> My question is are most of the bladder and bowel problems
> happening with more severe cases of TM or can it also happen in less severe
> cases? I wonder of course now since both these things have gotten much
> worse in the last few months how much is related to the prolapse and how
> much is related to TM.
My case was not as severe as many on the list -- I was never paralyzed (as in
could not move any part of my body at all), but I could not stand or walk on
my own or use my left hand for much at first. But I did have urinary problems
from the beginning and that is one thing that has gotten worse. A urologist I
saw early on after TM did not do a lot in the way of examining or testing and
attributed all the problems to TM and said to "give it time". However, my new
ob/gyn doesn't seem to take the TM into account at all and thinks the problems
are due to age, excess weight, and childbirth (two children over 9 lbs. at
birth and one 12 lbs. at birth). He said if I ever had surgery "in that area"
he would recommend "tacking up" the bladder because it had dropped some, but
not enough to recommend surgery for that reason alone. Personally, I think my
problem may be a combination of the two (TM and prolapse), but I never had
bladder problems before TM.
In your case, since you had a definite prolapse problem beforehand and surgery
was recommended and the dr. said it was okay to go ahead and have the surgery
now, if I were you, I'd go for it (and if you do, let me know if it helps :).
I would guess that the TM is a contributing factor also since so many -- I'd
almost say most -- TMer's have bladder problems also, and, if it is, you may
still have some degree of bladder problems remaining after the surgery. But I
can't help but think that correcting the prolapse would help immensely.
Barbara H.