I started seeing Heather in October 2014. For more than two years, I had been suffering from painful urinary tract infection type symptoms after my bartholins gland surgery which included constant burning and urinary frequency sensation that led to more and more painful intercourse. I had made multiple visits to internists, OBGYNs, and urologists’ offices, and I went through a range of treatment with UTI and bladder frequency medication that included antibiotics, vesicare, and estrogen cream, but nothing worked.
I had to limit outings and trips and intercourse. I was really desperate and feeling despondent when I finally found Dr. Tarney at UCLA who referred me to Heather for pelvic floor therapy, primarily to help with painful sex, but maybe the other symptoms as well. Since I had been suffering for so long, I didn’t have my hopes high when I first met Heather and she told me that I would see a difference in a few weeks. I was even more skeptical when she showed me the dilators that I had to buy and the pelvic floor exercises I had to do at home since other than my husband, I had never inserted even a tampon ever before. But I really liked Heather and the way she explained everything thoroughly. I could tell she really knew her stuff, and I held on to that belief tightly.
I stuck to my weekly visits and daily homework and now, little more than a year later, I am so thankful that I did. I have no more painful intercourse. My UTI symptoms are more or less gone. I can enjoy time with my husband and outings with my friends. It has been a gradual, at times slow and almost subtle process for me, but thanks to Heather and her team of fantastic therapists, I am better.
Now, when I go for a therapy session, I feel pressure instead of pain and it has become a walk in the park. Heather got me through the initial trial stages, but as I made progress and advanced through the dilators, she introduced me to Laureen who included lymphatic drainage in my therapy sessions and which I really felt aided in my progress. To fit my work schedule, I continued both the pelvic floor and lymphatic drainage with the newest addition to the team, who were just as skillful and thorough, and helped me maintain all the progress I had made.
Throughout this whole experience, I have constantly wondered why none of my other doctors ever mentioned this therapy to me. It would have saved me two years of absolute discomfort and misery and possibly less time in therapy. I am truly grateful though that I was referred to Heather because she understood the source of these issues right away and worked on them directly. It did take time and a lot of patience and dedication with the home exercises and regular office visits, but Heather and her team guided and encouraged me through the process and made sure I was on the right track all the way.
I hope no one ever goes through my painful and traumatic experience, but for those women who are experiencing chronic pelvic floor discomfort, I can say from experience that there is hope with pelvic floor therapy and there is help from the Fusion Wellness PT group. They are staffed with top of the line professionals who carefully listen and custom tailor every treatment to the particular needs of each individual and have certainly been the key source of my journey to recovery.
– T.H.
