3 AM Poops, Sitz baths and finding my Center
It’s light out, I’m awake for the second night in a row at 3 AM, pooping, porcelain god help me. I’m 7 days into an IBS flare with no relief and it’s really wiping me out. My usual IB Guard peppermint pills aren’t helping at all, the yoga isn’t deflating this swollen gut and I am getting very, very little sleep. But, I’m still trying to regain my balance, Ommm. I fell of the edge, angry that my symtopms had returned so intensely.
Funny how much worse it feels when you temporarily get better and then IBS shows up like oh hey, yeah I decided I’d like to drop you off some hemorrhoids so you can’t poo, a huge gut so you can’t wear pants to work, a kinked neck, throbbing back pain and a broken vagina backed up with pressure, sound good? FML.
Well, after that rant, I’m about to take a sitz bath. They’re great for relaxing all the tensed muscles, calming swelling and other gynecological gems like infections-check, cysts-check, and pain-check, check. I just use good old baking soda, a generous amount, then sit in a tub with water that covers my belly when I lay down. Then I zone out in the warmth, ahwwhh.
Today I have my first physical therapy appointment for PFTM, eee. With manual therapy as the recommended treatment. In layman’s terms, I will get a very unpleasant pelvic exam, followed by a hopefully less unpleasant massage of my pelvic floor muscles, located down south, you know, between the vagina and anus. Say what!
I’m actually grateful that my new doctor recognized the tension in my PF muscles and wants to help alleviate all this pressure from my lady bits and BMs. I’m sure I will have plenty more on the subject soon! In the meantime, I’ll work on not losing my cool, not crying from exhaustion, and not flexing my vagina muscles every time I feel emotion #gains …kidding.
