I’m in Pelvic Floor PT, but I can’t fathom how any of this is going to make a dent for me.

I have an incredibly slow bowel system. If you’re on other motility subreddits, you’ve probably seen me post throughout my journey looking for advice and support.

I have mild to moderate gastroparesis, but severe abdominal distention and a very slow large bowel and colon.

As you can imagine, I’ve been throwing the kitchen sink at it for years with numerous medications supplied by my GI. None of the medications are particularly successful nor reliable, and to stave off what seems to be the inevitability of a colorectal surgical consult, my GI is sending me — once again — to Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy.

The thing is … I can relax on command. I can breathe deeply and through my diaphragm. My resting state — at least, to my knowledge — isn’t super tense. I don’t have pelvic pain unless I have ovarian cysts, which tend to rupture a couple times a year (due to polycystic ovaries, though luckily not full-blown PCOS).

I did yoga for years, and my problems were just as severe the entire time. Now, in physical therapy, I’m just doing the same yoga stretches, except this time, I’m being told to remember to relax my pelvic floor. Which I do. And it doesn’t matter. And I get up the next day, and my motility issues are still overwhelming.

When do you throw in the towel? When is time to consider more invasive options than physical therapy?