Thursday, November 29, 2007

TMI Warning...Surgery

I've been dealing with a plumbing problem for years now and it's been steadily getting worse. Each cough or sneeze would have me errr...springing a leak so to speak. I'm 44 years old and with all those commercials for things like "Depends", I thought it was just a normal sign of aging. Until I brought it up at my last check up and my doctor was SHOCKED and informed me in no uncertain terms that this was NOT at all normal for my age. This is the reason I'm even sharing this embarrassing predicament, in case anyone else out there is experiencing the same thing, that they would know there is something that can be done.

I was sent to a specialist, Dr. Joseph Carbone. That's his official title but he's an Italian from Brooklyn so the first thing I thought of when I met him was that his family in Brooklyn would be saying, (in a Brooklyn/Tony Soprano type accent), Yeah, that's our Joey. He done good. He's a docta now down dare in Vuginia. I liked him immediately. He explained everything in detail and answered all my questions and laughed at my Joey from Brooklyn joke. He also told me that that is EXACTLY what his father says when he goes home for a visit. His brother is also a doctor and when they go walking in the old neighborhood, his dad points his boys out to everyone they meet....My boys...both doctas. :)

He was funny in his explanation about what exactly was wrong with me. Here comes more TMI. The pelvic floor was weakened by having babies and of course getting older. So stress on the bladder from coughing or sneezing without the support it used to have allows for leaks. He compared it to a driveway. The urethra being a hose on the driveway. If you step on the hose on a driveway, the water will stop. My pelvic floor is now more like a trampoline. LOL Step on a hose as hard as you want to on a trampoline and that water isn't going to stop. He talked about kegel exercises but also said that he could go to the gym every day and he'd never be an Arnold Schwartzeneger. LOL Which told me what I needed to know. I was never gonna have a driveway again either.

He also explained that his success rate with this surgery is higher than the national average but that it was because he chose his patients carefully to make sure they were good candidates for the surgery. I went back for a series of excruciating tests and was SO happy when I passed...or failed, as the case may be. I felt like I passed the audition and got a call back. :) By this point I didn't want to deal with home remedies if there was a way to just fix it already. I told him, Great! Get out the nail gun or whatever and let's get this thing done!!! :)

On Monday I had the surgery. It's called TVT Sling. And I'm here to tell ya it works!! :) It's only 3 days post surgery and I'm still healing but it worked! After I heal all the way, I'm gonna go and get me some big girl panties!! ....Maybe with Barbie on them!!! LOL

Anyway, readers, I only told you about all of this, in case someone out there is having this problem and thinks it's normal. It's not normal...go talk to your doctor. You don't have to live with this and YOU can go get big girl panties too!! :)

See ya next time! :o)

2 comments:

Tink said...

Thanks for the great explanation Chaffy. I'm so glad you were able to get help with this problem.
Now I know what to get you for Christmas! ;)

Hugs

GatorMommy said...

Bwahahahaha - Barbie Big-Girl Panties!

I'm glad you're healing well and that it worked!!!