Surgery for bladder prolapse

[wdube]

I'm wondering if any of you have opted for surgery to repair a bladder prolapse/cystocele. I've been living with a prolaspe since the birth of my first son almost four years ago -- and I want my life back (intercourse is painful, and it's annoying when I exercise)! I've tried physial therapy and biofeedback, Mayan abdominal massage, and wearing a pessary, but my bladder still falls when I eat too much or lift heavy things (like my boys).

I had pretty much ruled out surgery but met an OB/GYN today with whom I felt really comfortable. (In this area, he's very popular among women seeking a natural birth in a hospital setting; midwives love him, too.) After an internal exam, he told me my prolapse is pretty severe for my age (that's what I get for four hours of pushing). Then he laid out my options and told me most of the things I'd been told before about surgery were "old school." He also said that kegals and other exercises would not ever repair it as it wasn't a muscular problem in my case.

I'm so confused. If you are dealing with this issue, what have you done?

Many thanks!

[wdube]

Anyone?

[coyotemist]

Funny I didn't see this before, but I responded to a similar question over on the pregnancy board...

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=911030

At around the age of 25 I'd had my 2 children and thought I was done. I also had a benign but painful tumor on my ovary. The constant dribbling caused my skin to always be sore (on top of having to wear pads every day, this is when I switched over to cloth because it didn't rub me raw like plastic does). In the time before I had surgery I would wear a tampon all the time, it kept my bladder mostly tucked up. I really didn't like that, but it worked.

I tried several of the incontinence drugs, and they just made me thirsty, dehydrated, and itchy. Since I needed surgery for the tumor, too, I went ahead with the bladder suspension (I had a Burch Colposuspension) along with the tumor removal. At the time, I was told that any further pregnancies would probably reverse this surgery, but I would be good for 10 to 15 years if I didn't lift heavy things and didn't have any more children. We considered ourselves "done" with children and I've never worked a physically demanding job.

Fast forward now nearly 6 years...the repair has worked pretty well, I would still have spells of incontinence (with a cold, bad allergies, bladder infection, etc) but mostly, I was happy with the procedure. Now that I'm pregnant, its not working so well, and my current doc said that it will probably be completely reversed after childbirth.

At the time that I had the surgery, I was only able to have an open surgery, maybe because of the tumor, I'm not sure. The incision is in the same place as a c-section scar would be, about the same size (pretty close to hip-bone to hip-bone). My doc did a fabulous job, no staples, internal sutures and glue, so the scar is hardly noticable. They had me on a pain pump (where you push the button) for the first 2 days I was in the hospital, with an external catheter (inserts into the skin) which allows them to make sure your bladder is functioning before they take it out. The last day I was in the hospital I transitioned to oral pain control, retrained my bladder, had the catheter out (this was probably the worst part of the procedure), and was able to eat normal food again.

It wasn't fun, but soooooo worth it!

[wdube]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I can't even imagine using tampons every day to hold up my bladder/uterus. Wearing a pessary was so uncomfortable -- and it was always coming out .

To repair my cystocele, the doctor recommended a graft (Xenform or Repliform). He said it's a simple one-hour surgery, and the recovery should be a couple of weeks at most. I haven't suffered from incontinence, thank goodness, but if he finds my urethrea isn't functioning properly, I may need a uretheral sling (mesh) as well. Worse case scenario, he said he may do a laparoscopic surgery to shorten the round ligaments and lift the uterus. We are done having kids (dh has had a vasectomy), but the doctor did say subsequent pregnancies would not have any effect on the repair.

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy! My thoughts are with you.

[coyotemist]

Lucky you not to have to suffer from incontinence! It sounds like you have a good doc, with some really good options. I hope everything is laporoscopic so you heal quickly!