Anything else I can do

[angel7655]

hey everyone

This is my second time going to pft. I ve been going once a week for the last four months and now I go every other week. I was doing really well but recently I ve been flaring again. I haven't changed my diet or exercise routine at all. My doc gave me urelle and xanex when I need it but it doesn't really seem to help very much. Plus I have three kids and xanex makes me sleepy . Is there any other medication you guys can suggest I try. My insurance is only going to pay for a few more therapy sessions and I m concerned I won't have it back under control by than.

Thanks

Sue

[earthlady]

Has your pt given you a home care program? You could always ask your pt for pelvic stretches to do at home. I went for a few months and it did help a great deal but I couldn't afford to be in pt the rest of my life. I do the pelvic stretches at home now along with the epsom salts baths every day. She also showed me how to work the pelvic floor muscles inside the vagina myself or with a wand device they sell for this purpose. She also showed me pelvic message techniques I could do myself.

[melhil]

I'm having great success with EMG Stimulator, at Physical Therapy. I haven't heard anyone else mention this. It is kind of like the Tens, but vaginal. The EMG stimulator is also used for bio feedback. Anyone else out there!!

[angel7655]

earth lady...

Yes. I m doing all the at home stretches and massages. I see you do the epsom salt baths. That I ve never tried. I think I ll try that. Thanks.

[kadi]

I take two 5mg generic Flexeril (muscle relaxant) at night. It does help.

[Jets]

My doctor put me on lorazapam 3 times a day and it helps a lot. It made me tired at first, not as much as Xanax, but I got used to it. This might sound silly but I find that when I'm really tight standing helps me to relax my muscles. Warm baths too.

[momw/ic]

I also have the EMG stimulator and I use it when I am in the middle of pelvic floor spasms and it will stop them. My PT got me my own to have at home. That has been wonderful for the pfd. Gives me something tangible to do to help the pain.

[KaraLynne]

Angel--I posted part of this on another thread, but I wanted to make sure you read it too since it related. My PT had me do that following which was helpful:

Strengthening exercises for my abdominals. Do not do this w/o PT instruction though--my muscles were so weak I needed to start with really, really simple exercises. They support your pelvic floor muscles, so strengthening them helps.

Re-alignment exercises. Tight pelvic muscles shorten over time, which makes it really easy to get out of alignment--causing lots of pain. Doing the re-alignment exercises are really a preventative measure. When I do them and I'm already in pain, it can take another hour for things to calm down afterwards.

It took over a year before I had a completely painfree feeling (but long before that I was experiencing a lot less pain!). Now, it's to the point that I can tell exactly when the pain starts (before, I was in pain so often that I couldn't tell.) Pain definitely is related to me getting out of alignment which is caused by sitting, standing, or lying down in a bad position. Fortunately, now I can tell when something is hurting me and I can make adjustments before it gets worse--and do my realignment exercises too because I obviously need them. Just knowing that has made a huge difference in my recovering b/c I tell when pain is about to start big time.

Another thing that helped when I was really flaring (besides stretching and using a dilator and getting proper alignment) was to either take a warm bath to relax my muscles or use an icepack to sooth things.

I'm not going to a PT anymore, but I still do all the exercises at home. I also really like Amy Stein's book Heal Pelvic Pain--it's helpful for things to do at home too.

[SFGirl]

Have you tried taking pain medication such as Lyrica or Cymbalta? I've found that if pain and flaring is a big problem, then all the PT and IC meds are useless without adequate pain control.