surgically-removable fistula, but I'm researching all of the options. I do have a slight prolapse, and a rectocele, but he said he is more concerned that I should be sent to see the colorectal chap first (this will be the third one since all this began 16 years ago!). I thanked him profusely for finally getting me the scan I've been begging for over the last 2 YEARS!
I should be scared stiff, I suppose, but I'm just relieved to have seen evidence that I'm not raving bonkers!
Hugs to all!
XX

Hi Footle, glad to be able to say something has progressed?, although we're at the beginning of it being looked into properly. Nearly twenty years is probably something of a record on here (although I'd rather not be in this position), and I'm hoping that not being any worse may indicate it's not cancer (fingers crossed tightly!). I don't know about apologies for negligence etc., but I discussed my plans, for IF I ever got this far, and decided a while ago to take legal advice. I found a solicitor this morning, who will take the case once the diagnosis is made. I'm still very angry that I was fobbed off for so long, which is good, as the fear could be worse (and that wouldn't help, since I don't know, yet, if fear is appropriate). I only got this scan through persistence, and that's not how it should be. Why do we have to self-diagnose, and beg for relevant attention? Please God let it be a fistula!
Love to all!
XX

Footle, PM would be lovely.

No date yet, I was just told to hand in the slip at reception, and wait for an appointment with the colorectal chap???????? I should be used to waiting by now, shouldn't I?, but a bit more urgency now would really be appreciated!

just a thought, Mrsm22, they reckon that a lot of post meno problems with bladder control are to do with lack of oestrogen, so it seems possible that some of your problem is to do with your hormones as the other ladies have said.

I tried Vesicare (soli whatsit) for 6 months following my TVT operation and never found any difference at all but there quite a few other ones that you could try, oxybutynin for one. Loads of sympathy on the supermarket incident, it's difficult to explain how much the loss of bladder control totally dominates and depresses you.
One of the things I did try using was Contrelle which sort of holds things up and stops stress incontinence. Not sure it would be suitable as you've just had a baby, but you could have a look.
www.pelvic-toners.co.uk/contrelle_starter_pack.htm#product-desc
Good luck.

Pleased to see you back Nannasylv!

Thanks Fengirl, I just couldn't talk for a while. I felt like I was in limbo.

Totally understandable Nannasylv. Thank goodness you are on the right track at last. In your position, personally I would call this surgeons secretary and ask WHEN you are going to be seen - you more than most have a right to. Fingers crossed there will be nothing sinister and you will be coming on here soon to say what you are having done and when. Keep your chin up. X

so glad to see you back nannasylv ! Such a mixture of emotions with regard to having at last had the defegrophy .......... the fact that the medics now see that there really, really is something there (even if atm they dont know exactly what it is) must be such a relief. The impulse to say "I told you so" must be immense too !

I think, like you, that if it were bowel cancer you would have had more serious symptoms to go with what you have described. It will of course, now its been mentioned, be great to have it ruled out once you do get a firm diagnosis.

fingers crossed for you xxxx

Oh!! Nannasylv -hope not , as the others said if it is cancer then surely you would be worse ( not that you aren't bad enoughxx). For cancer to go on for so long would possibly be other symptoms ??..... fingers crossed and things should move pretty quickly as there are more defined guidlines when investigating cancer. If you have not heard soon like the others said phone and see if you can push for quicker apt.
I told you so would be the polite version in my book lol but glad you are back with us xxx
mrsm22- been there with the needing to pee urgentley , have actuallly wet myself on several occasions lol and then wept buckets. usually bought sanitory towels in supermarket cause I am so embarassed to buy Tena ... LOL might aswell hold up a neon sign . I also find that even if I have managed to hang on, the minute I see the toilet or get the key in the front door, that is it complete loss of control...... but we shouldn't be embarassed. Recently I had a friend (who I only really know through waiting at school gate) shout to me from her car to tell her son just to cross road himself, found this odd so asked if all was ok. She replied yes she had just wet herself lol you could have picked me up with a feather , we now have a regular laugh about womens bit and fallen fanjo's. Not that I am suggesting you tell all at school gate or mums and todlers but if we all were open then maybe the embarassment would go and the laughter would flow ( aswell as the other lol)

Hi to all xxx
Once again Hugs to Nannysylv xx

the thing is that once we do get up the nerve to mention it the usual response is indeed empathy / sympathy / understanding........ and sometimes even finding out that others are in the same boat !!!!

MInd you it might depend on several factors as to individuals circles of friends / aquaintances / work situations .... my current situation it would be no problem but I have worked in some situations where if it were common knowledge it would have been a source of amusement and even ridicule. ... so in no way could I infer that telling all sundry persons is advisable

but for most of us there might be times where a truthful explanation might be helpful ....... last year I wanted to go stay for four nights at an outdoor horse clinic (plus camping at night) and I was not sure of the toilet facilities. I explained to a frined who was connected to the host of the event and she kindly offered me use of the loo in her house ( no one else was allowed to). It allayed my fears of queues at the one loo / shower available for public use when I might need to go quickly.