Image Taken by Sue Croft of Artwork Venice, 2019
One of my most read blogs is one where I have collated quite a few of my pelvic pain blogs in one area. We know that 1 in 4 people with persistent pain will get a 50% reduction in their pain when pain education is included within their standard treatment. Lyrica is 1 in 6.8 patients for comparison. (1) So it makes sense to have a wide body of accessible, easy-to-read science-based information available for women to read.
I find it useful to encourage patients to read some of these blogs before their appointment to set the scene for the sometimes confronting fact that the brain and the patients thoughts, feelings and emotions can play an important role in the severity of their pelvic pain.
When we physios teach a vast amount of complex medical information in one to two hours, its pretty certain that most adult learners will only be able to take in about 20% of what has been said during the consultation. Having back up resources allows the patient to read extensively after the first consultation.
Persistent pain is a big problem – and at our practice, and all the pelvic health physio practices around Australia, we see more and more patients with significant pelvic pain. We see patients with complex histories and multiple organ involvement with bladder, bowel and reproductive organs often involved. Sexual dysfunction is common which causes relationship difficulties, anxiety in women, combined with shame, trauma and confusion.
Some of the links below are blogs on pain that I have written and there are other resources such as video blogs from Lorimer Moseley and David Butler of the NOI Group and the NSW Government which are freely available on the internet (heartfelt thanks to NOI/BIM/Lorimer/David and others). Feel free to share with friends, family and professional colleagues. Reading some of these after your pelvic physiotherpy appointment will reinforce what you have just learned.
Just click on the links to go directly to the blogs.
So here is my first blog ever on pain called “Persistent Pelvic Pain”
Here is the second blog is called “More on persistent pelvic pain”
The blog is called “The art of conversation” and has an introduction on the placebo effect following a great show on SBS.
The fourth blog is called “Roadblocks to compliance”
The fifth link is to a one hour TED talk which Lorimer Moseley gave in Adelaide. This is very long and only look at it if you are really into reading and knowing as much as you can about pain.
The sixth link is a brilliant 5 minute video called “Understanding Chronic Pain” summarizing everything you need to understand about pain. The content in the video was a joint project between GP Access and the Hunter Integrated Pain Service in NSW.
And the seventh link is to a short video from David Butler on “The Drug Cabinet in the Brain”
The eighth link is another little gem called “Brainman stops his opioids” by Medicare Local, BIM, NSW Government Hunter District, Uni of SA, UW Medicine and NIH Pain Consortium on how to utilize pain relief without becoming reliant on opioids.
The ninth link is called ‘Sit like a Man’ and reminds us how to down-train the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles – one of our favourite Outlander characters helps us with this blog.
The tenth link is a great short video by Dave Butler on Smudging in the brain.
The eleventh link another excellent video by Dave Butler on Thought Viruses.
The twelvth link is about the importance of good breath awareness.
The thirteenth link is a blog I wrote on managing social anxiety called Social Anxiety in Cats and Dogs.
The fourteenth link is a blog on Mindfulness in managing Anxiety.
There are also a number of excellent texts on understanding persistent pain.
I’ve mentioned ‘Explain Pain’ by David Butler and Lorimer Moseley many times but another great patient directed book is called ‘Why Pelvic Pain Hurts’ by Adriaan Louw, Sandra Hilton and Carolyn Vandyken and of course my own books Pelvic Floor Essentials (Edition 4) and Pelvic Floor Recovery: Physiotherapy for Gynaecological and Colorectal Repair Surgery (Edition 4) have a chapter devoted to managing persistent pain.
So all of these blogs, links and books are designed to de-mystify persistent pain so we are no longer scared of pain, or moving, or having sex, or inserting a tampon, or whatever fears your pain is responsible for.
Just like this daschy is not intimidated by this lion – in fact they are best friends- you too can not only learn to live with your pain, but hopefully conquer it so it becomes a part of your past. This photo shows you Milo the dog and Bone Digger the lion interacting at GW Zoo, Wynnewood, Oklohoma. Bone Digger had problems walking when he was a cub and this pup was raised with him. They are now inseparable.
(1) Moseley, Butler 2017 Explain Pain Supercharged
