By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington Introduction Megan (mid-50 year old cisgender female) started seeing me in September 2021. She had a history of bowel dysfunction since giving birth to her daughter in the late 1990’s. She described her symptoms as a pattern of alternating constipation and diarrhea, associated with bloating, hemorrhoids and abdominal discomfort. She thought for a …
You’re Invited to a Live Virtual Event! Sue’s Pelvic Pain Success Story & Going the Distance for her Cause!
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington Here at PHRC we love to celebrate our patients’ success and we are inviting you to join us for a special success story and fundraising event. We shared a little on IG Live last week, in case you missed it, you can view the video on our Instagram. Register for the full event …
Success Story Jamie: Pushing Back Against Postpartum Prolapse
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington Many women do not realize how common pelvic floor dysfunction is after giving birth. We often hear patients who think it is normal to leak urine or to be unable to exercise after having children. Postpartum pain is common, but not normal, and pelvic floor physical therapy including pelvic floor muscle contraction exercises is …
How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Helps Bowel Dysfunction
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington Did You Know…. Surveys have estimated that over four million people in the United States have frequent constipation. This is the most common digestive complaint in the United States and corresponds to a prevalence of about two percent. More Americans suffer from constipation than die from heart disease every year. The impact …
Fiber: What is it and Why is it important?
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington What is fiber and why is it important to a pelvic floor physical therapist? The American Physical Therapy Association has stated that diet and nutrition are key components of many conditions managed by physical therapists. Nutrition can directly affect recovery and function while an individual is under a physical therapist’s care. Thus, PTs …
A bike accident caused vulvar pain. Ally recovered, check out her Success Story!
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington Ally is a lovely 64 year old woman that I’ve been working with at PHRC Lexington since April 2019. During the course of her treatment, she read my previous success story and told me how it inspired her and that she believed she would find the same success some day. I’m so happy …
Behind the Mask: Perspective in the time of COVID
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington We are all getting used to a new idea of normal since COVID-19 became more prevalent. Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a few things that I wanted to share. We are doing our parts at PHRC to stay safe and protect ourselves and each other by wearing masks. Below I share some …
Urination Nation: How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Eliminates Urinary Incontinence
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington We often see patients who report urinary incontinence as a symptom of their pelvic floor dysfunction. Incontinence is defined as the lack of voluntary control over one’s urination or defecation. Sometimes this is not the reason they seek treatment, but rather a secondary finding. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard something …
“Can-do” Attitude: Self Efficacy and Graded Exposure at IPPS 2019
By Kim Buonomo, PT, DPT, PHRC Lexington Here at PHRC we often write our blogs weeks in advance. Kim wrote this post shortly after #IPPS2019 in October. Little did we know when she wrote it how relevant it could be for the current times here in 2020. Back in October we did not see this pandemic coming and we hope …
Pain Free After Thirty-Five Years: Christina’s Success Story
By: Kimberly Buonomo, PT, DPT, PHRC Lexington Christina is a 75 year old patient I had the pleasure of seeing last summer. She came to me with a 30+ year history of pain which started as back pain during pregnancy. By the time she got to PHRC, her pain had spread to her pelvic floor, groin, adductors, low back, piriformis …
Gotta Go: Anatomy and Physiology of the Poop Chute
By: Kim Buonomo, PT, DPT, PHRC Lexington Everyone’s had that moment…You don’t have to go to the bathroom AT ALL and then suddenly you’re running to the toilet like there’s no tomorrow. How do things change so quickly? I’m going to teach you about the Rectoanal Inhibitory Reflex (RAIR) and what that means for fecal urgency and incontinence. In order …
Center for Disease Control Opioid Guidelines: notes from #IPPS2018
By: Kim Buonomo, PT, DPT, PHRC Lexington At the International Pelvic Pain Society’s annual meeting I had the great opportunity to listen to two presenters discuss the role of medications in managing pelvic pain. In this blog, I’ll be talking about Dr. Stephen Ziegler PhD, JD from Purdue University’s lecture regarding the opioid epidemic and ways that we can …
Don’t hold your breath! What you do when you poo
By: Kim Buonomo, DPT, Lexington Don’t hold your breath! What do you do when you poo? It sounds like something from Dr. Seuss. It’s a strange question, and some of our patients don’t know how to answer it. Next time you have a bowel movement, try to think about the specifics. How are your feet positioned? Are they flat on …
Fistula: The other F Word
Image by: erpete By: Kim Buonomo When I was asked to write a blog article, I wasn’t sure what topic I should write about. I read a lot of our previous articles for inspiration and realized a couple things: 1) The women who work here really know their stuff about the pelvic floor; and 2) No one has written an …