Getting diagnosed

[jcacciat]

I am new here, and am grateful to have found this forum. I began having symptoms at the end of November, 2010, and was diagnosed with "prostatitis" by my GP a month later. 90 days of antibiotics and 60 days of NSAIDS, with no relief. I also saw a urologist, who told me to forget it and move on with my life. I have tried other measures, with mixed results. I do feel better now than I did last winter.

My GP is empathetic and intelligent, but she does not grasp chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome as a neuromuscular disorder. She does have a notion that the central nervous system is involved, and so prescribed Elavil.

I have scheduled a PT appointment for next week with a therapist who does trigger point release work and claims to help patients with pelvic pain. I do not know yet whether he has read HITP, but I plan on bringing it to the first session. Because there are probably no physicians in my area who have absorbed the research and methods discussed on this forum, I am not likely to find one who can confirm that my problem is neuromuscular in nature. My question is: does this matter? Should I simply ask the PT to help me locate trigger points and assume that this will be diagnostic?

Any wisdom appreciated.

[webslave]

It always helps to fill out your Location in your profile.

You should ask, preferably before making the appointment, whether the PT does internal work.

[jcacciat]

Yes, I did ask and was told by his staff that he does internal work. Just modified the signature. I'm in Des Moines. I saw a post with an article about a PT in Sioux City who does this work. That's about 3 hours away. The PT I've located is an instructor at a well-regarded osteopathic medical school here and a practitioner. There is only one practice group of urologists in this area, and my experience there was terrible. So I'm going to have a consultation with the PT and see where that goes. I'll ask him the same question and see what he says. Thank you for the reply.

[Nevilleb]

"Forget it and get on with your life" - what a joke. This just shows the man's complete lack of knowledge and failure to understand the problem.

If you can work out what's triggering your condition you have a much better chance of controlling it or even beating it.

Fortunately you've realised that you can't rely on anyone else to figure it out for you. You've got to keep plugging away.

Good luck!

[jcacciat]

Thanks, Nevilleb. Feedback of any kind is encouraging at this point. The urology group in my city can only be characterized as primitive, and I haven't been there since March. There were some confusing and complicated facts surrounding the onset of my condition late last year. The bottom line is that I was told there was a microbial agent responsible for my symptoms, but I am now realizing that this is highly improbable (i.e., the symptoms roughly coincided with an infection, and so an assumption was made, without any testing of the prostatic fluid at the time, that the infectious agent had infected the prostate). After reading HITP, I think I have an understanding of the initial triggering circumstances. I am already feeling some relief of symptoms by simply understanding the problem and having a plan of attack. The moment-to-moment relaxation also seems to be reducing pain symptoms. Hopefully, the PT will take it a step further. For the first time since the onset, I feel like there may be some light at the end of the tunnel, although I get the idea that the tunnel may be a long one. Thanks again.