Pelvic Floor Disorder and Pelvic Floor Therapy~

    Good afternoon readers; I hope and pray today your pain levels are manageable. AS a blogger I think its very important to not just write about issues I feel are important, but also write about the hot topics that are being discussed within the IC community. I realized that PFD Pelvic floor disorder/therapy is becoming more prevalent among those I talk to. In addition, I want to tie in my experiences.

   Do you ever feel like your life revolved around your bladder pain? I think its safe to say we all do. But what ive learned is the more  educated we become about IC and all its overlapping conditions, the louder our voice becomes when we’re trying to find the specialist that we need.

   Sadly not all health professionals recognize pfd( pelvic floor disorder) as a condition. The more educated you become of what PFD is and how it interacts with your bladder, you ask yourself, how can they not see the connection. I for one had never even heard of pfd , when I was diagnosed with it back in 2010.Many woman  are either misdiagnosed or undiagnosed., that’s what happened to me. So let me explain what PFD is and what the treatments for it are.

   Pelvic Floor Disorder is a general term that describes conditions that may affect the urinary, reproductive, digestive, and sexual and or stability of the pelvis. Pelvic floor dysfunction is when your unable to control muscles that help you make a complete bowel movement, these muscles have to relax and then contract in a coordinated way.

  When I was diagnosed with PFD, first off, I had never heard of it, and second, I did not understand what it was or how that had anything to do with my interstitial cystitis. My internal physical therapist was very well educated. She was familiar with IC and PFD.Thats very important to not just have a physical therapist, but that that knows and has been trained to treat Pelvic floor dysfunction.

  When I first was referred to see a therapist for this, I was very scared, I did not know what to expect. She had a way of explaining it so I could understand. She said” picture your pelvic organs being held in a sling or hammock. She then went on to explain that a lot of woman who have pfd aren’t even aware of those muscles, how to correctly use them or how tight they become, because pfd is about abdominal spasms’ in our pelvic floor area, those muscles are part of our core, they support so much more than we realize.

   I remember how frustrated, I got in the beginning, trying to do these exercises. She told me there is no definite cause of PFD, some doctors believe its from a injury, others think it can be from a surgery. For me when I had my cancer back in 04, my team of doctors had to remove some ribs and muscles on my left side, which contributed to the weakness in my core area, and later when diagnosed with PFD, it made it more difficult to do the kegal exercises she instructed me to do.

 So what are the symptoms of pfd. constipation, unexplained pain in lower back, pelvic muscle spasms, frequent need to urinate, painful intercourse. Therefore, in knowing what they are, understanding them, asking questions and making sure you work as a team with your therapist.

Its not a easy road, mine went misdiagnosed for close to a decade, it was as if they were atrophied.I had to learn how it felt to have relaxed muscles down there before I could train them to relax. My story I had to start and stop them many times because of my insurance. My insurance kept stopping them because they were not happy with the progress I was making, but my therapists told them repeatedly that is because mine is so severe. I would make some progress, only for it to be stopped and take two steps back, finally my insurance stopped paying my therapist office and they stopped taking my insurance.

 Before that happened though; I also had internal injections which is even more painful, but it can help a lot. You are given shots and then shortly after you go for the internal therapy, this allows your therapist to massage those muscles and you get the maximum benefit because those muscles are numb.  it allows her to maneuver those muscles. I eventually had to stop, doing the internal injections for two reasons, they stopped my numbing medicine and come to find out, because I have a issue with sever scarring and developing adhesions, they found out I have them where I had my internal shots.

   The exercises and treatments they do for the pfd depends on the severity of each individual patient need. Kegal excerises: Is very important, learning to lift and relax those muscles. by the time I was forced to stop doing those treatments, I was doing good lifting them, but relaxing them, I still had a difficult time  doing.

       I know I want this blog to be as informative as possible, she would say think of holding in a bowel movement, easier said than done. Sometimes she would say it, as soon as she said it they tighten up, it may seem easy, but its not a easy process, so don’t beat yourself up when things feel overwhelming. Practice at home, I even put stickers around my apartment at the time to remind me to be aware of those pelvic muscles and to practice relaxing them.

   I also found out, the more we learned to relax those muscles, the more it helped some in controlling how often we go the bathroom. She told me we always have urine in our bladders, but we have to train our bladders to try to go every 2 hours, sometimes I can, other times I cannot. I also found at times when those muscles are tight, my bladder pain increased, so that is another reason to take the pft very seriously.

  This is why finding an urogynoclogist who treats ic, who will know that pfd goes hand in hand is vital in your treatment plan. So many people have this and never get that proper diagnosis. The other  treatments your therapist will do is  myofasical release, massaging your legs, your lower back, your hips, all areas that are affected, she will tell you the exercises are very important. Lastly, they also do biofeedback which is not treatments, but education; it’s a visual for the patient to see how tight their pelvic muscles are. When she first showed me mine, I recall mine being 30, and she said it needs to be 6 or 7, you just don’t realize it, until its right in front of you.

  It was quite the journey, mine are still in bad shape, but maybe not as bad at before the treatments and therapy. I did learn what PFD is and how it affects my IC and core  muscles, I learned to relax  them some, sadly  there wasn’t much more that could be done on their behalf, but I try to keep up with my exercises, so my advice stay on top of this. Ask your urogynocolgist to refer you to a therapist to check for pfd, if they have not, and take in the knowledge you gain, I know it is a painful journey, but you’re not alone. Feel free to email me at NatalieMacangel@gmail.com or message me here on my blog. Id love to hear from you and be a encouragement to you!