Removal tips?

Newbie user here.  Ok so last night I put it in first time, no problems.  Took it out an hour later (period was very light) to find no leaks or anything so yay.  Kept it in overnight.  Woke up in the morning.......OMG!!!!  Could not get it out for the life of me!  I was able to reach the stem but my fingers were to slippery to grasp it and I couldn't reach the bottom of the cup either (I tried bearing down, I actually had a bowel movement which did nothing).  I struggled 20 minutes with a pair of pliers and finally pulled it out.....mimicking the St Valentine's Day massacre in the bathroom.  So my solution was to tie a piece of floss around the stem and then pull it out like I would a tampon.  Well I went to work today and 4 hours of it being in I decided to check on it.  I gently tugged on the string and the cup came out easily, no pain.  It was about half full.  I emptied it, washed it (as well as you can in a public restroom that was more like a personal bathroom with a sink and toilet in the same room, i.e. one person can go at a time).  So I struggled a bit to put it in.  Got it in, returned to work.  Got home, pulled it out easily as before with the floss tied to it.  Washed and emptied it, put it back in me.  My question is would it be a problem to use floss to keep pulling it out or am I risking ripping off the stem?  BTW I use a Diva Cup, model 1 (pre-birth), never had sex.