Sling Surgery for Urinary Incontinence

I had this done at Loyola. They had me spend the night afterwards. I also had to have a catheter for 3 days afterwards. The catheter was because I couldn't go pee before I left the hospital. So that was kind of a bummer.

As far as recovery goes, I wasn't supposed to lift anything heavy, so I got a stool for my youngest to use getting in and out of the van and his car seat. It also provided some challenges with the basics - putting away laundry and grocery shopping, but it wasn't bad. I could walk around just fine after I got the catheter out. When I had it, I just stayed around the house.

It was well worth it!

J.,

I'm sure you've exhausted your options, but if you haven't tried PT, there's a wonderful place in Park Ridge. Kamin PT specializes in women's pelvic floor issues. There are 2 therapists and they are both amazing! Good Luck!

My MIL is very happy with her sling. You do have to take it easy for a period of time afterwards, but that goes for any surgery, so I'm sure that comes as no surprise.

I suffered the same problem after the birth of my son due to my bladder prolapsing in labor. My doctor told me that at some point I may want to consider the surgery, but in the meantime to try non-surgical options.

I ended up going through about a year of pelvic physical therapy, and this solved my problem. You may want to ask your Dr. about this option before going with surgery. Also, I've heard the surgery doesn't last forever, and that it may need to be repeated at some point in the future.

In addition to pelvic physical therapy, there is a wonderful program called "Total Control", which is exercise-based and has produced life-changing results for women with incontinence issues. The program is based in Chicago and classes are taught at Prentice and other hospitals in the area. You can learn more at www.totalcontrolprogram.com.

Good luck!

I had the surgery 4 years ago. It helped a lot but did not completely solve the problem. Just be careful not to left anything heavy for a long while. Overall I would say it was defintely worth it.

If you have not exhausted non-surgical options, like pelvic floor physical therapy, you should. To find a therapist go to www.apta.org and click on find a PT. Discuss these post-op concerns with the surgeon as each varies.

I would make sure I had personally exhausted all other options before doing this, since the surgery is (1) irreversible and (2) permanently alters the structure of your pelvic floor area. Specifically, I would make sure you had gotten some really high quality physical therapy with someone who specializes in pelvic floor dysfunction, like the wonderful women at Florendo Physical Therapy downtown. I went to this practice for some prolapse problems and 1 year postpartum I am 100% better - I really credit the PT for this.

Assuming you've done this and are continuing to have problems, just make sure you've asked all the right questions and feel fully informed about the risks and benefits, likelihood that it will work vs. continue to be a problem, etc. I know there were some problems w/ bladder slings that recently popped up in the news (something about the mesh coming through the anterior vaginal wall?) so I would do some research myself and talk to your doctor about what he/she is doing that will minimize that sort of risk.

I've not had this, but someone told me about a service they offer at Womancare in the NW suburbs (Palatine, etc.). They have a urinary incontenence center that does a procedure where they point at the muscles so you can feel which one it actually is, sometimes we're not clear on which one, this allows you to isolate it and therefore excersize it and avoid unnecessary surgery. I don't know your situation, but this is really effective. If you're nervous, maybe try calling Womencare and see if they can give you a second opinion before you go under the proverbal knife.

Good luck!

AS a prenatal/postnatal trainer, I see this many times and their are lots of ways to get back the pelvic floor. Your muscles there are week, pregnancy weakens them (13 lbs on just the pelvic floor muscle),birth weakens it further, and if you have an episiotomy it weakens the pelvic floor further.

Your pelvic floor currently would be considered short and narrow, rather than narrow and long, and the other posts are CORRECT that you can do exercises to bring them back. I teach my women when i train, and physical therapists that specialize in this are GREAT.

One thing you will want to check out - the GYNAFLEX. You can google it. It is an exercise device for the pelvic floor with different strengths. Very portable and very easy and very cheap.

All surgery does is staple together your weak muscles - LOSING all that elasticity. Its like a bandaid on the problem. If you have another birth watch out for tearing!! Please consider other options first!!!