To SafelyHeld in respons to your help with gas issue

Safelyheld,

In response to your help with my gas issue. Since hinging at the hips has been awkward for me, I have a question for you.

A little history first:

When I originally went to PT for my POP incident, my 2nd PT had me lie on my back and she did Electic current therapy (e-stem, biofeedback, whatever you want to call it) on the nerve on the inside of my butt cheek which stimulated Pelvic floor muscles to contract.. She had me doing Kegals and holding for 10 seconds while the nerve was stimulated by the e-stem current. Since I had been doing amped-up kegals for months AND had amped them up even after my POP, my pelvic floor muscles were very strong. After the second e-estem treatment, I was really hurting, spasming in my pelvic floor muscles, symptoms were getting worse and I was having some bloody discharge which she said was normal. This is when I continued to search the internet and found this site.

This background is important. When I then became constipated for the first time ever, so scary after POP, and found Lopo, it felt such relief to release those pelvic floor muscles and just LET the pee and poo come out without any strain of anything.

Here's the question: I am realizing just now that I've been walking around in great WW posture and getting relief of my symptoms except when I hinge at the hips. I am feeling pressure unfolding of skin in my rectum which is a little puffy and puffier when I hinge. The question is this. I don't think that I am using those pelvic floor muscles or glute muscles at all. I am realizing that I am leaving vagina and anus/rectum open as I walk/sit/hinge AS IF I am on the loo in lopo waiting for things to just come on out which they do every morning now.

I'm leaving these orafices open even during exhale portion of fire breathing, that can't be right? No wonder I'm not really using my butt muscles and/or stretching my lumbar spine on the exhale. My logic would say that those all work in conduction with each other. I fear that the terrible results of the e-stem treatments have left me scared to use those muscles and unsure when to even try. No wonder they seem to have gotten weak. I haven't been engaging them at all and them when I inadvertently use them ever so slightly, they (muscles of the anus…get strained? Could this be what's happen when I hinge or squat? My body is such a puzzle to me these days unlike before POP when I thought I knew my body so well.

When I come up from the hinge and try to use my glutes/hamstrings… should I feel those orifices close or tighten OR should I try to close or tighten them. Should I feel them tighten or merely close while sitting, walking and especially hinging down and/or especially when coming up? I know that this is a technicality but it might explain the inflamed skin around my anus if I have stopped using those muscles at all for weeks now. I am not straining on the loo, lifting anything right now (I am so lucky to have teenagers around the house, I know). There's no reason for me to have hemorrhoids if I am NEVER using those muscles which has me thinking that is the problem. This is something that I might be doing that I was not aware of and am just realizing. These are things that I never thought of before I was traumatized by my PT experience. I am still unraveling the layers, psychological and physical, of that very short but scary and horrible 2 week PT experience before I landed here.

I've been moving and sitting with those muscles in "anti-kegall mode" 24/7, no kidding, probably literally in response to shock therapy at it's best. My body possibly went into rejection and has decided to shut those muscles down to protect them. This is so psychological for me that I just want to know what it feels like to others before I go changing anything. Man… I never imagined that PT could mess with my body and my head like this!!! This was long but details were necessary. - Sierra