Bladder and PT Update

Apparently I don't get the lidocaine yet. At Monday's appointment, they did more of a urodynamics type thing. Computers and electrodes figure out the strength of your stream, amount of void, and if there is any retention of urine in the bladder. I had two different catheters inserted and removed. Yeah, not fun. Painful, even. I just kept reminding myself that they were not trying to hurt me - in fact, they are trying to help me and make me pain free. It is a process involving some pain to relieve the more severe pain. Needless to say, after two catheters, everything down there was pretty irritated and painful. They gave me the pills that help with the pain that turn your urine electric blue! So much cooler than the stuff that turns your urine bright red/orange. And it works a lot better. It's just that I am a little scared about next Monday's appointment. This stuff hurts. But I understand that there is a larger purpose.

Physical therapy on Tuesday went well. My homework is keeping track of what I eat, drink, and void - a bladder diary of sorts. Oh, and to relax. Not in a stupid, "relax and you'll get pregnant" way, but I'm supposed to consciously think of the muscles in my body - specifically my pelvic muscles and relax them. I'm working on this, but I need to step it up. Every time I focus on those muscles, I find them tightened and have to think about relaxing them. That is part of the tension myalgia issue. What sucks is that this does not mean that I have amazing muscles in that area, you know because they are tense all the time, in fact, they are weak. So, after working on actually relaxing everything, we are going to work on strengthening the right muscles again. Essentially, retraining them to do what they are supposed to. Complicated, right? I had no idea there was so much stuff going on down there or that so much could go dysfunctional. At least we're on the right track.