When my rectocele first happened I wasn't having to splint everytime to have a BM. Now I do. Splinting, is when you place your finger in your vagina and press on the bulge to start the BM. Tomorrow marks the 2 month anniversary of my rectocele and I'm splinting everyday now. Earlier this month I was also splinting everyday, so I called Dr. Z's office and made and appointment to see her again to discuss surgery. I know she told me originally to see if I could live with my condition, but right now I don't want to live with it. I want it fixed. At that time I wasn't splinting everyday and now I am. I see Dr. Z next Wed. March 2nd. We shall see what she says.....

I had been going to a gym working with a personal train since May 2004. I have been dancing with a dance studio for years and years. So on the outside I'm in pretty good shape for my age. So now, I was thinking with this acid reflux, migraines, restless limb, asthma, rectocele, I'm a physical mess on the inside. You are what you eat, right? And I looked at what I had been eating all my life and it really was nothing but junk. After I was diagnosed with acid reflux, I just stopped drinking the diet soda cold turkey. I still drink my hot tea in the morning and in the evening. But, my tea is very weak. I use one tea bag to 4 cups of hot water. I figure that's not a lot of caffine. Caffine and acid reflux don't mix. Caffine is not good for constipation either. I like prunes and usually ate them in the morning from time to time. But, now I eat them religiously. 5 prunes per day no matter what. I also have this natural concoction Dr. Z gave me called "Move it". I eat it now and then. I'm not religious about it. I'll eat it when I think my BM's need it. The "Move it" recipe is: 1 cup of prune juice, 1 cup of apple sauce, 1 cup of bran. Mix together. Put in frig. Two table spoons twice per day. And I also try to eat an apple per day. Sometimes I miss my apple, too. But, my motto is "Strive for 5" That is strive for five servings of fruits or vegetables per day.

About the only thing I drink now is water, water, and more water. I try to drink 6 glasses per day. Some say you should have 8, but I think 6 is good. I can't have citris because of acid reflux. So, for a little treat I put two teaspoons of cherry juice from the marchino cherry jar into my water along with a cherry. I call it the AR Shirley Temple Drink (AR for Acid Reflux). I hate grape juice or cranberry juice which I'm allowed to have. So I just put about a half an inch of graph juice in the bottom of a glass an fill the rest with water for my morning juice. It's not so bad that way. I'm getting so used to flavored water that when I drink something stronger it really tastes strong to me.

I found out I had a rectocele on evening Dec. 26, 2004. I suffer from ressless leg syndone and was taking iron supplements, because I had heard that researchers are discovering that people with restless leg have depleted iron in their brain. I told my primary care physcian this. And she was o.k. with it, but warned me that it would cause constipation and not to do it for too long because iron can be toxic to you when you don't need it. Well, anyway, I was visiting my in-laws in upstate New York and I wasn't watching my fiber intake and got really constipated. I knew we had a 6 1/2 hour drive home the next day so I pushed too hard on the toilet and injured myself with a hard stool. Yep, can you believe it. I created a rectocele with my own constipation. The stool did not go entirely threw the skin between the rectum and the vagina, but (now this is gross, but you need to know this could happen to you) I had to put my finger into my vagina and push the stool back toward the back of my body cavity in order to pass the stool. This just freak me out. I told my husband the next morning I had a hernia in my vagina. I didn't know what it was called at the time. I told him I thought I ripped my self like a man rips himself when he has a hernia only my hernia is not on the outside it is on the inside of my vagina. He look at me in horror. Well on the way home we tried to call my primary care physician, which we never could get hold of. Then my husband called the clinic that his company provides for employees and their spouses. We made an appointment to see someone the next day. I called my gyn nurse practicioner and she wasn't in (now remember this is between Xmas and New Years). I couldn't see her until after New Year's, so I made an appointment with her anyway. When we go closer to home I told my husband to take my to the emergency room. After sitting in the ER for 4 hours and watching it turn over 4 times I realized no one thought my case was an emergency. We drove home. Finally, the next day I was sobing on the phone to my primary care doctor's nurse telling her I needed to be seen by somebody. I felt like I was going to deliver my intestines any minute. So they got me in with another gyn nurse practicioner who fitted me with a pessary. Man was it painful to wear. The most uncomfortable thing I ever had to wear in my life. Worse than a diaphram, if you ever used one of those. Next I hunted down my uro-gyn who had move on to Duke Uni. He told me since I lived so close to Pittsburgh, PA, the best place for me to go was the Magee-Women's Hospital and to see Halina Zyczynski. But he didn't think I would get in to see her, I might only get into see the other doctors that work with her. As luck would have it I did get into see her and someone canceled their appointment and I got into see her on Jan. 5th. She told me I did not have a cystocele which the nurse practicioner said I had. She told me I did not need the uncomfortable pessary. And she told me that as long as I was constipated she would not suggest surgery. In other words... get your bowels in order and come back and see me if you want to later. So I went away feeling a little relieved and a little uncertain, because I wanted to be fixed. But I started working on increasing fiber in my diet. I had already cut out caffine because on Dec 16, 2004 I had been diagnosed with acid reflux. Now I had to replace my junk food with fruits....... And see how long I could live in the condition I was in.