Cystocele and Rectocele Repair

Ten years ago, after baby number four, I found myself seeing a Urogynecologist who suggested repairing my prolapses. The way they explained it, they would use mesh to hold things in place and I would have a bunch of restrictions for the rest of my life. No carrying laundry baskets, no carrying children - and at that point not only did I have older children, I had a toddler and newborn. They also said I wouldn't be able to go up and downstairs. Oh and no more kids.

That was crazy to me! Being in my early 30s and never being able to do any of that?? So, I put it off. And put it off. And put it off some more.

This past year, I decided to look into it again. Our family is now complete, our deductible had been met, so why not? I found a urogynecologist I really liked, she suggested some pelvic floor therapy first. I did that. She had some other suggestions, but nothing really impressed me. I needed to have the surgery. I hoped that it would help my frequent urination, painful sex, and most of all my stupid, horrible bowel movements.

The best thing was the surgery had changed...no more mesh, she'd use my own tissue. Restrictions were only for 6 weeks. I would be able to do my laundry, go up and downstairs, etc.

I scheduled the surgery for the week before Christmas. Not sure why I thought that'd be a good idea. So much to do. Too much holiday stress. Throw in a surgery. Sure, no biggie. But my mom was going to be here to help and that's one reason I decided for that time.

Pre-op appointment with the doctor about 3 weeks before, pre-op with the hospital the week before.

Two nights before surgery, I took a magnesium 500mg pill. I pooped the next morning for hours. I kept my meals light. Half a sandwich for lunch, soup for dinner. I took two enemas that night.

We left for the hospital at 7:30am Tuesday morning, got there about 8:15am. We waited in a waiting area for a bit until I was called back to get ready. The pre-op room was "nice." It was private, had my own bathroom and a TV with a fireplace on. I had to give a urine sample. I changed into bear robe which they then hooked up to some warm air vent. Got all my vital stats taken. Then came the IV lady. Oh that mother hurt! Worst IV I've had in a long time. I couldn't move my fingers.

They brought my husband in and he stayed with me until it was time for me to go (about 11:30am). Of course, the doctor and anesthesiologist came to talk to me first. They sedated me first. I don't remember too much else. Don't even remember waking up. I DO remember them filling up my bladder with water, taking out the catheter, and made sure I could pee. And I did. I was SO happy. I didn't want to go home with a catheter. I hated that idea. I am surprised they let me go home while I was so loopy.

So...day 1...I don't remember much, just that I hurt. I had pain meds and ice packs and slept on and off throughout the rest of the day. Had Panera chicken noodle soup and bread for dinner.

Chordee Repair 3 Years Later

It's been 3 years since my little guy had his chordee repair and I still don't like it. It still points to the side and has some skin bunched up underneath. He had an appointment with the specialist about 6 months ago and he said my son looked fine, there was no problem, it all looked good. I disagreed. But there's nothing I can do about it now.

I still regret it. 

I wish I could go back in time and tell the doctor no.

I wish I had kept my son intact.

My advice to others who would like to keep their son intact...you can always do it, but you can't undo it. So make sure you're doing the right thing.

Chordee Repair 7 Months Later

A reader asked me to post an update and fortunately our son had an appointment yesterday, otherwise I'd have nothing to say. It's been about seven months since our son had his chordee repair done and six months since the last time we saw the doctor.

The urologist says that our soon looks good and that he is happy with the result of the surgery.

That being said, we're not happy. Both my husband and I regret allowing the surgery. Mainly because now instead of pointing down, our son's penis points to the left. This is okay with the doctor (his words: Left, right, up are all okay. Down is not. We fixed the down.) The doctor asked if we had seen him have an erection. No. We haven't. The doctor said that with an erection, his penis should point straight. Great. So do guys have erections when they pee? So now instead of peeing on his feet, he'll pee on the person next to him. Yes, that's a joke, hopefully it'll never get that bad. I guess it could fix itself?

I also asked about the extra bumps underneath and was told it would fix itself as he grew bigger or straighten out with an erection. That still doesn't help the locker room type thing. Will other boys notice a difference?

I struggle with the outcome of this decision. I still have regret that he's now circumcised. I feel like I should have protected him more and I pray that he won't hate me for this one day. As parents we're supposed to do what's best for our children. Sure, I suppose in the eyes of the medical community, we did what we were supposed to do. We had a doctor "fix" the problem. But...deep down...I feel that it created other issues that we'll have to deal with. Maybe we should have just left it alone and let him decide when he was older.

I'm sure that would be hard if he decided to do the surgery at age 16 or 20. Maybe he'd hate us for not doing it. It's so hard to understand something that you can't see or feel and that he can't either - at least for another 16 - HOPEFULLY MORE - years! It wasn't hurting him. Wasn't bothering him. Only the doctors saw a problem and that was only because our son was there for a different issue. Had we not had that issue, we wouldn't have known for a long, long time. Was it really a problem? Or more the surgeon's "need" to cut?

I'm not trying to sway anybody out there one way or another. Just trying to tell our story. I couldn't find a lot on chordee repair after the fact and I wanted to make sure there was something out there people could read. Maybe the surgery is the way to go. Maybe not. Maybe your child's is worse than ours. Just make an informed decision.

I'll update when I have new information :) Thanks for reading and if you have questions, leave a comment.

Insanity Month 2

Month 2 started with a 25 minute fit test - okay, no big deal AND then a 59 minute and some odd seconds workout. Seriously? I had a hard enough time finding 40+ minutes to workout during the day, now I have to find an hour. And with the fit test, it would be an hour and 25 minutes. With 6 kids, that's kind of impossible.

I did the fit test in the morning. I went to do the workout in the afternoon. I got 4 minutes into it. When they started kicking their feet over their heads in the air, I paused it, laughed, and decided there was no way I was ready for this yet.

My husband and I decided to do month 1 again. I decided that since my waist is what I really wanted to work on was that I'd do the workouts when I could and add in the cardio ab workout. If I didn't have a lot of time that day, I'd just do the cardio abs.

That's the plan now. Wish me luck.

Insanity - Done With Month One

Finished month one over the weekend. Four weeks of grueling exercise. Some of it wasn't so bad, some was. After a couple weeks, it got kind of boring, but I kept going.

This week is the core cardio and balance. It's nice to have a break from the fast paced stuff, but my shoulders and arms are killing me!

Measurements. I don't know off hand. I could get off my butt and go look at my paper, but I'm too lazy. I started around 110lbs. I'm not doing this because I'm overweight. I'm doing it because I have a few inches of baby flab that need to go away and I want to be in shape. I'm down to 108. More importantly, I've lost a few centimeters around my belly. That's what I like :) So I'm happy. I hope to lose another inch before vacation.

Will I continue after this next month? I don't know. Maybe just less. It seems too much to do 6 days a week when I have 6 kids. Maybe 3-4 days a week? We'll see.

That's my update :)

Insanity 3

Still doing it even though I don't really want to be. It's hard. It's long. It gets kind of boring. Very repetitive. You would think for over $100 they would mix it up a bit more.

This past week was spring break and it was very hard trying to find time to workout without an audience. Seems like every day at least one of the kids was there watching and commenting. "Do it better, Mom", "Faster," "That's the wrong way," "Oh look at that girl go". UGH! One day I skipped completely. And then I skipped the weekend. I just didn't have it in me.

I plan on getting back into it tomorrow. It's been hard to find the right time to workout. Before the little ones wake up? During nap time? Before lunch? Separately or together?

I honestly can't wait to be done. I wish I could just stop...BUT I want to be thinner or more in fit. Whatever.

Hopefully when I update this blog next week, I'll be able to say I did all 6 days!

Insanity Update Week 2

We had a lot to do last Saturday, so we swapped days and worked out Sunday instead of Saturday. Other than that, we've stayed on course.

We've been trying to do our workout as soon as we wake up in the mornings. Usually 2 of the kids have gone to school and the rest are sleeping. It's a good time. Today I woke up with a bad headache. I took some medicine and hoped it would go away.

It didn't. Not quickly anyway.

I tried exercising, but every jump I did made my head hurt. It felt like someone was stabbing my head with an ice pick every time I landed.

We stopped the DVD and rested. Thankfully, the headache went away an hour or so later and when I put the two little kids down for their afternoon nap, we exercised. This was the pure cardio. Yikes! I was sweating and panting and praying for the 38 minutes to be over quickly.

I measured myself before starting Insanity and I measured myself on Sunday. I lost about 1/2" around my belly button area. That makes me really happy! It gives me the motivation to keep going. Hopefully I'll continue to see good results.