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!