Prolapse Repair Day 4

I slept fitfully last night. My shoulder bothered me from sleeping weirdly. My ears too. I was hot and cold. Just didn't rest nicely. Being in bed too much is not a good thing.

Today though has been better. I did get dizzy and a bit nauseous this morning after getting out of the shower and I decided to try not to take the Tramadol. I made it until 5pm without any pain meds and then I was achy down there, so I took the Ibuprofen and put an ice pack in my undies. 

I think the Tramadol is definitely the culprit for the dizziness and sleepiness. Not that I'm wide awake and ready to run, but maybe if I can stay off of it during the day, I'll have more energy to walk around and that will help. 

I haven't had a BM. That's the bad news. I'm taking 2 stool softeners every day, but nothing has dared to come out of that hole but some gas. I think I might have to drink some Miralax. Blech!! I'm not sure when...tonight? Does it work overnight or will it hit me at 3am? First thing in the morning? What if it takes days? What if it hits on Christmas? UGH! If it's explosive poop, will it hurt? How do I keep it gentle? I can't believe I'm blogging about my poop. 

I got a cool present today. One of those hospital bed tables. LOL! It's neat. I can eat, use my laptop, whatever. Slides under my bed. It's very adjustable so I might end up using it often. 

Prolapse Repair Day 3

It's day 3, if we're counting the day of surgery as day 1. Technically it's been about 48 hours. I set alarms on my phone for every time I need to take medication. Tramadol every 6 hours, Ibuprofen 600mg every 6 hours. I alternate them. I'll do the Tramadol at 12, Ibuprofen at 3, and so on. I did add an extra 200mg to the Ibuprofen pill. After giving birth, I always got 800mg of Ibuprofen. That helped. I also let 2 Arnica "pills" dissolve under my tongue. Coupled with the ice packs, I'm handling my pain okay.

I haven't had a BM yet. Lots of gas. No BM. I'm not looking forward to it.

The kids are loud. Our master bedroom is right next to the living room, and when the kids are playing video games, it gets ridiculously loud.

My husband and mom have been a great help. Helping with mealtimes, keeping kids busy, handling things.

The pain seems less so that's good, but I'm still feeling dizzy and weak, so that's not good. Blood has slowed to just spotting.

Prolapse Repair Day Two

I have to stay on top of my meds. If I don't, the pain is bad! The pain is pretty bad as it is, but I don't want to know what it's like without the meds. I have Tramadol and Ibuprofen 600mg. I'm sure it's helping, but it doesn't feel like it's touching the pain. Right now, it kind of feels like when you have a baby and tear, and they stitch you up TIMES 100!!!!!!!! Pain. Pressure. Ouch!

Besides the meds, I'm using perineum ice packs. I found some on Amazon. They don't stay cold as long as I'd like, but they are put in a warm place so that's to be expected. They really help. I'm very, very sleepy. Not sure if that's the surgery, after effects of the anesthesia, or the pain pills. I keep dozing off. My mouth is dry and I got dizzy once today - think those are both side effects of Tramadol. I use the peri bottle to help me pee when I don't get a lot out the normal way.

I do laps around the inside of the house. 4-5 of them. Then back to bed. I try to get up to do my own stuff. Get an ice pack, or drink. Something that keeps me up and walking.

Oh! I noticed they shaved me down there, like half of it. Weird. I trimmed the other half because it just looked strange. Still does, but whatever.

I had a sandwich for lunch and a small piece of chicken parm and spaghetti for dinner.

I ventured a peek down there... bruising, no redness, no signs of infection. Not ugly. I didn't look long.

I took a couple Arnica pills, hoping they'll help. Got a new ice pack and heading to sleepy land now.

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.