Is PT necessary?

[MattK]

I have received weekly PT for 5 months with very little if any progress. I took time off from work to heal and have been doing relaxation but really things haven't changed. I can erase my symptoms after PT myself or w/ a physical therapist but a day later, I'm tight again. The PT I'm seeing seems to know what he's doing, similar technique to Tim Sawyer. But honestly I feel like the I'm playing tetris, just zapping the tension away so it can be replaced w/ more during post treatment flares. Also worth mentioning is that I haven't truly had trigger points since the first few visits. Just tight and tender muscles that are utterly tenacious. What else can one do and can this thing be beat w/out this horrific PT?

-Matt

[webslave]

What else have you tried besides PT?

[MattK]

I've tried acupuncture, visualization relaxation, alternative medicine natural remedies, heat therapy, amongst others. Basically a typical day for me consists of a hot bath, an hour of paradoxical relaxation, PT (every 3 days), half hour of cardio, 3 sessions of stretching, and a constant attempt at relaxing my abs and pelvic floor (which I find very difficult, in fact greatly increased abdominal tension since I learned of this as a tension disease and began trying to counteract that) I'd claim to be at my wits end but I know so many have suffered far longer than I. I just feel like I'm at a standstill at this point. And about to enter high stress, sedentary job.

[webslave]

Try Quercetin, Elavil, and failing those, the occasional benzodiazepine. That's a start.

[popburner]

I just had a long talk with my PT (pelvicpainrehab.com) - and she said that almost all of her patients get significantly better, but it can take up to a full year of PT and a true sense of self-care in the rest of your life. I have a lot of trust in her experience (Liz Rummer), and know she wouldn't deceive me to keep me as a client. I asked for details about what she meant by "improvement" - and she said 99% of her patients who stick with PT for at least a year get to a place where they have to come in once every 2-3 months for maintenance session and live relatively pain free. She likened it to certain kind of musculo-skeletal/neuropathic back injuries. True retraining of the body, posture, musculature, and nervous system takes time and one must really be patient with the work. Also, she has seen many times no change for 6-8 months (as in my case) and a turn around almost every time by the 1 year mark. I'm sticking with it, because why not keep heading toward potential health, versus freaking out about living with this forever.

I agree though that an anti-depressant/anti-anxiety like Elavil or remeron (I'm on the latter) really helps keep your head in the end game, and not in the daily catastrophizing. Also, I'm on Quercetin...not sure if it's helping, but it does seem to have an effect for many!

-GOOD LUCK and keep up the good work on taking care of your body!

[scoobysnacks]

In my case yes, I have had internal and work on the abs, ALL of it together contributed to where I am today as far as healing and taking baby steps. Now I'm finding back trigger points in my back seem to have perpetuated the ones in my abs. So now I work internal, my abs and my spinal erectors with my thera cane.