Lynn Schulte | Bladder and Coccyx Connection
Show Notes:
How do you figure out the cause of an issue when the client doesn’t recall anything that could be causing it?
As a pelvic health physical therapist, we have to play detective, we listen intently, we use our training to palpate the body for clues, and we let our hands guide us to figure out the true cause of the problem we are addressing.
In today’s episode, Lynn shares a case study of a 13 year old female who had been struggling with urinary incontinence for years. Listen in to hear the cause of her incontinence.
This young lady was leaking urine when she laughed, but she could not recall any falls or impacts to her pelvis or bladder that could be causing the issue.
Upon assessment, Lynn discovered that her sacrum was hard and her tailbone was pulled to the right. Upon palpation there was a strong connection between the tailbone and the bladder. Another connection was found with the mid-back as well.
As Lynn and her client continued to talk, the potential cause came to mind – this young client had launched out of a slide when she was little and landed on her buttocks. As a quick note, if you have a young client be sure to check the tailbone because kids fall and many times don’t remember it. It’s important to use all of your skills in your assessments, so you can get to the true cause of an issue to help it resolve.
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Love Dr. Rachael! She is such a gem in the Metro Detroit area. She was my pelvic floor PT during my first pregnancy and postpartum and inspired me to pursue pelvic health certification (coming from an Ortho PT clinic). I’m now working through Holistic Treatment of the Pregnant and Postpartum Body.
1) I too had a client 10+ years ago sent to me by an athletic trainer who thought that this 14 year-old had a fractured coccyx, with both pain and bladder issues. In taking her history, the young woman denied ever landing hard on her coccyx, and these symptoms had been challenged with An uptick in volleyball practices. And then her mom remembered to one of the questions I asked them, that instead of walking at 12 months, she was scooting on her rear end until 18 months of age before she decided to get up on her legs and start walking. And when I did do some internal work, indeed her coccyx was well flexed and pelvic floor tight more posterior and laterally. We were able to mobilize the sacro coccyx junction, unwind the sacrum with the coccyx, stretch and release the pelvic floor muscles and off she went back to full participation in volleyball! That was a satisfying deep dive into a client history to find the nugget that had been missing and pointed the way for sx resolution..
2) this was also a really lovely niggle for my manual therapy buddy who trades sessions with me. She worked the coccyx with intention towards the bladder, and that night and ever since, I have not gotten up once to pee in the middle of the night (and 0-1x nocturia was common) and bowel movements have also been easier and even more regular. A double win! This work is da bomb!
Love these Heather! Totally agree!!