Putting Things Back in Place: Rectal Prolapse Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe rectal prolapse, when part of the rectum slips down and may come out. Writers were told it was piles, constipation or normal after a baby; one had two rounds of banding for the wrong problem, and a young woman with hypermobile joints was told four times that she was too young. They range from a nineteen-year-old with cystic fibrosis and the mother of a three-year-old to a weightlifting software tester, a marathon runner, a yoga teacher, bus and taxi drivers, a pub owner in Belfast, a market trader selling tomatoes in Nairobi and a woman of eighty-six who was the oldest on her ward, from Karachi to Cork and Lusaka to Leicester. Writers describe searching a year for a woman doctor, eleven months on a waiting list, home remedies tried first, six months without surgery, symptom diaries, a footstool, and one or two operations; one man later needed an implant for leakage. A farmer of eighty-two decided against surgery at his kitchen table, and a mother of two is still deciding. Others weigh who will look after a husband who no longer knows what day it is, or a job that cannot stop. Some found recovery harder than they were told, some needed a second operation, and one writer has no ending to report yet.

Who it's for

For anyone who has noticed a bulge and told no one, anyone facing or recovering from prolapse surgery, and the partners, daughters and carers who help them find the words.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 283 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.