Marina, a twenty-six year old married woman, fell down the stairs one morning. After a few days the low back pain she was experiencing from the fall resolved. A few weeks later, she tried to sit in a chair and missed the surface, hitting her tailbone hard on the floor. Several weeks passed and the pain did not resolve. Marina and her husband took an 8-hour car ride to visit family and at the end of the trip she could barely tolerate sitting because of the tailbone pain, she noticed wearing pants caused genital pain and she was waking up 3-4 times a night to go to the bathroom. Her physician referred her to an orthopedic physical therapist that prescribed her stretching and strengthening exercises.
Marina tried to do the exercises compliantly. Instead of helping her symptoms, the exercises created more pain in new areas. She began to experience right-sided vaginal and rectal burning. The pain worsened when she sat. She felt as if she had a grapefruit in the area between her right ‘sit bone’ and her vagina. She had burning with urination and evacuating her bowels was becoming increasingly difficult. She saw numerous good-intentioned physicians who tried a myriad of reasonable treatments to no avail.
Similar to Abbie and Peter, Marina began searching the Internet for a source of her pain. She began to read about Pudendal Neuralgia and Pudendal Nerve Entrapment and realized her symptoms fit this picture. For a brief period she and her husband were relieved they solved the mystery of her pain. This relief was soon replaced with distress when they realized she was going to need very specialized medical care and they were going to have to leave their home and relocate to get it.
The couple was determined to regain their life. They rented their home and relocated to another state, seeking the attention of medical professionals specializing in pelvic pain.
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