stage 4 POP folks--what has helped?

[Chamsia]

The uterus looks like a baby crowning.  The bladder and rectum are all misplaced too.  What's a mama to do?...

I got the sea sponge pessary and it made me incontinent (!) so I'm planning on getting a rubber one.  Please let me know if you have experience with a pessary, good or bad.  Also I just started with a PT.  So far just kegels.

Squattig?

Chiropractic?

Witch doctor?  (I did get the pelvic power tincture from Jade and Pearl!)

I'll try anything.  I like my internal organs to be internal!

Thanks mamas!

[kltroy]

Hoping you've gotten some good help and are making some progress with your PT.  I didn't have it this bad, but PT did amazing thigns for me.  I also got fitted with a pessary, which I wear as needed (which is not full time for me).  Even now, 3 years later, I need to make sure I do my exercises, but generally thigns stay in place.  One thing htat helped me also was "Nauli" - look it up to see exactly how it's done.  Basically, you exhale, then close your airway and "inhale" to suck everything into your abdominal cavity.  Helps to lean fwd and put your hands on your knees, with your back straight.  You'll need to kegel at the same time to avoid having a bunch of air get sucked inside you.  Takes some practice, but it can help to 'reset" things if you're feeling "low".  Ultimately, if this is bad for you on a daily basis and you're done with kids, you may want to consider surgery.  Not your first choice maybe, but it may be the best solution to preserve your quality of life.  I'd try the other options first, of course.  And would give it a year at least, or until you've stopped lactating for a few months and your hormones straighten out, before you decide on anything perminant.

[Chamsia]

Thanks so much, Kltroy.  It hadn't really occurred to me that continued nursing could be affecting it, though of course it is!  I did have prolapse long after I stopped nursing my first kiddo, though, so I know it's not going to disappear.

I had two sessions of PT with an awesome practitioner who is a yoga instructor.  Sadly I just could not manage to do the exercises (kegels etc) every day.  My prolapse is severe and she was straightforward in saying that, at best, I might see modest improvements.  She even asked a ton of colleagues about my specific case at a conference.  They all said the same thing: surgery.  My insurance wasn't covering the PT and doing the exercises all the time would be such a dramatic lifestyle shift that I gave up.  Sigh.

In the meantime I got a pessary, which really helps.  I am fortunate not to be in pain, just discomfort when it's bad.  I am only very mildly incontinent, and sex is comfortable (probably because we use a diaphragm, which acts like a pessary.)

We live near NYC and a friend who is in the field got me the name of, supposedly, the best POP doc in NYC.  Naturally he doesn't take my insurance, but I may go have an expensive consult with him anyway.  The same friend helped me put together an amazing list of questions.  It's so good that I think I'll post it as another thread!

Thanks again for your help.  Right now things are not so bad.  I'm just terrified that, at age 37, I already have a softball-sized chunk of an internal organ hanging out of my vulva.  Not good!