SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — October is Physical Therapy month, which has Sanford telling more people about how useful the practice can be.
While many people go to physical therapy because of an injury or accident, that’s not the case for Karen Davison.
“I’ve had an issue with incontinence for two years. At first, it was the, you know, older lady pee when you sneeze or when you laugh, and then it got worse–much, much worse,” in physical therapy, Karen Davison said.
She’s been working with Sherry Miller, a Sanford Physical Therapist.
“Over the last few years, that pelvic health awareness has really become something more people are talking about, which has been huge. So, whether or not people have urinary incontinence, urinary urgency, pelvic pain, postpartum pain, C-section recovery, there’s so many things that can kind of be addressed with it,” Sanford Physical Therapist, Sherry Miller said.
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During her sessions, Miller has Davison doing different exercises to help her strengthen her pelvic muscles.
“What we do is look at kind of the whole body, or other issues such as hip back, lower extremity issues that could cause anxiety or stress or tension as well. And then what we do is kind of treat the body as a whole, and then we treat it as a muscle. So could your muscle be tight? Absolutely. And we are going to try to relax it. Could it be weak? We try to strengthen it,” Miller said.
For Davison, it’s been life changing.
“I couldn’t walk from here to there without leaking. The embarrassment and the humiliation is gone,” Davison said.
And after learning it for herself, she hopes other people also give physical therapy a shot.
“Why have surgery or do medication when physical therapy is there? If physical therapy works, if you encounter somebody like Sherry, she treated the whole issue without embarrassing me. It was, Okay, let’s get this done so that you can heal and get on with your life. And and she truly has given me my life back,” Davison said.
Davison has graduated from her physical therapy. According to Miller, one in four women will have pelvic floor issues in their life.
