Finally! Some progress with Biofeedback (with Pictures!)

                Yesterday I had another physiotherapist appointment, we did the usual routine we’ve been following for a couple of weeks now: a quick catch up, some connective tissue massage, and then I’m hooked up to the biofeedback. For the past couple of weeks, my muscle control has not been fabulous, in fact here’s a printout of one of my first biofeedback measurements:

                    It’s all over the place! The vertical, lighter lines are the markers. Each first line (i.e. 5, 37, 71 and 90 seconds), is when she told me to tense my muscles. The second lines (i.e. 9, 46, 74, and 96 seconds) are when she told me to relax my muscles. The lines SHOULD be very tall and edgy in between the markers and should be short and wavy in between the ending marker and the next starting marker… like this (the middle line on the computer screen):

(picture from a Google search found on: http://facstaff.unca.edu/cschrade/biofeedback_faq.htm)

                    Mine obviously is not overly similar to that. BUT TODAY something magical happened, I had a beautiful EEG reading after the connective tissue massage! Check it out:

 

 

                Much more normal looking! The physiotherapist was very excited, because obviously something good is going on down in my pelvic musculature area… although I’m not quite sure what. That’s not true, this shows that I obviously know how to tense AND how to relax my pelvic muscles, my issue is, even though this shows that I CAN do it, I don’t actually feel a huge difference between when my muscles are tense or when they’re relaxed.

                She printed these off for me to bring to show the psychologist on Tuesday, so we’ll see what she has to say about them, and about my homework (thinking errors… senate focus, etc). Apparently the next step might be dilators, not as scary as I used to think, which is a good sign, but I still get nervous about the idea.

Physiotherapist expense update:

Today’s total: $40.00

Grand Physiotherapy total: $290.00