From Potential Patient to Pelvic PT - Episode 2

In this episode, I discuss the events that led to me down the path of becoming a pelvic health physical therapist.

This is part 2 of the 2-part episode series where I share my backstory.

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• Episode Transcript

  Dr. Kari Roberts: Welcome to the Marron Pelvic Health Podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Dr. Kari Roberts. On this show, we will be discussing a variety of things regarding your pelvic health. These conversations will be a mix of education, personal experiences, and a blend of tips you can apply to have a healthier pelvis. The goal of this show is to normalize conversations around pelvic health and help women stop suffering in silence. You you okay, so you decided to come back and listen to the second half of how I became a pelvic health physical therapist. So I just realized in the previous episode, I forgot to say I did mention about having chronic pelvic pain 24 hours a day, for it was actually years before I was able to get that handled. But I also was going to the bathroom an absurd amount of times, anywhere from 15 to 20 times per day, when I got diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, which was so not fun. So not fun. So after I got the treatment that I discussed in episode one, if you haven't listened to it, go ahead and pause this, listen to that, and then jump back over to this one. I did get to a place where things were going pretty okay. The pain was gone. I was not going to the bathroom 15 to 20 times a day. I wasn't having painful intercourse with my husband anymore. But I still felt like I had a lot of urge. It just felt like the urge wouldn't go away. And that always was in the back of my mind. Side note, I do have thyroid disease as well, and I have done a lot of research on the treatment of my thyroid disease. I have become very interested in a more natural approach during the pandemic. I read some books on how to manage period pain and how to manage thyroid issues, and I discovered pelvic health physical therapy in that journey for my thyroid. Learning that what's going on with my thyroid could probably be related with what's going on with my bladder, being that they're both autoimmune disorders. And it got me thinking, how did I not know there's a whole nother muscle group for the pelvic floor? So of course, I did what any good physical therapist would do. I dug out my netters, I dug out my anatomy book, and I start rummaging through. I was a teaching assistant for anatomy, so I was a high achieving student in the class of over 300 was, I think, top six or seven, because I was invited to come back to be a teaching assistant. I know my anatomy backwards and forwards. And when I was rummaging through my anatomy book, I realized that this piece about the pelvic floor was blank. We skipped over it. So it was during the pandemic, about 2020, and I decided, on one hand, I'm researching how to have used natural products for my cycle and assessment. The third, but I'm learning? What are these muscles? And forget why I didn't learn about them, but how do I apply what I already know about other parts of the body being an orthopedic physical therapist, and how do I apply it to this part of the body, and what can I do to help with my bladder urge? And I read a book and read another book and took a little class online and another class, and before you know it, I was doing stretches and trying to be mindful with my stress and my activity and just trying to be a better human being to take care of this body that I'm in. And I said, I got to a really good place. I have used these tools that I've learned from a pelvic physical therapy perspective. To get me over that last little hump. To get me from going to the bathroom 1012 times, to get me to go to the bathroom for seven to eight times, to get me to go from waking up twice a night to use the restroom to sleeping most nights without even waking up. And if I do wake up, it's usually only once to get me to feel comfortable where I don't have to know where all the restrooms are, just in case. And I thought, I need to help other people do this. I can help other people do this. So I talked to my supervisor at work, and I said, I'm kind of interested in taking some of these classes, these legit classes, not the little one off classes that I had been taking in the books that I had been reading. And I was told that I only needed to take one class and they would love to have something set up, and I could do things I could work that build a program for them that didn't feel quite right. Whenever you're talking about building a program for someone I'm like, that's a lot of intellectual property, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And I would hate to put in all that work, and then someone else gets to reap the benefit. I would hate for it to be something, and it wasn't mine. So I just kind of filed it away. And then I discovered another physical therapist where her and her husband actually talk about business and being public health therapists. And I discovered their podcast. And once I discovered their podcast, I learned so many things. I learned that the way we're taught to do physical therapy is really to keep insurance companies happy. It's not truly our practice. It's just the way we have to practice so that we can get paid through insurance companies. And I mean, by this point, I'm, what, 1617 years into being a physical therapist, and I felt like I had been completely bamboozled because it's like, yeah, you're right. When I look at the practice act, yeah, the practice act is pretty wide open. There's a wide scope of things that we have been taught to do. But when you look at what we're actually doing, we're just jumping through hoops to get the insurance company. We're playing the insurance company game so that they can pay. And I just didn't feel that great about that because I think the insurance companies can really be a racket. And then as I really started to learn, it's so intimate, and you're having really personal conversations. No grown woman wants to tell anybody that they peed in a public place or left a puddle or having sexual intimacy issues with their partner in a gym on a table next to someone that had a knee replacement, next to someone that has a Whiplash injury. Those conversations are very intimate. And I realized that in order for me to practice the way I wanted to practice, insurances were not going to be a part of it. Because I really wanted to dig deep and I wanted to have the time. And the energy in the space to talk about things that helped me, like diet and nutrition and sleep, health and wellness and well being and how you're managing stress and all of these things that we've been taught to do, but things that we can't bill for and get insurance to be paid. So I embarked on the journey of starting my own practice about a year ago in 2022, and I opened my doors in November of 2022. And here I am working in my clinic. It's not exactly where I want it to be yet. I'm sure I'll be sharing lots of details with you, all my listeners along the way, but that's really how I went from being a potential patient to being a pelvic health therapist. I was a potential patient because had I known about the specialty of pelvic health physical therapy, I would have beg, barred and stell to be able to be treated by one of them. Back in 2015 and 14 when I was just getting diagnosed with interstitial cystitis and really coming to grips with the fact that I was going to the bathroom all of the time and dealing with pelvic pain and how all of that stuff is related, I would have done anything to do that, but I didn't. And so I say I was a potential patient because I treated myself on my own with the tools I had available. And if I had known that there was other tools available, I would have taken it. And now I'm a pelvic health physical therapist because I've taken all of these experiences, all of this time and the knowledge that I have sought out to learn and the conversations I've had with other pelvic health therapists and the lessons that I've learned and the classes I've taken and the things that I've done to better myself so that I can have impact on someone's life. And it's so cool to be able to get a message from someone and they say, my lubrication is so much better. My husband and I don't even need to use the lube because everything down there is doing what it's supposed to do. Or someone says, I was able to jump on the trampoline with my children and I didn't leak any urine. Or someone else to say I peed when I sneezed consistently for about 25 years. And now not only can I pee without crossing my legs, I can pee while standing and walk. Excuse me. Not only do I not pee when I sneeze without crossing my legs, but I can sneeze while standing, while walking, and not leak any urine. And those are the types. Those are the life changing experiences, right? We're reducing the shame. We're reducing the overwhelm. We're reducing the embarrassment. We're increasing the confidence. We are increasing the desire to go out and try new things and live life to the full. Jump on that trampoline. Do a workout without having to cross your legs when you sneeze. Try something new. And that's really how I went from being a potential therapist to being a pelvic health physical therapist. And if you want me to be your pelvic health physical therapist, I would love the opportunity to speak with you and talk with you and see do you even need pelvic health physical therapy? Is there something I can do to help you? Is there someone else that I know that I can refer you to? If you're not local to Atlanta, Georgia, that is okay. We offer virtual visits. I am trying to be as easily accessible as possible and help as many women as I can stop suffering in silence and stop the pelvic pain and stop peeing on themselves when they don't want to. So that's the end of the part two of How I Got here, and thanks for listening and tune in next week for another awesome episode. Thank you for listening to The Moron pelvic health podcast. If you want to take the quiz to see if you would benefit from speaking to a pelvic health physical therapist, simply go to the link in the description or go to www.moronepelvichealth.com quiz. Again, thank you so much for listening to the podcast. And don't forget to tune in next week for another their amazing episode.