Hi Cheryl,
I wanted to write and let you know about my biofeedback experience. It is not bad or painful, so please don’t worry J
My surgeon prescribed 6 weeks of physical therapy with biofeedback before we went ahead with surgery. Some people choose to try it after surgery too – depending on what their lingering issues may be. I had a great physical therapist who had had a lot of success in helping people with motility and muscle tone issues. When they hook you up to the biofeedback machine, it’s kind of like an EKG – just a couple of electrodes (I had one on each side of my butt, and then she switched and put them inside my butt cheeks, but never internally or anything like that) and they are able to read your resting muscle tone to see if you are tight in the rectal area. Some people can have “white coat” syndrome just like any other doctor visit…where they appear stressed or have high blood pressure, but only when the physician is present. So if you feel stressed, you might want to ask if they will leave you alone to relax for a few minutes. My resting tone was pretty good, and as she guided me through relaxation techniques, it was even better. She also made me sit on the table and mimic the pushing/contracting of having a BM while I was hooked up. This tests what the muscles do when you’re trying to go. Some people tighten up and don’t even realize – in which case they could have a muscular problem instead of a motility problem. Does that make sense? Anyway, all of my tones were fine – she did it each time I saw her, and I was always in a normal range. I of course didn’t think I had a muscular problem, but had to do this for the surgeon and I’m sire for malpractice, etc. I had already had 2 sitz marker tests and failed them miserably with all the markers still inside me both times. Not sure if you have had physical therapy…I did find that to be somewhat painful – the physical therapist would massage my stomach and make tiny circles in different paths to try to stimulate the colon motility. I also had to do this every morning and other times during the day on my own, in addition to exercises for my PC muscles. When she would massage me and get close to my belly button and below, it was painful. I had a lot of lower left quad pain before surgery…for whatever reason. After a few weeks of therapy, she said that she did not want to see me anymore because she was not helping me and she did not want to see that she was hurting me…and it was a waste of time for both of us. She called my surgeon and gave him all the results from biofeedback and therapy, and that was the last piece of the ticket to earn a place on the surgery schedule….
Sorry to carry on – in a nutshell, biofeedback is not painful, maybe just a little less than glorious due to where they put the electrodes on your butt….ha. They will probably have you contract like you are holding in a bowel movement and then push out and compare the numbers. She also used to make me do this several times quickly to see how long it took for me to dramatically change the numbers on the machine…to see if the muscles were expanding and contracting correctly and within a normal amount of time.
Please let me know if you have other questions. I wish you all the best with it and everything else. Did you also have physical therapy or will you have it with the biofeedback? Just curious…
Take good care,
Avery