After my last post, I attempted to use the Lena Cup. I was able to insert and get it fully open, but there was an incredible amount of pressure on my bladder. I could barely tolerate it long enough to remove the cup. It seemed to be easier to remove than the Diva, but it had only been in for a minute or two. I have not worked up my courage enough to try it again, and I will get to that in a moment. During this time I did measure my cervical height, and discovered that I have a medium height but can't remember what point in my cycle I measured. *sigh*
The cycle after the one mentioned above I decided that I needed to try the Diva cup again to see if I could do the hotdog-in-a-bun technique to remove it easier. I inserted it, but it felt strange and didn't open fully, so I removed it and tried again. The second time it opened fully, and I was able to go about my daily routine. After about an hour and a half, however, the cup shifted to the side and apparently attached/suctioned itself to the side wall of my vagina. It was a sharp pain, and I could not handle it. I removed the cup, and then I was in some pain for several hours afterward. I decided not to attempt reinsertion. I have determined that most of the time I free bleed, so as long as I'm home I often only need a liner. Please educate yourself if you aren't aware of what free bleeding is... I wasn't and had never heard of it before I started researched RUMPS. I'll give you my basic knowledge of it.
Free bleeding is NOT walking around with no menstrual protection at all while bleeding through your clothes. You have a set of muscles that control all of your exits - urinary, fecal, and apparently menstrual fluids as well. With practice you can learn to control the menstrual fluid release valve and simply bleed into the toilet rather than into a cup or onto a pad. I never realized that's what I was doing, I just thought that when I peed most of the fluids had pooled in my posterior vaginal canal and came out when I stood or urinated. Now I understand that the reason it does that is because the muscles holding back the fluids get fatigued and need to release, which gives me an insane amount of pressure and urinary urgency, something akin to a mild Braxton Hicks contraction. If I pay attention to those twinges I can get to the bathroom and release all fluids. Sometimes this takes a while depending on how much is there or at which point in my cycle I am - sometimes there is much more mucus content, others it's pretty runny. Mucus/blood takes longer to completely evacuate than runny blood.
After the cycle where I attempted to use the Diva cup again everything kind of fell apart. I thought I was experiencing a yeast infection. I had burning, irritation and redness, some itching, it hurt to wipe and wash, and it felt like everything was sticking together, but there was no discharge or odor. I made an appointment with my gyno, and instead of a yeast infection she did a One Swab to check for bacterial/fungal presence and diagnosed me with vulvar vestibulitis. Apparently this is a chronic condition which has very few options for treatment. I was sent home with a prescription steroid ointment to apply twice a day for two weeks, then once a day, then every other day, and hopefully eventually only once a week or as needed. She also addressed my interstitial cystitis symptoms and ordered me to follow the sensitive bladder diet as well as the IC Smart diet. This was toward the end of October, right after I ordered my starter cloth stash from Hannabelle's Creations. I began researching ways to treat it homeopathically and came across a suggestion for Calendula cream, which is derived from the marigold flower/plant. My mom has used it (along with a slew of other products) to treat perioral-dermatitis for the last year and a half. After the full two weeks of twice daily applications of the steroid I switched to Calendula (Boiron brand, available in the first aid aisle at Meijer) cream about three times weekly and the steroid cream at night. I would see improvement, then I would flare again, and the calendula burned like fire for several minutes after first applying it. While treating for the vestibulitis the bottom fell out...literally. I started feeling like I had a tampon sliding out, like my underwear was stuck to me continuously, dry... I got a mirror to see if the vestibulitis had flared again... nope. Now I'm prolapsed. I'm 33 years old and have something that I thought only happened to women who had lots of vaginal births or who were old. I checked to see if there was a correlation between clobetasol steroid ointment use and prolapse and came up empty, but they happened too close together for me to think they aren't related at all. I called my gyno that day and left a teary message that I was freaked out and wanted to get checked out. I was in her office the following Monday. She did a very thorough exam and identified a cystocele, rectocele, and possible enterocele. None of which are bad enough to need surgery at this time, but again it is something I'm going to be living with for the rest of my life and will not go away without surgery that is not guaranteed to actually fix it and if it does only lasts for 15 years at the most. I was instructed in the fine art of Kegels, told not to lift anything too heavy, and sent home. In addition to the prolapses I have a killer hemorrhoid that has come back - my obgyn (different from the one I see now) excised it when I was post-delivery with my second child and aside from the weird skin flap she left behind it hasn't bothered me since then... six years... and now it has come back. Now I'm doing Kegels as often as I can remember, trying to avoid constipation, and asking as many questions as I can in the awesome support group I found on Facebook - Pelvic Organ Prolapse Support (POPS).
Until next time, I'll mentally write/rewrite and forget what I want to say about my beginning cloth stash and first cloth cycle.
