Hello and welcome to my blog!
My name is Ocherie (pronounced "oh share ee") and I am a licensed physical therapist in Nevada specializing in pelvic health and lymphedema. I've been practicing for a few years now and loving almost every moment of it. I knew I wanted to become a physical therapist after getting discharged from the Navy, and I kind of knew what setting I wanted to work in. At first, I wanted to go into sports, then I started leaning towards inpatient/acute. I didn't even know this setting existed until midway through my doctoral program. But once I learned about it, I couldn't get enough and wanted to learn more.
It's been amazing helping my patients, especially when they weren't aware they could seek out help for their pelvic issues. It's why I wanted to start this blog and help spread pelvic health awareness to everyone that I can.
What is pelvic health?
It used to be called women's health years ago, with the name getting changed to pelvic health in 2019 to better represent the whole entity of services that pelvic physical therapy provided to everyone.
The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has several chapters and sections/academies under its umbrella. One of these is called the Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy. It was originally called Section on Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1977 and was founded by Elizabeth Noble. The name was changed in 1995 to Section on Women's Health. The name was changed once more to its current title in 2019, reflecting that our population is not only women, but men as well.
A physical therapist who treats for pelvic health doesn't have to be a member of the academy in order to practice pelvic health. There are also physical therapists who have WCS after their name which denotes they are board certified in this specialty. Just like it's stated above regarding academy membership, one doesn't need to be board certified in order to practice pelvic health.
While I am not board certified (though I want to be one day!), I am a member of the Academy of Pelvic Health.
What falls under pelvic health?
When my patients ask me this question, I cheekily reply with "Everything," because it feels that way a lot of times! I treat patients with:
urinary incontinence: stress, urge, mixed
fecal incontinence/diarrhea
constipation
pelvic pain
pelvic organ prolapse: cystocele, rectocele
dyspareunia (painful intercourse)
pregnancy and postpartum
diastasis recti
lymphedema
cancer rehab
And so much more.
While the pelvis and the pelvic floor muscles are within my treatment realm, they are not the only thing I look at. I like to tell my patients, "Unfortunately, everything is connected," because everything is. The root of a patient's issue can originate from elsewhere in the body, including the brain in terms of bad behaviors and habits that we didn't realize we gave ourselves. A lot of times I feel like a detective searching for clues to solve the mystery. What can make it challenging is that something that works for one patient may not work for another - depending on a patient's history, receptiveness to education, support system or lack thereof, level of activity, and so much more. Physical therapy is as much of an art as it is a science because everyone is different. There is no one size fits all treatment.
You don't know what you don't know, so I hope my blog helps to shed light on a subject I love. If there are any topics you would like me to cover within pelvic health, please let me know!
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