Long time no speak: DOING WELL

[scoobysnacks]

For many of you who don't know me I was a moderator on this great board for probably two years, maybe a little less. I noticed as I started to get better I was spending less time and my energy to read all the long posts was waning. I removed myself and have been off enjoying life and doing my thing.

I wanted to drop back in and just share a few things I've learned, these will be random, but I hope helpful. I won't be here much, but I invite anyone who has issues to PM me and I'll answer them directly. I've had many since my time here and I always answer everyone to the best of my abilities, anyways here they are:

1. Your GP, your uro and your procto really can't help you if you in fact have pelvic floor dysfunction. They dont get it, they dont treat it and relying on them outside of ruling out infection WILL drive you mad. YOU HAVE TO TAKE THIS INTO YOU OWN HANDS (no pun)
2. Not all Physical Therapists are created equal, just like not all lawyers are as good, or not all doctors or all accountants, etc. You need a PT skilled in this. Tim Sawyer is the man and worth the flight, the time, the visit, whatever you have to do.
3. You can't treat yourself internally until you have had a skilled PT treat you. Only then will you know the pressure needed, the areas that are problematic. I tried and I spun my wheels and basically made myself FEEL worse (notice I didn't make myself worse) I just aggravated symptoms instead of doing any good.
4. HEALING is a LONG road. It takes PERSISTENCE, I first visited here in summer of 2002 and I'm just now able to really say I WILL heal. I'm SO close now and can make symptoms go away. You have to have a NEVER say QUIT attitude.
5. The money spent on David Wise's Stanford/Wise-Anderson Protocol clinic is worth EVERY penny. Until I met with Tim Sawyer I never knew where my trigger points were of if I had them. The relaxation is good too just to learn to drop the pelvic floor.
6. Relaxing the pelvic floor really is letting go, almost like thinking of your anus falling out the opening its a drop or downward feeling, its really an act of not pushing and just letting it fall. I was pushing downward for so long and taking deep breaths and pushing, thats not it, think of the insides falling down towards your anus and tailbone, dont push.
7. Phenibut is my friend, its an OTC relaxer that takes the edge off and helps me relax the muscles without taking in alcohol, but like anything use with moderate as you can develop a tolerance, I dont know why but when you add Piracetam a focus improving supplement the relaxation effect is two-fold. Use this combo when I'm stressed or had a tough workout session.
8. Want to meet a woman while you have this, dont bellyache about it and project on to her. In the same token meeting my wife got me out of a deep funk and got my mind of this when it was at its worst, I just had sex and dealt with the pain the next day at least the night was fun :laugh:
9. Exercise helps once you learn what works for you. I got no better cutting it out and was miserable, so I went back to it, it relieved my from thinking about this for at least an hour per day and over time has benefitted me. Dont just sit around and do nothing, I know it hurts though.
10. Stretching is important practice it daily.
11. Theracane is your friend for your belly trigger points, my diaphragm under ribs was all kinds of jacked up from holding up my belly all those years which in turn pulled up my pelvic muscles, that's how I got this, so learn to relax that belly.
12. Prep H can give some mild relief after an internal session and provide mild relaxation to those muscles. Dont do the extra aloe stuff dried me out like mad.
13. Moment to moment relaxation is key, I do this all day, see #6, thats what it feels like to me to practice it and to pee right.
14. NEVER GIVE UP, YOU CAN GET BETTER!
15. Get the thoughts of cancer and a damaged prostate out of your mind. Your prostate may hurt due to the tight muscles and nerve endings sending such signals but if you truly have PFD, its a muscle thing, you arent dying and you dont have a jacked up prostate. It may be inflamed from what I stated above, but you can heal it.
16. Quercetin is the shit and does help what I discussed in #15 (prostate inflammation).
17. Dont give up everything you love, you have to charge through in a relaxed way as carld would say.
18. Try as much as possible to distract your mind, oddly enough for me I'm better when I'm busy, I now run a side business helping people with their nutrition to get back in shape. I work from 9 am to about 10pm with my legal duties and my side job, in between the two I workout. My mind doesn't have a ton of time to focus on my pelvis.
19. The less you focus on it the less pain you will have. Have you ever got engrossed in a good conversation to find no pain or any issues whatsoever, your mind forgot and your body followed, think about that and apply it. Its hard, but try.
20. Prelief will help you if you have issues after drinking or hot food. I used to use it when things were VERY bad, I don't need it anymore.

I'll add to this as they arise, but these are the 20 that popped into my head right now.

Maybe some others who have come to the place where I'm at can add theirs.

Ss

[calguy]

I have been gone for a while from boards but will post soon on progress. Scoobs you hit every nail on the head and phenibut powder is great after pushing body too hard. Newbies read this post and follow it and you will get better. Great post!

[scotsman]

Great to hear from you matey and superb post as always

I'll leave it in here for others to respond too before moving into the Success section.

Continue to be well and visit often!

Richard.

[alprost]

Some great points there Scooby - glad to see you are doing well.

[carld]

Excellent!!! It's always good to hear from you Scoobs...This is one of the best posts I have read in a long time. Charge hard brother! in a relaxed way I say...

[scoobysnacks]

thanks fellas glad it helped....here is another important one.

21) We vets know what a trigger point means, but this confused the hell out of me when I was new and I kept thinking of a like a b-b or a bump, mine NEVER manifested that way. In my abs I could just feel very painful areas that were more tense and uptight than my other side (and I needed a Theracane to find these my fingers couldn't do it), that's how I'd check if something was tense area or not. Finally internal trigger points for me are tight bands, you will be running your tool across healthy tissue and then feel it hit a band of tight muscle, that's not normal, trust me once I've worked some of these out I can't find them anymore. So my trigger points felt more like bands of tight muscles. Think if you had a rubber band stretch across your arm, you are running fingers along skin and you hit that band, same thing. I suspect a lot of other people's TPs are like this too, but the term TRIGGER POINT was very hard for me to grasp for probably a year, I'd feel around and be like I don't have these damn things, this isn't what I have when all the symptoms matched up. I rambled, but this is an important aspect to me, can't believe I forgot this one.

Ss

[carld]

Also important to manage your anxiety...Most of us have an issue or a history with that. Which can lead to more inflammation and tightning of muscles. Think of a stressed dog with it's tail pulled between it's legs...A HEADACHE IN THE PELVIS talks about that...

I take 200mg every day of L Theanine. It's a supplement...Works very well in helpig me stay relaxed and alert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine

Also, 5 mg of Elavil every night. This is a VERY low dose and very effective. All of this helps keep my anxiety under control along with relaxation. Thus it has allowed me to stay in a strong recovery state with very little or no irritation.

I 100% agree with Scoobs about doing the things you love, carefully with wisdom. Yes there should be a period of healing and laying low while you work your protocol. At my two year mark is where I really started to notice my recovery going well and getting back to doing all the things I did before my onset. Now I have some wisdom and I try keeping my pelvis relaxed as best I can dropping the pelvic floor.

CP/CPPS can be managed very well, but it takes work and changes for the better...

[graeme]

Great post scooby