Anyone have cystocele/rectocele repair with TVH?

Hi Everyone,

I am scheduled for a TVH due to uterine prolapse and rectocele/cystocele repair on August 18, 2004. I just got the news today and really don't know what to expect. Any information would be helpful. Thanks alot!! kjmay39

Hi Kjmay!

I had a LAVH with A & P repair on 7/21, so I am 2 weeks post-op.

I must say that not having an abdominal cut is nice, you'll need your abd muscles to get in and out of bed, etc.

Go to pre-op message board, click on "tell your hyst story" and look for my name - lesuregal - you will read my experience and it may help you.

Best wishes,

lesuregal

I had TVH due to prolapse with rectocele repair and a bladder neck sling. Amazingly, I don't have cystocele. It really wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be. Right now I have mostly cramping feelings.

The vaginal hyst is a bit easier to recover from than abdominal. I am 9 days out and sometimes I don't feel any pain. It does still come and go. I was worried about the posterior repairs, but I really don't even feel them as much. Make sure that you drink plenty of water and take a stool softener and lots of fiber, so those first bms won't kill you.

Best wishes to you! Hope all goes well!

I had A&P repairs for a cystocele and rectocele with my TVH three years ago. The biggest issues I faced during my recovery which ladies with "just" :eek" a TVH don't usually have to deal with were (1) a little extra pain from the stitches in the perineum from the posterior repair - like an episiotomy - and (2) a bladder that refused to work properly at first because of the amount of swelling in the area.

To deal with the perineal pain, I just sat on a donut pillow for about the first six weeks. That pillow went everywhere I went, including in the car, in restaurants, etc.. It became my constant companion, once I got over worrying about what people would think when they saw me toting it around

The bladder thing... I was unable to urinate on my own in the hospital when they removed the catheter. This does happen, not all the time, but fairly frequently, with ladies who have cystocele repairs with a TVH. The bladder doesn't like being handled, and swelling is the reaction. When the swelling causes the urethra to pinch shut, no urine can get through. I ended up having to have the Foley catheter reinserted (not as bad as it sounds) and to wear it home for the first week (also not nearly as bad as you might think). That allowed my bladder the time to rest and have the swelling go down... and then when I removed the catheter after a week, I was once again able to go on my own.

I did have one last complication which I'll mention because it's possible with A&P repairs, but extremely unlikely. I developed a vaginal adhesion where the two (anterior & posterior) vaginal incisions stuck together. It was a bridge of scar tissue about the thickness of a finger, halfway up the vagina, and I ended up having to have a minor surgery to remove it. However, once that healed, everything was fine, and it truly was a minor surgery - in and out in one day, just Motrin for the pain, back to my normal routine within a week. Please don't worry too much about this, as it almost never happens, but there have been a couple of us here, so I thought I'd mention it just in case

Good luck with your surgery!
s,
-Linda

I had a lap hyst and rectocele repair. My recovery went well. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that it has taken a while for my abdominal muscles to know what to do during a bm. I know that sounds strange but for several years my rectocele was getting progressively worse and I was having real problems having a 'natural' bm. Now, 9 weeks postop, I think things are finally working the way they are supposed to.

Thanks for the info. I must say that I'm a little concerned about the catherization and hoping to not have to come home with a catheter still in my bladder. Of course surgery on the other end does not exactly appeal to me either. Just out of curiosity...Do you wake up with a bag there too? UGH!!!
kjmay39

Oh, goodness no One of the reasons for the bowel prep/enema/whatever your DR instructs you to do before the surgery is so that you won't have to have a bowel movement right away... and the anesthesia pretty much stops all activity in that area, anyway. Most of us don't have a bm for the first several days after surgery - in fact, getting it to happen can sometimes become a major goal in our lives for a short time

Try not to stress too much about the catheter... everyone gets one, it's inserted after you're already out, it usually stays in for the first day (which is a relief, as it means you don't have to get up to go right away), and not many ladies have to go home with one. Even if you are one of the *lucky* ones, it's not the end of the world, and it does have its positive aspects (such as not having to get up in the middle of the night to go - I got the best sleep of my life that week! )

s,
-Linda

Not everyone's insides come to a complete halt. As I have mentioned elsewhere on the site, I had the problem of having diarrhea starting the 2nd night post-op. That had one positive - they knew that gas was moving through my intestines . I found the cathetar to be annoying but not painful. The first 18 hours postop I was glad it was there b/c I didn't need to get out of bed to pee. I have a friend who went home with the cath for a short time and now, a year later, she has recovered just fine.

Good luck!

Wearing the catheter home was no big deal since it meant I got to go home a day earlier. (It was removed in the office a day after that). But it's not so terrible, really. And it does save you some trips to the BR.