I hadn’t either. I’ve hesitated writing about it because it deals with a part of the body most of us don’t talk about. And the symptoms can be tricky to figure out. But it’s very common in women and some men. Ok. Here you go: PFD stands for Pelvic Floor Disfunction.
According to Wikipedia: “Pelvic floor dysfunction is a term used for a variety of disorders that occur when pelvic floor muscles and ligaments are impaired. The condition affects up to 50 percent of women who have given birth. Although this condition predominantly affects women, up to 16 percent of men are affected as well. Pelvic floor muscles can be too tight or too loose.”
I never knew about it until after my surgery in December. After struggling with pain for many months, afraid something was really, really wrong with me, I was sent to get physical therapy.
How weird is that?
I couldn’t even understand the situation much less the process. It was intense. There were many things I had to keep track of: fluid intake, fluid output, sitting and standing positions. I had exercises to do during the day.
Luckily, I’ve been doing yoga for decades so many of the exercises were close to yoga poses I’ve done before. And just like any exercise program, consistency is key. I happen to like doing yoga, so it was easier for me to adapt to the routine. Instead of just of doing yoga moves before I walk in the morning, I’ve added yoga moves to do three times a day.
There’s a FB group for that.
Yup. In case, like me, you’ve never heard of it, google it. There’s a huge FB group called Pelvic Sanity sponsored by a Physical Therapy group in California. It helped me to understand the pain I was going through and most of all, that I was not alone. But warning: TMI, some of it is a little too much info.
It took time to get into a physical therapist, but it really helped me. I learned so much and made a lot of progress. I have days without pain now. And I’m very aware of the signals that my body needs a break. I learned that listening and doing my yoga moves make all the difference in the world.
I was a little uncomfortable about sharing this publicly in a blog, but I spent months and months in the dark, in pain. And if this helps someone else find help sooner, I’m glad.
