Mystery Therapy

Wednesday morning I will have my first physical therapy appointment. When I saw a specialist 2 weeks ago, he concluded that I certainly have PCOS, but luckily, I do not have the metabolic symptoms (weight gain, high blood pressure). He also determined that my pelvic floor muscles are EXTREMELY tight (vaginismus), thus, I am having constant involuntary contractions. He said this could also be related to a history of trauma and he noted that it's a positive step that I am working through that in therapy. The plan is that I will go to weekly physical therapy and if there is not a drastic improvement in my pain over the next 4-6 weeks, he will perform a laparoscopy (finally). I have been in so much pain lately that I have begged my general gyno to do one, but she refuses since I had one 6 years ago that provided no answers. However, this doctor told me that he can tell from looking at my incision scars that there was no way they were able to see everything from where they entered the scopes before (swear word), so since he does them routinely he is confident that if there is something going wrong in there he will find it. Wow, I just wanted to hug him! It felt soooo good to have a doctor give me some actual answers and directions rather than throwing hormones and pain pills at me. I am so curious (and a little nervous) to see what this physical therapy is like. I am sure it will be a little awkward. I promise to post as many details as possible for those of you who may face this unknown in the future. It is really not something that's talked about.... Wish me luck!

Background

I am 27 years old and I have been battling chronic pelvic pain for roughly eight years. It has been a long road of seeing several specialists, trying different interventions and medications and even a surgery in there a few years ago.


This past year has been especially difficult as far as painful "flare-ups." However, I have hooked up with an amazing naturopathic doctor (email me for name) and as I have not been too impressed with my general gynecologists, I have found someone outside of my insurance who is also quite impressive. I just had my first appointment with him and he has some ideas that we will be exploring over the next several weeks.

The working diagnoses at this point are:

Hypothalamic Amenorrhea- recently ruled out with Provera/Progestin Challenge
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
Endometriosis- 2nd excision lap 4/10
Vaginismus/Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (looking into which one)- 5/10

I will add more information as time permits. Please feel free to email me at hopeforhealing11@gmail.com. or leave a comment.