March 23, 2024
Erin MS Warner
For about seven years I had only partial feeling in my right leg. Sure, it was about 1 out of 10 “pain” (more like numbness), sometimes it’d hit a 4…never truly normal, never 0. It wasn’t until I started working for my friend who is a physical therapist in pelvic floor physical therapy (or, a PT in PFPT) that I realized I was a pelvic floor patient.
It’s important to know that I am a physical therapist assistant (a PTA for short). You’d think I would know, right?
What’s funny about the healthcare field is that those who work in it are expected to be fine. Better than fine – non-vulnerable. The reality is that we, too, are human. We have faults, pains, and histories of our own that we are working through while we’re working on you.
For years I asked my co-workers what they thought was wrong with me. I attended PT myself. I looked in books and searched for answers. The answers I got? Well I had been a server for almost 10 years, played high school sports year-round, danced since age 3 and continued into my twenties. I had really used my body – What did I expect?
I’ve had back pain since a spritely, youthful child. I always had irregular periods. I went through my own personal traumas, but I managed them. I had injuries, lots of injuries, but no surgeries (unless you count wisdom teeth). And then…I turned thirty-one (not thirty…thirty-one). It was like everything I had ever injured came crashing back on me. I’m honest when I say I was in such pain that it affected how I moved, how I slept. It was awful. And it happened for years! “Probably sciatica,” I heard. Then I got pregnant, had a kid at thirty-six. That is a whole different kind of “injury” to heal from, and requires a different set of skills. Pregnancy and postpartum is full-body, full-history, oh yeah, plus now you have a kid.
Frankly I was a mess.
Then I started working in a PFPT clinic, learning new ways of seeing symptoms, new interventions of correcting form, noticing how intricately movement and breathing and stress affect one another. Long story short, after trying these techniques, with patience, and with time (2 years focusing on this method of treatment, to be specific), my pain is all but gone.
I’m in healthcare, but I’m not in perfect health. However, I am persistent. Be persistent for yourself. You are the only one who can look after you. And consider that maybe your therapist knows a thing or two – yes, from college…but also from personal experience.
Thanks for reading.
Erin MS Warner is a Physical Therapist Assistant and a Pilates Instructor and has been trying to help people feel more like themselves for the last seven years.
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