Thursday, February 23, 2012

6 to 8 Weeks Post Vulvar Vestibulectomy

It has now been almost 8 weeks since surgery. I had my 6 week check up about 10 days ago and everything is looking good. The 6 o clock area is still not full healed so my doctor told me to hold off on any stimulation to the area so I don't aggravate it. This means no sex... although the doctor did say oral sex was okay just nothing internal.  I don't have another scheduled appointment with my obgyn so now it's just a waiting game. I've been putting some calendula oil and aloe on the area to aid in healing. I don't have any discomfort doing normal every day activities. I do still have some swelling though; I notice it more when I wear tight pants and it is kind of like a bump on the outer labia that goes away after a while. I still soak in a sitz bath maybe once a week. I have an appointment with my pelvic floor physical therapist next week so hopefully that goes well. I'm a little nervous that the surgery hasn't full fixed my issue. I haven't been able to truly test the tenderness of the area yet but I will update again soon.

Thanks for reading as always!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Physical Therapy for Vulvar Vestibulitis

I started physical therapy for my vulvar vestibulitis about a year ago. This was one of the first things my 3rd obgyn had recommended to me. I got a good recommendation from her about a PT that has worked with patients like me frequently. I had to buy a special sensor that goes into the vaginal opening and measures how well your pelvic muscles tighten and relax. You lay on a comfortable table (like at the doctors) and flex and relax your pelvic muscles on command (basically doing kegels). Your muscle movements are tracked on a computer monitor which you can view afterwards. Then my PT worked on massaging the pelvic muscles both interior and exterior. My muscles were clearly very tight from guarding. Because sex was so painful, those muscles would tighten even thinking about it. I also learned about several different stretches that help my muscles relax. I went 2x a week for about 6 weeks and showed great success in my measured results with the sensor. I learned how to control my pelvic floor muscles and most importantly how to relax them to reduce pain. The only downfall was that I saw no difference in the pain I experienced during intercourse. I stopped going at the beginning of last summer but I plan to go again in two more weeks when I should be 95% recovered from surgery.