Friday, May 28, 2010

3rd PT

We didn't do everything we'd planned to do. We started by going over my pain and leaks from the past two weeks. I'd had no leakage, good for me! Probably eight or nine days of the past two weeks have been completely pain free. I mean, completely. When I'm getting ready for bed at night, I do a little assessment. Five or six days, I realized that I had a tiny bit of pain, which was significantly less than before my second therapy session. The rest of the time, I couldn't feel any pain. That was the most exciting part of my assessment this morning. She said that the days I'm having a bit of pain is probably from my bones slipping out of alignment, though I am still doing the exercise to line them back up. And that's why it's important to keep doing the exercise.

She checked my alignment next. I had gone down the stairs, up the stairs, and down again between doing my alignment exercise this morning and the appointment. However, my pelvis was correctly aligned! My tailbone, on the other hand, was twisted. She gave me a second exercise to do, which went like this: I laid on my left side, with my left leg straight, right leg bent, and right shoulder back. It is a twisted position. Then, she put her right hand on my right shoulder, and her left arm sort of over/around my right hip. I pushed my right shoulder forward and my right hip back, held for six seconds, then repeated. At the end of that, my tailbone was straight. To do this on my own, I sit with my knees together, feet apart, and put a belt around my legs, right above my knees. Then I push my legs apart, against the restraint of the belt. This is being added to my pelvic alignment exercise.

Next, she wanted to check my muscles. Since I've had no problems with leakage and no trouble doing my kegels twice a day, she didn't think it was necessary to hook me up to the computer again. But she wanted to check the nerve endings that she checked at the first appointment to see if they are still sensitive. Remember, I had pain at six, seven, and eight o'clock (positions on my pelvic floor), and the number four nerve on the inside. She checked all of those. They are still a little tight, but she said I'm "almost normal." The number four nerve was uncomfortable when she tugged it, but not even close to painful. At the first appointment, it was the most painful.

And that was it. She said that I am well on my way to complete recovery. It's unusal for the majority of pain to be caused by the pelvic bones being misaligned, but it appears that mine definitely was. I have assignments to do my pelvic bone alignment and tailbone untwisting exercises twice a day for a while (at my discretion). I can drop the tailbone exercise when I feel like my pain is completely gone. Then, I can wean myself from the pelvic bone alignment. I should keep doing kegels twice a day, but can eventually drop to just before bed. And really, all women should do kegels once a day.

Then, she canceled my remaining appointment with her and asked if I wanted to cancel my appointment with the doctor. He wanted to see me again to make sure my muscle tone is good enough to be safe for a future vaginal delivery. But, I don't feel the need to see him again. If I happen to get pregnant again, we can assess my muscles at that time. Also, if my pain comes back or I have further concerns, I can do more therapy.

In conclusion, if you are experiencing pelvic floor pain or urine leakage many weeks after delivery, pelvic floor physical therapy can work wonders. I was skeptical that it could do much for me. I had 120 days of pain before my second therapy session. The 121st day was pain free. It was definitely worth it.

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