initial evalIf you ask most women, they would tell you that the OB/GYN office is their least favorite place to be. It's just uncomfortable, but at least you only need to see them once a year (if that). When you're in rehab, however, you get the pleasure of having that same uncomfortable experience 1-2x/week over the course of several months. The irony of this whole thing is that we had just been briefly introduced to the topic of pelvic floor rehabilitation in school! Even with this knowledge, I was still scared and anxious for my first appointment. We spent the majority of our hour together talking and for the first time since developing this pain, I let myself cry. I cried hard and I couldn't stop. These symptoms had been slowly progressing for a year and it was terrifying to have no idea what was going on with my body. The stress alone of this psychological burden affected all aspects of my life including school, my social life and my relationship. I don't know if it was finally putting all the things I was experiencing into words or the fact that someone was just sitting there ready to listen that pushed me over the emotional breaking point, but I was glad. I was glad I finally cried. My physical therapist, Dr. Debbie Wendt, was my solace. In addition to being a phenomenal PT, she was a counselor and a friend to me through this emotional roller coaster ride. RehabilitationAfter her exam, she determined that my pain was coming from extremely tight muscles of the pelvic floor. Over the next few months, I primarily received Trigger Point Dry Needling as treatment to address this impairment. This treatment technique involves inserting extremely thing needles into muscles to create spasm, which ultimately "re-sets" the muscle and allows it to relax. I vowed to never complain about going to the OB/GYN again after having to go through this every week haha.
Dry needling had been providing short term relief and my home exercise program of stretching tight muscles of my right hip seemed to be helping as well. We worked a lot on biofeedback, a technique that helps create more awareness of your body as I had to re-learn how to contract and relax the pelvic floor muscles (think kegels!). I made progress... but not a lot. Since my initial eval, Debbie believed that I also had some orthopedic issues going on with my right hip. She performed a more in-depth orthopedic examination and suspected a labral tear. She told me that there was a high probability that all of my pelvic floor dysfunction was actually coming from instability of my hip, and that if we didn't address the underlying problem, it would make rehab an uphill battle. So off I went to see another specialist, who did indeed confirm that I had a severe labral tear in my right hip. I continued to see Debbie for another month or so to get my symptoms down and to learn how to best manage the pain on my own while I awaited surgery, which proved to be invaluable because I had to put off surgery until August due the nature of my curriculum.
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AuthorJust a physical therapist and her journey being on the other side rehab. Categories
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October 2017
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