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[red---ridinghood]

The Physical Therapy You Never Knew You Needed

After that last appointment with my GYN I made my first appointment at an all woman’s run physical therapy office. It was here that I met the woman who would not only help my physical discomfort, but put an ease to so much of my mental stress. 

Before I could book my first appointment in the office I had to have a phone or Skype appointment with the woman that I was going to see (after all there is a world wide pandemic going on at this point) and talk to her about all of my symptoms. From the very first phone call I had with her I knew I was in good hands. When I told her about all of my symptoms (the nausea, horrible periods, pelvic pain, bladder discomfort, back aches, mood swings), instead of the normal “hmmm” and “huh” I was so accustom to, I was greeted with a reassuring, “I’ve heard this all before and I'm very confident I will be able to help you”. I’m sure some of you can imagine the pure relief I felt just hearing those simple words after having so many doctors just look at me like I was crazy. 

My first in person appointment happened a week after my phone call with her and I was just filled with anxiety and excitement. The session began with a lot of in depth questions about my symptoms and what I've been experiencing for so long now, a look at the placement of my hips and then she had me get on the massage table to start the actual treatment. 

In the beginning her hypothesis was that I had a very agitated and clenched pelvic floor. Now I didn’t really know about pelvic floor issues until that point and basically how she explained it to me was that my pelvic floor was acting like a clenched fist that didn't know how to let go. A lot of woman have to practice tightening their pelvic floor and those muscles surrounding it, but I actually had to focus on the exact opposite, releasing and relaxing my pelvic floor. On top of that she also told me I seemed to have nerve damage in that area. All of this would explain that feeling of constantly needing to pee all the time because all those pelvic floor muscles are around my bladder so it was putting stress on my bladder, causing the bad cramping, bloating and just that feeling of agitation and tightness. Once she told me what she thought I had we did the first treatment which started with a deep tissue/trigger point massage around my hips, inner thighs and glutes (these are all areas that are connected to your pelvic floor). As she worked around these areas there was so much pain but also times of release. The muscles were extremely tight and I could literally feel all the tension that was being held at every point she was massaging. The second part of the treatment was an internal trigger point massage around and on my pelvic floor. PSA: I personally trusted her a lot, but be picky with who you go to for pelvic floor physical therapy. 

After my first session with her there was definitely a feeling of release around my hips and it really did feel like that weight I felt on my bladder had been lifted a little. One session with her didn’t cure me, but it was the first step in the right direction. It was at this time she still didn't know or suspect that I had endometriosis, but again there was a long process to getting to that conclusion. 

I would also like to state that if you’re a woman who struggles with pelvic floor discomfort, painful sex, bladder issues or any other muscular related symptoms of the vagina/pelvic floor definitely look into physical therapy. I literally can't recommend it enough. 

[red---ridinghood]

Lost in a sea of doctors

Being unhealthy sucks, but being unhealthy and having doctors literally look you in the face and tell you, “you’re crazy”, is even worse. 

I’d like to start this by saying at this current point in 2020 I have finally been diagnosed with Endometriosis (Even tho you don’t know if you 100% have Endo unless you get surgery and surgery can actually make endo worse so this is basically my current doctors best guess). It is how we finally came to the Endometriosis diagnosis that's the real story. 

Like I said in my first post, I've had health issues for a long time and a lot of those health issues were based around my lower half; Super bad periods, irregular periods, horrible cramps, bad back aches, getting super sick the week before my period, having bladder issues (basically feeling like I have to pee ALL THE TIME) but literally having no bladder infection what so ever, feeling super nauseous before, during and after my period, always just not feeling right hormonally and basically only having one week out of the whole moth where I would feel “normal”. 

Time and time again I would go to my GYN and tell them all the symptoms I was having, they would do all the tests (blood work, hormone panels, possible STD testing even tho that was pretty much impossible since I was dating my now Fiancé at the time, Pap testing) and all the tests would come back normal. They’d send me home with some breathing exercises, try to push me to get on birth control (which i’ve tried before and it actually turns me into a crazy person) and told me to my face that this was most likely my anxiety and all in my head. After my GYN not being able to give me any answers I tried going to a woman hormone specialist in Ardmore PA and literally the same thing happened all over again.....a whole bunch of the same test and no results. After the hormone specialist I tried acupuncture to try and just get my body to level out because acupuncture has worked for me in the past (I used to get horrible headaches and acupuncture healed me so I'm definitely not knocking it) and even tho it gave me a sense of calmness in my mind my body was still suffering every month. 

A year goes by after not getting any diagnosis and I basically start to fall into the “silent sufferer” category of people. I started to try and ignore my symptoms, stopped talking about them with my family and fiancé, got so tired of doctors not being able to help and just got to a point where I truly believed this was just my life now....a never ending saga of horrible periods, always feeling like there was someone sitting on my bladder, the never ending mood swings and just an overall feeling of “blah”. So what changed? What made me keep seeking help? Basically hitting rock bottom one night in the summer of 2020. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was having such a rough night, I think the worst night i’ve had since all my symptoms started, and was in so much discomfort that I couldn't sleep and ended up sobbing into my sea of fuzzy blankets on my living room floor trying to find some sense of relief. I was sick of being sick. I was sick of being told I wasn’t sick when I knew I was. 

I went back to my GYN that day because I called the office early that morning crying hysterically to the poor receptionist and she somehow got me into the office that morning. The GYN I saw was a woman I had never seen before, which in a way gave me some hope. I broke down crying to her telling her about all the shit I was going through physically and emotionally. I told her about all the other doctors who told me that this was all in my head and I told her about every little symptom I had in extreme detail. I told her I didn't want to leave another appointment without some sense of direction or actual help...and you know what? she actually listened to me. Even tho she herself couldn’t come up with a diagnosis she gave me the number of an all woman's physical therapy group in Narberth PA who focused on Pelvic floor pain, bladder discomfort and painful periods. I knew that there were pelvic floor physical therapists but I never really thought that was what I needed. For the first time in a long time I felt a sense of hope and actual guidance from a medical professional. 

[red---ridinghood]

The never ending journey to getting my health back.

The Intro  

For those of you who don’t know me, my name’s Noorie, I’m 25 years old and I’ve been dealing with health issues pretty much my whole life but more prominently since 2018 (I’ll get into the details soon). My hope with this blog is to help myself keep track of my health journey but to also give hope to other women who might be going through the same things as me. Even tho I still don’t have full knowledge of my health issues, the one thing that is helping me through this is reading articles about other women who are struggling along with me. It helps to not feel so alone in this struggle to getting my health back. A lot of people tend to be silent sufferers allowing their sicknesses to eat them alive. I’m here to say that I was a silent sufferer, until I wasn't. Never allow yourself to suffer. Seek help. Fight for help. Push for help. Eventually you will find people and medical professionals who will listen to you and fight to get you back to a good place.