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Question for the ladies with ostomies

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Posted 1/5/2015 12:47 AM (GMT 0)
     Do any of you know whether or not your surgeon placed a mesh of some kind inside you to hold your lady parts intact?  I know, sounds kinda dumb....but I wonder if everything just sort of takes a nose dive down south after this operation. rolleyes
Posted 1/5/2015 5:47 AM (GMT 0)
Not a dumb question at all! My surgeon DID put some mesh inside of me to keep all of the remaining organs from falling into the empty space where my colon once was.
Posted 1/5/2015 12:27 PM (GMT 0)
I don't know if I had mesh put in but my lady bits have definitely "tilted"  
Posted 1/5/2015 1:09 PM (GMT 0)
no mesh, but my parts have tilted too- in fact, at my most recent yearly gyn appt., the doctor couldn't even find my cervix! It was pretty funny... I felt a little badly for her, she kept saying "This is most unusual!". Eventually found it, extremely posterior. It's basically laying flat, when I lie flat! So yeah, things have moved around a bit. The gyn did tell me that the uterus generally holds the vagina in place, even with the rectum gone. But when you lay on your back, things sink & settle a bit...
Posted 1/5/2015 4:32 PM (GMT 0)
I don't know if I had any mesh put in but I don't think so. Things have shifted for me too and my uterus is tilted back (got an ultrasound for a fibroid a couple years after surgery and was told this.) It seems like my menstrual blood pools up in my uterus now... especially when I sleep. When I stand up in the morning it is like a flood and all comes out at once. Sorry... TMI ha ha. I have also been having progressively more painful periods/cramps since surgery. It was off-the-charts painful last month so I am heading to the doc at the end of the month to get it looked into just to make sure nothing strange is going on.
Posted 1/5/2015 4:47 PM (GMT 0)
The "lady parts" can change position with or without the mesh. I can feel that things aren't angled the same way that they were before surgery, and I also have to problem with menstrual blood pooling up, even though I don't have much of it since I got an IUD shortly after surgery. (that hurt A LOT, by the way!!)

My surgeon said the mesh is to keep any of the organs from falling into the empty space. Intestines, stomach, uterus, ovaries, etc. The mesh will not keep the vagina, cervix, etc...from shifting position. I think that is caused more from removing the rectum and shuffling things around in there. I'm not positive though...
Posted 1/6/2015 4:36 AM (GMT 0)
Hmmm....no one told me this after my surgery, but sure explains why I had bleeding from the vagina, twenty years post menopause. BTW though, I was thoroughly checked out by my gyn several times, three transvaginal ultrasounds over last four years. I also had PAP tests. Nothing seemed to be out of place. I was told the bleeding was from the thinning of the lining of my cervix. I STILL say I have a small fistula in there somewhere because when I put in the Canasa suppository (because of the UC which came back inside the anus), I can feel it squishing out my vagina rolleyes
Posted 1/9/2015 1:56 AM (GMT 0)
I guess things would have to "shift around" a bit when parts are taken out or rearranged! In that respect, I don't know whether to think I am lucky that i am having all my lady parts removed in a few weeks (along with my colostomy and bladder surgery), or if that means the rest of my parts are going to have even more space to move around in!! I still would like to ask one of my surgeons to take some of my fat and strategically place it to cover the spots where parts are missing!! If nothing else, it could just hide the fat! I have plenty of it to go around!!

Christine, I hope things get worked out for you!! It's so weird to think about how they remove parts and then whatever's left will just shift around and fill in the gaps!

Take Care!!
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