Hints and tips for coping with PGP

A reminder for hints and tips as I realise this blog needs a bit of updating

 

• Keep your knees together as much as you can - this includes sitting on the toilet and turning over in bed
• Where shiny/silky pj's to bed to help slip when you turn over.
• Or lay a towel under you (width ways) in bed, when you need to roll over pull up on one end of the towel to lift yourself over
• When going from sitting to standing or vice versa clench you bum muscles as much as you can and concentrate on using them.
• Always do your pelvic floors. Try and do it every time you wash your hands and use a pc. You need to get into the habit of doing them
• Spend some time of the day crawling around on the floor - slowly and carefully concentrating on using stomach and bum muscles as you move.
• Take short steps
• Concentrate on going upstairs and down - a lot of people find it easier to step up sideways
• Don't carry anything heavy - including your toddlers - its not going to help and can make it so much worse in the long run. General rule is 10lb is the maximum weight to lug around.
• Absolutely no hoovering or pushing shopping trolleys. All the force is pushed through your pubic bone which is not good! Get help with the house work and order food online if you cant rely on someone to do it. Most supermarkets have free delivery on less popular days - Tuesdays and Wednesdays if you order over certain amount. Its worth doing!

I will update this as I get more. Please comment to add your tips to this post!!

 

Happy News!

Well thought I should share some happy news! I am now 1 year on from surgery and currently 3 1/2 months pregnant. Hooray! One of my main goals has been achieved.
I am still walking unaided - albeit not very far.
I have a check up with my surgeon on Wednesday - I am not sure how happy he will be about me being pregnant - we had been told to wait til May to try.
So far some of the old SPD pain has returned, I am already very sore at night time and turning over in bed is a bit of a mission. I am going to be more careful this time on what advice I take. I shall not be engaging in stretchy yoga or aqua aerobics contrary to what every midwife tells me!
If anyone out there has some new tips and advice on coping with SPD in another pregnancy please get in touch, there are plenty of ladies out there who want advice too.
As for the success of the operation - I had hoped it would prevent the SPD returning so aggressively in pregnancy - especially this early. However, if it gets me the healthy little baby we all want then it was absolutely worth it. I know I wouldn't be pregnant now if I hadn't had it!

One year on

Wow!

I can't believe it but I have finally got rid of the crutches this week. I have been able to walk my daughter to and from school every day.  Okay so its only 5 minutes and I do stop and rest but what a huge milestone. I was beginning to think I was permanently disabled but now I feel like maybe I will keep on improving after all.
I go back to see the surgeon in a few weeks time - I am so looking forward to walking in there!
I am even returning the wheel chair next week to the lovely lovely Red Cross who have let me have it for so long.  I am so very grateful to them.
I am still off all the pain killers too.
Oh happy days
xx

Do you have to pass an exam to become a gp?

Went to the doctors today with stomach ache. Was offered pain relief. Urm I am in withdrawal? Why would you give me the same darn pain killers???

New year update

Well its a been a while and things are slowly moving forward.
My biggest goal at the moment is come off the pain killers. I am fed up of being addicted to tramadol. I always took more than I was prescribed - telling myself I had been on them so long I had built up a tolerance. The withdrawal is slow torture. I reduce by one tablet a week and instead of the dramatic cold turkey I went through last summer its a more dragged out but slightly manageable process.

The physical withdrawal symptoms are stomach cramps, nausea, diarrhoea,  night terrors and cold sweats. This has been going on for a few months now as I slowly reduce the amounts of medication. The emotional effects are much harder to deal with. The anxiety is incredible and I dont how to control it. I have to visit my friend to get me through those days. You definitely need support to come through this. I have a very good friend who I ring and see daily to get me over the anxious hours, the sad hours, the lonely hours and the angry hours. I couldn't have coped without her.

As each tablet is dropped the pain has also increased. Not just along the pubic bone but around the curve in my spine and the across the left SI joints.
I am determined to continue, I would rather the pain now then the medication. Who knows, maybe I can manage this level of pain. Its certainly easier than it was pre op.
My only other real discomfort is lack of sleep, if I manage to drop off to sleep I often wake with nightmares or I stay awake at all hours because I cant get comfortable. I am shattered!

One step back

Its frustrating. its saddening and damn right maddening.
Many years ago one of the physios I was seeing spoke to me about applying for disability allowance and disability benefits. At the time I was a little offended. I was so stubborn that this was not a permanent thing that I would get better. This week has been a bit of a shock. It appears that the new pain down my left hand side from back to knee is from a group of muscles working too hard to compensate for the fact that some of my pelvic muscles just dont work. The fear is that this is permanent that where the msucles have been cut through for surgery some have not reattached and no longer work. There is nothing that can be done if that is the case, and although I am in less pain then I was pre surgery and I am happy about that. I would be left disabled and in need of at least one stick permanently. Not so hard to swallow to be honest. Out of all this I have a beautiful daughter. Had I become injured in a car accident I would no doubt find it harder to take. What I do find frustrating is the ridiculous system in place tryign to get disability benefits etc. Its a red taped different world of jargon and reason I can't understand. I kind of wish I had done it all years ago - I certainly would be much better off. I am not particularly good at beign pc so I may offend some people with this. But how can I be disabled. I have only had a baby - almost five years ago. A perfectly nautral act that occurs every day. How has it left me like this.
How do I get benefits? Do I bother? Well yes the money woudl be nice but am I morally entitled to it? I haven't done anythign spectaculor. I haven't been out defending my country on the streets, I haven't been protecting my country and others fighting with sub standard equipment, do I deserve this?

Oh my aching bum - spd 5 months post surgery

Well as the title suggests I am now 5 months post op.  I could not have imagined how much hard work it has taken to get here, the ups and downs, the lows and highs - literally, and the feeling of pride when I see how far I have come.
I have suffered with spd or pgp for five years.  I have put on weight which was incredibly depressing.  I had to give up my beloved tae kwon do which not only meant losing my fitness but I lost many friends through this too as we no longer had things in common and to be honest I think I scared of them. I struggled to keep up with my daughter who seemed to grow in leaps and bounds in the blink of an eye and my relationship with my husband has certainly  been tested.
Today I can see a future though. I have lost 3 stone since the surgery and am so close to my pre pregnancy weight I am delighted. I know longer have the dull ache in my back and hip that radiates from the pubic bone and I can sleep pretty much through the night without having to wake for pain killers. None of these things I would have been able to do without the operation.
I am still in some pain - and worryingly some of it is a new pain. It runs from the inside of my groin round to my left buttock and down the left thigh bone. I have no idea what it is and my physio and hydro therapists are hoping its just due to increased exercise. The plan is to see if it subsides in time. I am back seeing my wonderful surgeon on the 3rd November and I can't wait for him to put my mind at rest on the latest pain. Whatever it is though I am sure I am better off now than I was.