the nitty gritty of my first appointment

Tomorrow afternoon, I will have my second pelvic floor and core rehab appointment with Victoria. I'm a little nervous because I told her it was my goal to become the valedictorian of pelvic floor/core rehab and I'm not sure if I have worked hard enough this week to be on track toward achieving that goal. I learned a lot last week, and was gratified to hear that we covered more in my first session than most people do. Yes, I really am competitive in EVERYTHING I do. It's ridiculous, perhaps, but probably too late to change.

Victoria is a very lovely and articulate young woman and a virtual font of helpful knowledge about pelvic floor and core. She is so passionate about helping to improve women's lives through her work that she really inspired me to reach out to all of you.

First, Victoria told me that 6 out of 10 women do Kegels wrong. Uh oh. Pressure. She then hooked me up to several sensors attached to a handheld device with a screen. I got to hold the device and watch the display. Victoria said it was kind of like a video game. Whenever I contracted the muscles to which the electrodes were attached, the screen would show my level of contraction. She told me to listen to the machine and every 5seconds, when a voice prompted me to flick, I should quickly contract and release the muscles that control my urinary flow.

Well, the very first flick showed us that I was using too many of the muscles in the region, but I was immediately able to correct that and focus just on the tiny triangle of muscles around my urethra. Hooray! OK, back to the video game; Flick! 2 3 4 5 Flick! 2 3 4 5 Flick! I had to hand the device over to Victoria and just concentrate on following her instructions because as I watched the contractions register on the screen, I could not resist trying to beat my high score, and that is not good. The screen also showed that I was not relaxing my muscles enough between flicks. But I ask you, HOW does one completely relax when someone you have just met has hooked you up with electrodes all over your nether region? I rest my case.

If you are playing along at home and you want to find out if you are contracting your pelvic floor muscles correctly there is a way to do that all by yourself. Prop yourself up in a semi reclining position on your bed with your kneww bent and legs slightly apart. Place your fingertips in the space between your vagina and rectum. PLace your other hand on your lower abdomen.

Breathe in, allowing the abdomen to expand (your belly button should rise).

As you breath out, close or squeeze shut all openings of the vagina, urethra and rectum. In other words, suck in and up everything below your bellybutton, including lower abs and pelvic floor. If you feel anything pushing into your fingers, you are doing it wrong. The part of you under your first hand should move up into your pelvis and the part under your second hand should move down toward your back.

Quick flicks are when you perform this contraction quickly and then release it for several seconds.

Long holds are when you hold the contraction longer, thus activating other muscle fibers that make up 70 percent of the muscles in question.

The ultimate goal is to be able to perform this contraction every time you lift, push, pull, laugh, cough, sneeze or need to defer either urinating or passing gas.

Victoria also gave me a list of bladder irritants. Drinking too much coffee and soda irritate the bladder, but these fluids have to replaced, not just diminished. Drinking too little during the day can result in urine that is too concentrated and that can also be an irritant to the bladder. (Irritated bladders signal to us that they need emptying even when they are not full.) So, this leads to the same advice you will also get from every diet coach and dermatologist on the planet - drink more water! 48-64 ounces a day. You know there are flavored waters and cute water bottles out there, so load 'em up, keep it with you and keep chugging.

Before I left, I observed that Victoria wears her engagement ring around her neck on a chain the way I did when I was engaged to Paul and painting murals and faux finishes pretty much full time. Latex gloves going on and coming off all the time, ripping on the diamond, was no fun at all. After connecting on the ring on a chain issue, I learned that her fiance is the newest professional violinist in town without an opportunity to perform. He was on the road with Barrage for four years (check them out on you tube if you havent had the thrill of seeing them) until he realized it was time to propose and settle down. I immediately went home and friended Jason on facebook and invited him to check out our orchestra, something I might not have been comfortable doing if I hadn't already made the decision to be so "OUT" about my pelvic floor/core adventures.

I didn't tell Jason how I had met his lovely fiancee, but he made it clear in his friendly, postive response to my email message that she had at least filled him in that I was a patient. So, I am expecting Victoria and Jason at our next concert, on March 13. But before then, she and I have some more good work to do. I will be sure to keep you posted on our progress.