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Sometimes it seems as if the medical drama never ends. I have taken the next step on my four-year journey with overactive bladder. Suffice to say; I finally see as if I’m having some improvement.

For the past 17 years, I have suffered from what is called a sitting disability. Because of pain in my lower back and the sciatic nerve going down my left leg, it hurts for me to sit. I also suffer from fibromyalgia which brings pain to different areas of the body at different times.  In 2010, I had lumbar fusion surgery on the L5 – S1 vertebrae that caused more problems than it solved. Within a year, I started having overactive bladder and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Although I can’t prove it, I believe the surgery is the cause of these two things.

After trying many medications that didn’t work (with fun names like Rapaflo and Flomax), my urologist sent me to a urological specialist to give me Botox injections in the bladder. Celebrities use Botox to make themselves look beautiful, but those with overactive bladder use it to urinate less frequently. This treatment works for many people, but for me it backfired, causing bladder retention, and over two years’ worth of daily self-catheterization.

My latest urologist started me on two new treatments, both of which should have been offered to me before Botox. The first one is Percutaneous tibial nerve stimulations (PTNS). An acupuncture-like needle is inserted into the ankle and sends an electronic pulse, like a TENS unit. It stimulates the tibial nerve which regulates the pelvic floor and bladder. The treatments are 30 minutes long and are not painful. Next week, I will have my 12th treatment. After that, I start a once-a-month maintenance program. Usually, a patient sits in a chair with their foot elevated, but due to my sitting disability, I lie flat on the table.

The second treatment is pelvic floor physical therapy. As if a needle in my ankle to treat my bladder wasn’t weird enough, this physical therapy requires me to squeeze and relax the “bathroom” muscles to train them to relax. During the treatment, the therapist sticks her finger in my rectum (sorry for the TMI!) and has me squeeze. She measures my ability to squeeze and hold with those muscles, and how much the muscles relax when I let go.

My therapist explained to me that I am unconsciously tightening those muscles due to anxiety and have trained my brain to read any irritation of my bladder wall as an indication to go to the bathroom to void. I have been slowly coming around to the theory that all my medical problems stem from anxiety, although I don’t have proof. John Sarno’s theory of tension myoneural syndrome (TMS) works pretty much the same way.

I still self-catheterize once and a while, although less frequently. I am trying to teach myself to ride out the urge to go to the bathroom every single time I feel like it. Using a diary, I record my daily water intake and voiding. I have found that I am going less often. It’s nice to have a success to brag about, albeit a small one.