Last week I finished an intense week of therapy out of town again. I haven't felt as much improvement as I usually do and I think that is likely due to the fact that I overloaded myself while I was there - seeing two doctors, driving back and forth almost 30 minutes to therapy (which is extremely hard for me) with sometimes multiple therapy sessions in a day - and my therapy was a little more aggressive. Sadly, I continue to have all my pre-op pain in addition to some new pain brought on from the surgery. I am trying to be patient and am praying that with time some of my old pain, especially the sitting pain, will diminish, but it seems like most of the people I have known who have had relief of their pelvic floor pain with hip surgery saw at least some improvement in pain within the first couple of months.
This past month my hip rehab has been much slower. I had a stomach virus which knocked me out for over a week and I continue to struggle to do therapy much outside of the pool without an increase in pain. I continue to have A LOT of muscle dysfunction and pain. My abdomen literally has knots in the muscles and I often feel crampy. I've tried self massage, warm baths, professional massage/manual therapy, moist heat, TENS, and stretches but nothing seems to help much. The more I am upright trying to walk around and do light work around the house and sit for short periods the more my thoracic area and lower lumbar area on the operative side screams at me. It's most likely my psoas and quadratus lumborum that are extremely spasmed from all my glute and hip weakness and sacroiliac joint instability. It literally feels like a stabbing pain around T12 (right about where my ribcage ends). I had these pains pre-op, but they are definitely intensified post-op and it is frustrating because I had them better managed I feel like back before Christmas. The hip PT feels like most of my pain is muscle related and that I have better movement through my hip, but that my muscle tightness and pain are limiting me.
It's discouraging and not what I hoped for, but I'm thankful for what I can do and am continuing to press on by the grace of God.
Praises:
- I no longer have any more tingling in my foot/leg than I did pre-op, though I do continue to deal with symptoms of central nervous system sensitization, a pain syndrome causing hypersensitivity and allodynia (painful responses from non-painful stimuli).
- My knee pain is much more tolerable. I still have a lot of weakness, but my knee is not subluxing or causing me to scream out in pain when I kneel down.
- The areas of numbness on my thigh seem to be getting smaller though I do have some scar tissue around my surgical sites which are creating pain when trying to lay on my left side.
- I have found a local therapist which does myofascial release, a more alternative therapy. Since I have not had any real success with my other local options please pray this therapy might help me work through some of my post-op muscle pain and help me manage my overall pain better/improve my quality of life.
- If it is not God's will for me to get better, please pray that I would not continue to progressively get worse. Ultimately I want to get stronger, of course, but it would be wonderful to just get to a place where I can function decently (care for my family and attend occasional social functions and church) under my limitations and I am not constantly flaring.
- Pray that I would be able to get this muscle pain under better control so I can tolerate home therapy better.
- Continue to pray that God would provide for our needs - spiritually, physically, and financially - and that we will trust Him no matter the answer to our prayers.
My physical therapist, who is a pelvic floor specialist, does use a form of myofacial release as part of my treatment for PFD (I also have Interstitial Cystitis and Fibro). I have made significant improvements in pain and a decrease in muscle tightness going to her. I hope it helps you. Have you, by any chance, been diagnosed with fibro? I read your about me, and it appears you have most of the symptoms. I think of it as a disorder of the centralized nervous system leading to hypersensitivity across multiple bodily systems that presents itself in different ways in different people. Some researchers and health care professionals also see it that way. Like a syndrome that has varying representations.
ReplyDeleteThat's encouraging that you have seen some improvement from myofascial release! I haven't been diagnosed with Fibro. I thought initially that I might be dealing with that, but I do not have the tender points but rather have deep trigger points in my muscles that only respond to really deep massage. I do have some degree of central sensitization though and central sensitization can be found in multiple types of pain syndromes (rheumatoid arthritis, TMJ, migraines, musculoskeletal pain,etc). I think a lot of people have been lumped into Fibro when really they are dealing with central sensitization that is just poorly understood. But I agree that there are varying representations and people deal have varying different levels of hypersensitivity. Here is a great article on central sensitization though it is highly medical http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3268359/
ReplyDeleteI would check out the book, "Stop the Thyroid Madness". You have many symptoms of low thyroid and this could be part of your problem. Even call the author of the book. She is on Facebook both in Canadian and U.S. pages.
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