When it comes to pain, not everyone thinks about acupuncture as the solution. With intense pelvic floor pain, the idea of needles anywhere near the pelvic floor can have you running in the other direction. You will be pleased to know that although it is possible to needle the muscles in the pelvic floor, it is not necessary to be able to address pelvic floor pain with acupuncture. One of the benefits of using acupuncture for pain is that there are many ways to treat the body, many ways to see the body and a seemingly indirect treatment can be the most powerful.
Case Study
59 year old female came to my office with her Chief Complaint as Pelvic Floor Pain that she had been experiencing 6 times per year for 15 years. The pain was intense, an 8-9 out of 10 and lasted at that intensity for 45-60 minutes. It usually appeared at night, waking her, but recently it had happened while at work or while driving. The pain was in the rectum as well as at the base of her spine and was a throbbing, pounding pain. The pain would start suddenly, then stop just as suddenly. The patient had seen multiple types of specialists, none of whom could do anything but give her pain killers for when she had the pain, and physical therapy hadn't helped; no one was able to help her with prevention, and could help only mildly with pain management. The pain was slightly better with NSAIDs and nitroglycerin but nothing prevented the pain from occuring; she just had to wait it out.
I first saw her in late February and the last episode of the pain had been late December.
Observing her posture, her rib cage was shifted to the left relative to her pelvis and her right Quadratus Lumborum (QL) was tight and contracted. Her left SI joint was jammed causing a medial shift when she lifted her knee. Her left psoas was tighter than her right and her right pubic bone was slightly deep relative to her left. There was no movement in her right ThoracoLumbar Fascia (TLF) or sacrum, which was jammed moving superiorly. The movement of her TLF and sacrum were detected by using a light touch to detect the body's various rhythms subtle movements.
I saw her weekly for 2 weeks, then every other week for 4 more treatments. After the first treatment her SI joints were moving properly and evenly, and her QL tightness had released. Her rib shift was also gone. As the acupuncture treatments progressed, I addressed imbalances in her piriformis and hamstrings and continued to address the sacrum which improved with every treatment. We were able to trace the problem back to her left foot which had had a seismoid bone resection many years before that affected her overall alignment, causing her to overuse her right side.
Typically the pain had occurred every 2 months for 15 years. During the 3 months that I saw this patient, she had no recurrence of the pain. Our last treatment was in May, so she had been pain free for 5 months.
I find that looking at the whole body, rather than just focusing on the one part in pain, it's the best way to get rid of pain more permanently. The body is a master at compensating and over time subtle, often unconscious shifts in posture and gait can lead to bigger problems down the road. By correcting the way a person moves through their life by correcting their imbalances, it can have a profound effect on how someone feels on a daily basis.
If you would like to receive monthly email notifications about new posts, click here. You may unsubscribe at any time.
To learn more about me and what I do, go to www.integrativetherapeutics.com
No comments:
Post a Comment