After reading the post on the pigeon pose stretch I started trying it out along with other stretching of the legs, as I'm sure a lot of others have started after reading LTs post. I have this problem and I am telling myself this time to just push through it. I am good at trying different things all the time but as soon as things start flaring up I always end up quitting. I know a lot of people probably started really stretching after reading about LTs success and I am wondering if anyone else is having an increase in symptoms? The first 3 days of stretching really made me feel like I was on the right track, I was even getting this feeling in my abdomen that it was being stretched as well (where I know a lot of my problems stem from), but know on day four I am having a lot of my symptoms popping back up. Iknow this can happen and often does but I am just looking for some reassurance!! I also started taking magnesium the same time I started stretching. Also today I noticed I could feel the symptoms coming along with the need to have a bowel movement, then I felt a little better and then a few hours later I started feeling it coming on again and had to have another bowel movement. Maybe I am having some effect in this area from the stretching. I would really like to press on with the stretching but fear I will bring symptoms on again in full strength. How long if any of you get this, until you start feeling better?
Thanks
Started My Stretching and Have a Question
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GARYS
- Old Hand
- Posts: 303
- Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 12:40 am
Started My Stretching and Have a Question
Age:33 | Onset Age: 20 | Symptoms: burning urethra after urinating, followed by rush to urinate again, rectal pain after a bowel movement sometimes, frequency. | Helped By: Pyridium and Ativan | Worsened By: stress, sitting and unknown reasons.
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PagesOfTime
- Beginner
- Posts: 47
- Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 2:03 pm
Keep us posted with results.
I've also started the same two things you have in the past week. Stretching didn't really change things for the first day or two, but then I started getting intense spasms whenever I was laying down or sitting with my feet off the ground. That scared the hell out of me, but I kept at it, and they went away in a few days. After I got through that, my pain went away for about 3 straight days which made me feel I was on the right track.
Then just last night, I added Magnesium citrate (in the form of a product called Natural Calm, which has been mentioned on this site by another user). Well, hours after taking it, the pain flared up again and has been with me since. I am still taking it, but again, I have that same issue as you...when something seems to be making problems worse, I want to stop it right away. I'm trying to stick with it at least for a few days and see what happens. I hear it all the time on this board that things often get worse before they get better. I'd say stick with them both for a bit, but keep us updated.
I've also started the same two things you have in the past week. Stretching didn't really change things for the first day or two, but then I started getting intense spasms whenever I was laying down or sitting with my feet off the ground. That scared the hell out of me, but I kept at it, and they went away in a few days. After I got through that, my pain went away for about 3 straight days which made me feel I was on the right track.
Then just last night, I added Magnesium citrate (in the form of a product called Natural Calm, which has been mentioned on this site by another user). Well, hours after taking it, the pain flared up again and has been with me since. I am still taking it, but again, I have that same issue as you...when something seems to be making problems worse, I want to stop it right away. I'm trying to stick with it at least for a few days and see what happens. I hear it all the time on this board that things often get worse before they get better. I'd say stick with them both for a bit, but keep us updated.
Age:29 | Onset Age: 26 | Symptoms: Extreme Urination Hesitancy, Weak Stream, Shooting Muscle Spasms, Constipation. | Helped By: Ultrasound, Ocean Water, PT, Stool Softeners. | Worsened By: Alcohol, Sleeping, Dairy Products.
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Richie
- Senior Veteran
- Posts: 298
- Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:27 am
- Location: SW Florida
Frankly, I cannot see anything bad coming from stretching. If it is causing a flare, that is probably indicative of you hitting the right areas.
I would do more, 3-4 times a day, particularly the ones that cause flares. It may take weeks or months to see improvement but you will see it.
Not a Dr. Not medical advice.
I would do more, 3-4 times a day, particularly the ones that cause flares. It may take weeks or months to see improvement but you will see it.
Not a Dr. Not medical advice.
Age: 44 | Symptoms: Pain in pelvis, Post urination drip. Helped by: Squat stretching, PT, Prelief before banned foods, Vit B, Cystoprotec AFTER foods, singulair after foods, Exercise. Makes worse: Stress, Alcohol (1-2 days after), coffee, Artificial sweeteners, chocolate, tonic Wheat/gluten. Drink a lot of water!!! 95% better to date!
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LightningTree
- Sage
- Posts: 623
- Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2004 6:50 pm
- Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Hi there.
This is a tricky issue.
I don't want to encourage you to hurt yourself.
On the other hand, stretching helped me.
Ultimately, you and your doctors are going to have to decide what to do.
I wish I could be more specific, but because I am not a medical doctor, I can only tell you what I have done for myself that has clearly worked for me.
To give you medical advice would be unethical.
I'm really sorry that you are experiencing a flare-up. I know what that is like. That happens sometimes when I try exercising too hard, and it is very dissappointing, as I want to get back to exercise. But I am not willing to let me hurt myself out of pride. My wife disagrees, she thinks I won't know until I try for some time.
Its like getting stuck on a fence. IF you cross it, you might get hurt really bad. But you might not and the other side might be better. But you don't know that will really be the case.
I wish I could give you some kind of guarantee that the stretch would help you. But I can only tell you that it worked wonders for me.
Conside the following:
Hypothesize for a moment that the problem relates to the distance and position of the spine relative to the pelvic bones. For me, this stretch, lets hypothesize, reduces the distance and improves pelic tilt to reduce muscle tension and release painful stimuli.
Now, assume that your spine and pelvic bones are already aligned inccorectly, but with the opposite problem. YOu have the reverse tilt and the spine and hip bones are close to each other. There is compression in there.
UNder those circumstances, doing this stretch would only make things worse.
But see, we can't evauate that here. So that's one hypothetical example of why we can't give you a decision on what you should do.
We CAN and SHOULD describe what is working for us, because this is the kind of information that can help us when we have no more options in the medical community. But it is up to you to relate that to your own condition. A doctor can correlate or decorrelate the two, because they are licensed to do so (ethically) and have insurance to deal with spoil sports (legally.)
So let me turn this around, what do you feel like you should do?
This is a tricky issue.
I don't want to encourage you to hurt yourself.
On the other hand, stretching helped me.
Ultimately, you and your doctors are going to have to decide what to do.
I wish I could be more specific, but because I am not a medical doctor, I can only tell you what I have done for myself that has clearly worked for me.
To give you medical advice would be unethical.
I'm really sorry that you are experiencing a flare-up. I know what that is like. That happens sometimes when I try exercising too hard, and it is very dissappointing, as I want to get back to exercise. But I am not willing to let me hurt myself out of pride. My wife disagrees, she thinks I won't know until I try for some time.
Its like getting stuck on a fence. IF you cross it, you might get hurt really bad. But you might not and the other side might be better. But you don't know that will really be the case.
I wish I could give you some kind of guarantee that the stretch would help you. But I can only tell you that it worked wonders for me.
Conside the following:
Hypothesize for a moment that the problem relates to the distance and position of the spine relative to the pelvic bones. For me, this stretch, lets hypothesize, reduces the distance and improves pelic tilt to reduce muscle tension and release painful stimuli.
Now, assume that your spine and pelvic bones are already aligned inccorectly, but with the opposite problem. YOu have the reverse tilt and the spine and hip bones are close to each other. There is compression in there.
UNder those circumstances, doing this stretch would only make things worse.
But see, we can't evauate that here. So that's one hypothetical example of why we can't give you a decision on what you should do.
We CAN and SHOULD describe what is working for us, because this is the kind of information that can help us when we have no more options in the medical community. But it is up to you to relate that to your own condition. A doctor can correlate or decorrelate the two, because they are licensed to do so (ethically) and have insurance to deal with spoil sports (legally.)
So let me turn this around, what do you feel like you should do?
This is not medical advice, and I am NOT a doctor of medicine or a related field.
* Age:33 Onset: February 2004.
* 99.9% IMPROVEMENT in 2.5 Years with the first year being the really hard part
* Current Symptoms: Mild irritation of perineal muscles on occasion. Relieved for days at a time by a specific stretch (see below).
* Initial Symptoms: Terrible penile, urethral, rectal, and perineal burning/aching with addition afferent sensations.
* Current Treatments: Deep stretching of the legs and pelvis. Most effective: Deep psoas and levitar ani stretch using the first phase of the "pigeon pose" from Yoga. When a deep pulling is felt in the middle of the pelvis next to the upper rectum, symptoms are completely alleviated for several days.
* Past Treatments Hyperprotection of the perineum for 1.7 years, Walking, Rectal biofeedback, Stanford/Wise-Anderson Protocol, Conditioned deep relaxation practice, Men's Multi-Vitamin and an Extra B-complex pill, all seemed to help.
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LightningTree
- Sage
- Posts: 623
- Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2004 6:50 pm
- Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Now, to answer your other question:
I started stretching 2 months into the problem.
I was starting to feel relief by about 6 months (having a few good days, then many more bad days again.)
By about a year and a half, I was having more good days than bad days.
By two years, it was mostly good days with short bad periods.
Now, I don't really have bad days and I am working on sitting in a chair without discomfort.
That's 2.5 years of stretching to get from hell to here.
My twin brother had this problem for a few years before me. He had it for about 3.5 years when I developed it. By 4 years he agreed with me to do more stretching and relaxation (previously, he was told to stay very still by doctors who said he had permanent nerve damage). By 5 years he was off vicodin. By 6 years, he is going to the gym and I noticed that he sits at my parents house without even thinking about it, even on hard chairs! He is pain free. Occasionally, he gets the odd irritation feeling.
The key for him was to get from a regular doctor to a pain clinic. The pain clinic was progressive and proactive, and that made all of the difference.
I started stretching 2 months into the problem.
I was starting to feel relief by about 6 months (having a few good days, then many more bad days again.)
By about a year and a half, I was having more good days than bad days.
By two years, it was mostly good days with short bad periods.
Now, I don't really have bad days and I am working on sitting in a chair without discomfort.
That's 2.5 years of stretching to get from hell to here.
My twin brother had this problem for a few years before me. He had it for about 3.5 years when I developed it. By 4 years he agreed with me to do more stretching and relaxation (previously, he was told to stay very still by doctors who said he had permanent nerve damage). By 5 years he was off vicodin. By 6 years, he is going to the gym and I noticed that he sits at my parents house without even thinking about it, even on hard chairs! He is pain free. Occasionally, he gets the odd irritation feeling.
The key for him was to get from a regular doctor to a pain clinic. The pain clinic was progressive and proactive, and that made all of the difference.
This is not medical advice, and I am NOT a doctor of medicine or a related field.
* Age:33 Onset: February 2004.
* 99.9% IMPROVEMENT in 2.5 Years with the first year being the really hard part
* Current Symptoms: Mild irritation of perineal muscles on occasion. Relieved for days at a time by a specific stretch (see below).
* Initial Symptoms: Terrible penile, urethral, rectal, and perineal burning/aching with addition afferent sensations.
* Current Treatments: Deep stretching of the legs and pelvis. Most effective: Deep psoas and levitar ani stretch using the first phase of the "pigeon pose" from Yoga. When a deep pulling is felt in the middle of the pelvis next to the upper rectum, symptoms are completely alleviated for several days.
* Past Treatments Hyperprotection of the perineum for 1.7 years, Walking, Rectal biofeedback, Stanford/Wise-Anderson Protocol, Conditioned deep relaxation practice, Men's Multi-Vitamin and an Extra B-complex pill, all seemed to help.