Prolapse Problems

February 3, 2008 12:26 PM

Are there any non-surgical treatments for a rectal lining prolapse?

Am writing this on behalf of my mum.Does anyone out there have a rectal lining prolapse that produce these symptoms ie. having to go to the bathroom four and five times daily with difficulty emptying and an awful trapped wind feeling? If so,could you please let me know if there are any remedies for this other than surgery to stitch the lining back? My mum has tried everything she can think of to get rid of it and can't find a solution and is stuck on a waiting list for surgery. Moreoever, she is currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, which has also affected the timing of the operation, as the doctors do not want to operate on this while she is having chemo. Any advice on how to get rid of the trapped wind feeling would be a great help . I would be really grateful for any advice or suggestions that could help her. Many thanks.

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (2 comments total)

Only thing I can think of is to check local universities with medical schools for faster treatment... Probably irrelevant to mum, but you might end up with 4 hot chick students watching the doc poke around your a**.

Yoga relive the wind posture works for me, but may or may not help in your particular situation.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:18 PM on February 3, 2008

Do you know what your mother has tried? Has she manually pushed it back inside? My experience (with something not so severe) is that lubing up and pushing the wayward tissue back inside helps. In some cases, putting on a rubber glove so that my finger can go inside and really get the tissue back in helps.

Also, rectal prolapses often create an urge to push out (as if to expel gas or feces) or to relax. Unfortunately, relaxing or pushing out only worsens the prolapse. So after your mum has gone through step 1 (the reinsertion), she should do her best to keep her anus clenched and pulled tight. Think of it as kegel exercises for the anus.

I don't know if either of these will help with a condition this severe. I've found them to help with my own prolapsed hemorrhoids, but they are techniques that I pretty much had to discover on my own by understanding my own body. The standard medical prescription seems to be "eat more fiber and see a surgeon," which goes from being unhelpful to drastic, in my book.

Best of luck with this.
posted by alms at 5:58 PM on February 3, 2008