Pessary needed urgently - Dad terminally ill

Hi all, Hoping for advice from some lovely ladies. I’m almost 31 years old and have become a first time mum to my beautiful baby boy 8 weeks ago. After 1 week of giving birth I started to notice a trapped bubble sensation which I tried desperately to squeeze out. Fast forward to 2 weeks postpartum - after a long walk I felt like I had a golf ball in between my legs. That evening I went to triage and was diagnosed with Stage 2 Bladder prolapse. I am fortunate enough that I have private health insurance and so saw a private gynecologist a few days later who confirmed the diagnosis, along with stage 1 uterine and rectum prolapse also. I have been advised that it’s too early to determine how this will affect me in the long term but they are confident that strengthening my pelvic floor through physio alone (and a bit of estrogen cream) is my best course of action for now. The emotional toll the discomfort is taking on me is immense. Putting aside the feeling that I’ve lost my femininity, I feel devastated that I have lost pretty much all independence. I am unable to leave the house as even moving around the house for 10 mins feels like everything is falling out. The balance between managing the discomfort, to then resting after a chore is incredibly frustrating as along with a newborn I just really end up being able to brush my teeth or have a shower. Cooking is out the window. I know I’m still early in the pp journey and my body needs time to heal etc etc but this issue is compounded by the fact that my Dad is terminally ill and has weeks and if I’m lucky 2 months left. I didn’t get to see him much as he’s been deteriorating due to pregnancy and the initial impact of this diagnosis but now time is running out. He has a wishlist of places he wants to go to before he dies (we live in London so the list is mostly things like Columbia road flower market, Camden etc) and whilst I have all the time in the world it breaks my heart that I cannot honour a single one on his list because of this condition. I am desperately trying to find a solution to how I can do these things with him as even if I eventually get better (whenever that is - months or years I literally have no idea) I will be devastated if I don’t do this for him. It seems from what I’ve read that people often use pessaries to do the things they used to do and I’m wondering whether this would be possible for me? I’m not sure how the process works eg how quick it is to get one, whether gynecologist can organise this or whether I need to speak to the physio and would be grateful to hear about others experiences in this regard. I’m worried if even they say yes (if even temporarily) if the time it takes to get through the red tape will be too long that my Dad dies before I am able to do these things with him. I’m sorry for the emotionally charged post but I don’t know what else to do. I’m petrified that there is nothing I can do but I really don’t want to accept this situation and praying someone can help me.

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I've only had this for two months myself but it has gotten so much better. I was like you symptoms wise, barely anything would set it off and now I can be on my feet for a good part of the day and take 40 mins very brisk walks. However, with your personal circumstances, which is a lot it does make sense for you to go for a pessary. But from what I've read it takes time to arrange it, sometimes professionals can try delay it to see if you get better without it first and apparently it's trial and error sometimes x

Thanks for the quick reply, I really appreciate it. What kind of exercises did you do to help this and how many weeks postpartum are you? I’ve seen little improvement since initial diagnosis in the dragging/heavy sensation. It’s not there all the time like before but I still can’t be on my feet for more than 10 mins without it all falling out again

I’m sorry you’re having such a difficult time. I totally understand how much it can get you down. It does get better with time. I’ve been seeing a women’s physio because I’ve experienced bladder prolapse and stress incontinence. At my last appointment my physio recommended Contiform or sea sponges in addition to pelvic floor exercises. You can buy them yourself online but you might be best checking with your gynaecologist or physio. My physio has written a letter to my GP to ask them to prescribe it for me.

I'm nearly 5 months and got diagnosed just after 3 months. I stopped all the activity I could until i didn't feel any heaviness and slowly reintroduced pelvic floor exercises from lying to standing. I did very heavily depend on my mum & my husband to be able to stop all the activity as it just otherwise made all the symptoms worse. Then I slowly started to introduce walking, increasing 5mins weekly with slow and brisk walks and now I've got to the point im doing every other day 15/20 mins stretches and 15 min core exercises from POGP. It's a long journey and even now it feels so disheartening at times but it's getting better! Feel free to message me if you want to have a chat x

At 2 weeks pp I absolutely felt this way. I get around fine now, no issues. I didn't do anything to fix it it just got better by itself but my God I was absolutely terrified it was permenant at 2 weeks and didn't think I could fix it. I'm so sorry about your Dad, but you just gave birth.... like just. So sorry but honestly it's a lot to expect you can do these things on the list without help. I'd honestly opt for a wheel chair. I don't think anything bad will happen if you do walk, but I know what it feels like and know the anxiety the feeling would give me would make me just far too uncomfortable

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