The Trio Of Diaries: Bladder, Bowel + Food: How They Enable Us To Gain Insight Into the Roles, Habits + Routines of Our Clients

Diary #1Diary #2Bristol Stool ScaleGet my 9 page OTs Map to the World of Pelvic Health.Meet me on the OTs for Pelvic Health Facebook Group!Check Out More OT Pelvic Health Content here.Find me on IG! @functionalpelvis-- Transcript --So the good ol’ bowel, bladder and food diaries…. It’s a powerful trio!  And they are amazing for examining how our clients' habits may be contributing to their symptoms. This is so important because whoever takes the time to review things like this with them? It is so valuable for the big picture, combined with all the other tools we bring to the table. I love giving them the diaries to fill out before the first session and it's ideal for the diaries to span 3-5 days to get an accurate read of their habits, and I love it to span the weekday and weekend. I wanna see it all! When I talk with my clients about why I am asking them to fill it out, because it is a big ask, I share the following with them: A Diary Gives us A Good Snapshot Of What’s Happening With their BodyFor example, if they are leaking. Knowing how often they leak, when, and how much can help us create voiding habits that work with their body, as well as better assess what we need to address the leakage.  Do they Always have a problem at 10 in the morning?  Perhaps they need to examine what foods they are having for breakfast or how much time they are allowing yourself to use the toilet.   Keeping a diary will help illuminate these patterns so we can investigate the whys.Another example is if they are having FI, keeping a diary Helps us To Identify Triggers That May Be Causing them To Have it. By keeping a record, you can start to uncover trends that may be contributing to the issue. For instance, that cup of coffee first thing in the morning may be irritating their bowels more than they thought before, hinting that it’s time to rethink your java habit.Lastly, It Provides them With A Roadmap For A Discussion with us. Recording leaks and daily habits gives us a chance to outline everything they have been experiencing can really help detail the discussion. For many, when and how they eliminate is not something they really record and recall with incredible accuracy  --it’s really not the highlight of their day, right? So having this roadmap really makes these patterns black and white, which helps us create a customized tx plan for them. some of my faves are:https://www.niddk.nih.gov/-/media/Files/Weight-Management/Stool_Diary_508.pdfhttps://medicine.umich.edu/sites/default/files/content/downloads/Food%20Fiber%20Fluid%20and%20Bowel%20Diary%207%2015.pdf Which combines it most of it in one sheet!  It excludes urgency and medsWhat are we looking at with these diaries?·        Analyze water intake (total amount, do they spread out their drinking over the day or do they cluster drink/chug?) ·        Analyze caffeine intake (total amount)·        What is the ratio between these two fluids?&a____________________________________________________________________________________________Pelvic OTPs United - Lindsey's off-line interactive community for $39 a month! Inside Pelvic OTPs United you'll find:​Weekly group mentoring calls with Lindsey. She's doing this exclusively inside this community. These aren't your boring old Zoom calls where she is a talking head. We interact, we coach, we learn from each other.​Highly curated forums. The worst is when you post a question on FB just to have it drowned out with 10 other questions that follow it. So, she's got dedicated forums on different populations, different diagnosis, different topics (including business). Hop it, post your specific question, and get the expert advice you need.More info here. Lindsey would love support you in this quiet corner off social media!