Reclaiming Your Body From Endo Pain

The pain you feel isn’t always where the problem starts—and that’s especially true with endometriosis. We sit down with Dr. Taylor Reyes, a board-certified functional manual therapist and pelvic floor specialist, to illuminate the messy middle: the hip and pelvic floor patterns that mimic orthopedic injuries, the sensory overload that keeps your system on high alert, and the simple daily practices that help you finally exhale. If you’ve ever wondered, is this endo or something else, this conversation offers a grounded way to sort the noise.

We start by reframing endometriosis through a neuroimmune lens. Instead of reducing it to “period pain,” we connect delayed diagnosis to changes in breathing, core support, and muscle tone that wire chronic discomfort into your routine. Dr. Reyes shares three-dimensional diaphragmatic breathing that truly expands the ribcage, engages the vagus nerve, and supports the lymphatic system. You’ll learn why 4-7-8 breathing, brief pre-appointment quiet, and decibel-reducing earplugs aren’t wellness gimmicks—they’re nervous system levers that make every other therapy work better.

From there, we dig into one of the most overlooked symptoms: hip pain. Many endo patients present like classic impingement or hamstring issues, improve briefly with standard exercises, and then flare cyclically. Tracking symptoms across your cycle changes the diagnostic map and protects you from the churn of partial fixes. We also explore uterosacral ligament disease, the limits of rushed insurance visits, and why the phrase “no surgery is better than a bad surgery” matters. Quality prehab, a skilled excision surgeon when appropriate, and a plan that fits your life are non-negotiables.

You’ll leave with practical tools: pelvic wands and dilators used safely at home, breath-led core support, lymphatic massage, affordable vibration plates, and free vagus nerve practices like humming and cold sips. We keep it real about consistency—habits heal more than gadgets—and insist on patient autonomy throughout. Press play to learn how to calm your system, decode hidden pain generators, and rebuild trust in your body one small win at a time. If this helped, subscribe, share with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to support the show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Mission: Beyond Period Pain
• 2:01 Meet Dr. Taylor Reyes And Her Approach
• 3:10 Delayed Diagnosis And Nervous System Fallout
• 6:40 Pain Triage And Everyday Regulation
• 11:55 Sensory Overload, Vagus Nerve, And Balance
• 19:15 Lymphatic Drainage, Vibration Plates, Accessibility
• 24:40 Rethinking Endo: Neuroimmune Lens
• 28:55 Staging, Severity, And Quality Of Life
• 33:20 Hip Pain: The Overlooked Endo Signal
• 40:05 Systems Limits And Finding The Right Care
• 45:05 Prehab, PT First, And Practical Tools
• 50:20 Diaphragmatic Breathing That Actually Works
• 56:20 Pelvic Wands, Dilators, And At‑Home Care

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

What happens when you put a pelvic floor physical therapist and a podcast host both absolutely obsessed with bridging the gaps in endometriosis care behind the same mic? You get a conversation that finally makes sense of the messy middle, the parts of chronic pain that aren't always endo, the sneaky musculoskeletal pain generators no one's talking about, and the practical, doable tools that help you reclaim your body piece by piece. We're diving into why the delay of diagnosis creates long-lasting challenges in the musculoskeletal system and what you can practically do about it. It's validating, it's energizing, and honestly, it's kind of the conversation that makes you feel like someone finally turned the light on. And joining me for this powerful, joy-filled deep dive is the incredible Dr. Taylor Reyes, doctor of physical therapy, board-certified functional manual therapist, chronic pain educator, and someone who brings both expertise and genuine heart into every word she shares. If you've been trying to connect the dots in your own endo journey, or if you've ever wondered, is this pain endo or is something else really going on? Or if you just love hearing two passionate humans absolutely nerd out about healing, you're in the right place. You're gonna want to stick around. Welcome to Indobattery, where I share my journey with endometriosis and chronic illness while learning and growing along the way. This podcast is not a substitute for medical advice, but a supportive space to provide community and valuable information so you never have to face this journey alone. We embrace a range of perspectives that may not always align with our own, believing that open dialogue helps us grow and gain new tools. Join me as I share stories of strength, resilience, and hope. From personal experiences to expert insights. I'm your host, Alana, and this is Indobattery. Charging our lives when Indometriosis trains us. Welcome back to Indobattery. Grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea and join me at the table. Today I am thrilled to be joined by Dr. Taylor Reyes, a powerhouse physical therapist whose work beautifully blends science, compassion, and true whole body healing. Dr. Reyes is a licensed physical therapist, doctor of physical therapy, and a board-certified functional manual therapist. She's known for treating patients from all walks of life and for her passion in helping those with chronic pain shift their mindset, rebuild their trust in their bodies, and reclaim an empowered healing journey. Her approach is rooted in what she calls the pillars of healing, exercise, nutrition, and sleep. Her training is extensive and continually evolving from gynecological visceral manipulation to advanced obstetrics and pelvic floor physical therapy, and board certification in functional manual therapy, a system that honors the intricate interconnectedness of every tissue and system in the body. With national and international experience and deep commitment to patient-centered care, Dr. Reyes brings heart and expertise to every conversation. So grab that cup of coffee, settle in as we continue with our part two in our two-part series with Dr. Taylor Reyes. And just in case, here is where we left off and where we're going.

SPEAKER_00: 3:21

As a physical therapist, I my rule of thumb, because I I'm perfectly capable of hurting myself or getting tweaked, um, or getting a crick in my neck or whatever. And so I'll if I say I wake up with a pain, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna breathe and I'm gonna say, I'm in pain, but I'm not in danger. And that's that's a little bit of cognitive behavioral therapy tips, right? Sometimes when we're we're really retraining a pain pattern, we'll say out loud, seven times I'm in pain, but I'm not in danger. I'm in pain, but I'm not in danger. I'm in pain. Not try to gaslight yourself, but just to like ground yourself, right? Right. So because we're not in danger. Right. My facet joint is being stupid. That's what's happening, you know, or it's like a part of my vertebrae is being weird. So there is no danger. So I'll pause, like, okay, this is what it is, and then I'll get up and I'll move. I'll do therapeutic movement and find just do some movement that's in a there's a difference between sharp, sharp shooting pain and like dull achy pain. Right. Or like, hey, that's a stretch. So find a pain-free or an acute pain-free or a acute pain-free range of motion and just kind of like, like, nope, that's not good. But if I do this, I'm okay. And if I breathe while I do that, and maybe I can add some arm motion in, like, hey, like, either in a few hours it's gonna go away because some inflammation probably built up, and I probably need some time for that inflammation to get out of my system. And so after about three to five days, if I'm still really like struggling with it, then I might ask one of my coworkers to be like, hey, like, can you can you like hook me up? Like either throw a dry needle in there or like give me a little pop or something, you know, just something to disrupt the nervous system, right? So that so that the movements are more effective, or I'll pop into one of my Ciro friends and just be like, Help Yeah, I tweak myself. And then you just go about, you know, you just kind of go about your day because we we all are gonna encounter things. And then the kicker, the other thing that is just like awesome about the delayed diagnosis is that typically you're in your like late 20s, early 30s, and then guess what's around the corner? Perimenopause. Yep. So it's like, is this endo or is this perimenopause? Like, I don't know, or am I just being a human? And so just and so I think it's like having I don't, I'm not gonna call it the ability because really it comes with repetitions in life of experiencing pain, is you just kind of have to be able to step back and just what is the most important question? I am not in medical danger. My life is not in danger. I am not about to have a heart attack, I am not having a stroke, I am not hemorrhaging. Yeah. So what what's the what's the next tier? What's the next level of triage when it comes to pain? And then, you know, what what's in my toolbox? What what has my therapist taught me? When I go to lift my leg, do I need to forcefully exhale as I lift to kind of counter counterbalance that pressure? Right. Because a lot of my patients, whether they're indo, low back, ankle, shoulder, oh, when I moved, it hurt. Okay, let's let's do that again. But before you do, I want you to forcefully exhale through your mouth and then start to move. And that creates that pressure system. We're not that we're not holding our breath, but we're just supporting, we're engaging our core to help support our physical body. And then so again, it's like number of reps. You get because it's like we're gonna have moments of pain. Right. So how do we manage it? Or like, oh, I'm driving down the toll way and I've been clinching my jaw and my butt all the whole the like for the last 20 minutes because people are psychopaths when they're driving. Do I before I jump my radio is on like a thousand percent volume, and I'm sipping on my iced coffee before I get out of the car? Do I need to pause, turn the ignition off, turn the radio off, put my coffee aside, and do some deep diaphragmatic breathing to bring ourselves back down to baseline or to neutral. And I and this is where I'm gonna say, like, yes, before I had my excision surgery and a lot of other people that I work with are the same way, sensory sensitivity or noise and light sensitivity, it's huge, right? So for me, I know I'm having a good day when I can listen to the music on blast.

SPEAKER_01: 7:30

I don't think music.

SPEAKER_00: 7:33

I hate music, but like maybe one one day a month I like music. Otherwise, I'm just like, it is it's like overload opening and closing a drawer of spoons, and it's like makes me scratchy. So I just don't, I'm like, okay, podcast on low, but make me happy, or just don't listen to music, or just don't listen to anything and reflect. So, like, and this is not just me, this is again like clinical experience. I see this with my patients too, but like sitting under a fluorescent light for an hour, no way, that was never never, never gonna happen. But then you take that high volume of inflammation out, and your nervous system isn't like WT WFT, bro. Like, what's going on? We can we can act, we actually have a chance of grounding. We actually have a chance of bringing, getting our parasympathetic nervous system. So if uh listener's not familiar with it, you have your autonomic nervous system, which is kind of like you have your fight, fight, faint freeze, and then your rest and digest. So sympathetic nervous system is more of the, hey, I'm getting chased by a bear or I'm driving down the tollway. We need to have this certain level of elevation to be able to perform the task. And then we have parasympathetic, which is like, oh, it's time to chew our food and relax and digest, and it's time to go to sleep, or it's time to calm and bring it down. Um, so we can have better social, social interactions or not look like a psychopath when we're talking to somebody. So, but we need a balance. Sympathetic's not bad. Sympathetic isn't necessarily perfectly good, but where do we create that balance? If you're always living in the sympathetic because your nervous system is like, what the heck's going on? Because we have our, especially our vagus nerve, we have this neural feedback from our pelvic organs saying, there's something going on. There's these lesions that are like giving me heck, but you're sitting reading a book, those two things aren't connecting. So it's like when you're living your life, how do we balance your parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system with or without pathology? Right. Because any overstimulated mom is gonna identify with this, whether or not they have pathology, right? Especially like 6 p.m. when you're cooking dinner. I think one of the best tools I recommend to my patients are these little earbuds. They're not, they're not wireless earbuds, or they are wireless, but they're not Bluetooth. Right. They're called loop, and they're just to reduce the decibels. You can so you can still hear, but the decibel level is a lot lower. So it's like, I need that in my car for my kids. Yes, that's that's something I wore all the time before I had my surgery. And I like I gave in my sister, I give in my patients, and they're like, oh my gosh, it makes so much of a difference. And I'm like, I know it's amazing because our nervous system is very our nervous system keeps us alive. Our nervous system is like our biggest advocate, but sometimes it just doesn't speak our language. So, how do we try to get a translator? And I tell my patients one of our biggest translators or one of our biggest ways to connect is through diaphragmatic breathing, like intentional breathing, intentional, like bringing ourselves down. Because, you know, diaphragm breathing is a core connection exercise. You can do it if you just had a C-section. I'm not telling any, this is not medical advice, but I'm just saying like it is so because you have to breathe, right? If you're breathing, you can do it. But we also know it through evidence that this is a direct way to stimulate the vagus nerve, right? Which the vagus nerve feeds into parasympathetic tone, bringing bringing yourself back down. We also know that diaphragmatic breathing stimulates your lymphatic system, which is like your detoxification system. So I hate that I forgot this word, but it's basically like if you had an angiogram and you threw up the vascular system and you're you're watching it light up with blood flow, there's there's a test that's exact same for your lymphatic system. I'll have to look it up. I cannot remember it off the top of my head. It's it's not second nature to say it. But there's been studies done where they're looking at the lymphatic system lifetime and they have people's diaphragm breathe and it lights up. And vibration plate.

SPEAKER_01: 11:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 11:19

Vibration plate. So it's vibration plates aren't just a fad. It is for lymphatic therapy. Vibration plates are very therapeutic, very therapeutic. And this is a pure anecdote. This is something I was telling you earlier that manual lymphatic trainage has really helped the symptoms that were making me want to pursue a hysterectomy.

SPEAKER_01: 11:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:39

And so it's like, well, I would love to keep my uterus if I can, because I also love that it provides mechanical support to my ovaries. And if I can avoid going into ovarian failure sooner rather than later, that would be great, you know. But um, but also I would prefer a stronger quality of life. And then when I started doing the lymphatic drainage regularly, that's the other thing. There's a lot of therapies because when the pathology is present, you can't a lot of times you can't just do a therapy once or twice. You have to make it a part of your routine. Because again, going back to that, what can what can we do to manage it naturally? You're gonna be managing it naturally your whole life. Or if if you're if you're one of the lucky ones where menopause actually reduces your symptoms, if you know, who knows? Some do, some don't. Pregnancy helps some people, some don't. Or maybe it only helps some symptoms, but people don't realize a lot of the other symptoms they're having are actually endometriosis. So just throwing it out there. What what are the things that you're doing to long-term manage your symptoms? For me, manual lymphatic drainage has been very therapeutic. For other people, it's not as yeah, yeah, it's the best. I love it. I think the I'm like, how are we just like really pushing lymph therapy in the conventional world when it is an entire system that detoxifies? Like, where has this been?

SPEAKER_01: 12:57

Huge role in everything. Like, I did a whole episode with Dr. Gabby Moad about the lymphatic pathways for inel. Yeah. So if you haven't listened to that, listen to that. And then I also did one with the vagal nerve and neuropalveology specifically with Professor Mark Possover talking about this very thing because they're so interconnected. Like the way that it affects you from head to toe, and because it's one vein, I mean, it is the largest one going through that body. It is your message system for your entire body. It's like the trunk of the tree branching out, right? When it comes to those nerves and and how it talks to what one part of the body to the brain, you know? And so I like we should be talking a lot more about ways that we can reduce inflammation and pain through these pathways. Because I can tell you, like, so many people have recurring surgeries. If you're seeing a doctor five, six times for surgery, you need to find a new doctor. I'm sorry. I said what I said. We say it again. I I understand maybe once or twice, but if you're seeing five or six times, like and I've seen this on forums where someone's like, yeah, they're like recommending their doctor. They've done all six or seven of my surgeries, and I'm like, that's not a doctor I want to go to. Like that, I'm sorry, that's not how it works. And so, like, why aren't we talking more about ways to manage some of these pain generators and manage our inflammation in a way that's tangible and accessible for everyone? A vibration plate really isn't that expensive. I think they're like a hundred bucks on the low end, maybe.

SPEAKER_00: 14:33

Yeah. On the low end, but there's companies that you can use HS if you have HSA, you can use HSA to buy it. So it's one of those things like what, lattes are like eight dollars a latte now? So let's just like make some at home for a hot second and then you'll get your vibration plate, you know. And I don't mean to be uncompassionate when I say that, but it's like this is not like we this is not for the faint of heart. We have to make sacrifices.

SPEAKER_01: 15:00

And coffee is my love language, so and I have given up a lot of like going out and drinking coffees and things like that because it didn't make me feel any better, although it is like an emotional support drink for me. It's not you know, but yeah, but those are the things like lymphatic massage is like I love it so much and I feel instantly better getting and I pee so much better, like because that's the point of it, right? To have someone really good to do that. Those are really good, tangible ways. And something that you said earlier about like just sitting in low light, low noise. And one of the things that Sean Whitney had talked about, he was at the Indo Village gathering where he talked about just we're talking about going into an appointment that I was super, super anxious about. Because anytime you go in to see a new provider, I don't know anyone that's been like in this professional patient zone that doesn't get anxious going into a new provider. Like it's so overwhelming, and especially if you have any neurodivergent at all, like it's so hard, so hard to like walk in, right? He said it is scientifically proven that if you spend 15 minutes before your appointment taking deep breaths, being quiet, being still, you're able to walk in much more regulated. Then on the other side of that, and this works for both therapy, doctor's appointments, whatever, and I think it this could probably work, probably works for physical therapy as well, but like spin 15 minutes after, decompress, take some breath, go take a bath, go, you know, get a really good glass of water and just be for a second. And that's something that like for me, sitting down as a patient, being like, I just can just sit, is really, really hard, and especially as a mom to find the time to do that. But also, like, that's why I don't listen to music in my car because I'm overstimulated as it is. And so sometimes I will intentionally plan 15 minutes before any appointment to just breathe, like just be in a space. And I think that we aren't good at this in our society in general because we constantly have things coming at us, whether it's through our phones, that little magic black box that we have that we're constantly inundated with everything, or it's the intrusive thoughts that come to us because of all of the trauma and doubts and the things that we see. It's really hard to sit in silence without that taking control. But if you start breathing and focusing on one really good, valuable thing, I I have noticed just myself, you just feel like your heartbeat is slowing down. You're taking a breath. And I think that you are more in tune with your body that way. You're more in tune with what pains are actually happening. You're able to identify things a lot better because your mind is a lot clearer. And I talk about, and I've talked about this before, but like we as chronic illness patients, it we have a buffet of life, right? We have a smaller plate than your normal buffet plate. We can only take on so much. So we have like a six-inch plate compared to the 12-inch buffet plate. If we try to fit everything on the buffet on our six-inch plate, it's gonna be overwhelmed. It's gonna lose its, you know, the essence of what we're going for. So just knowing how to say no sometimes, or knowing how to put specific things that are gonna add quality to your life on that plate and being okay with just those things is better, but hard because we want to taste everything, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 18:38

But we just control it all. Like the I like that better than like the spoons analogy.

SPEAKER_01: 18:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:43

Because sometimes spoons can get a little convoluted. Yeah. It makes and that's like what I do. I try to practice what I preach, and I don't only see so many patients a day, and I put 15-minute buffers in between because I recognized early on that that like patient-to-patient pace made me kind of like and then also I felt like I was starting the appointment with the patient elevated. And a lot of what we do, and especially with chronic pain, your patient is operating off of your own energy. So I'm like, for my sake and for the quality of my care, I'm not gonna see patients back to back. And I'm only gonna see so many patients a week. And it's really or just like even TikTok, right? Like, even if it's not a physical energy expenditure, like with your emotional stress and health, TikTok might be taking up 90% of your plate, and it's it's junk food. So you're putting trash on your plate when you really need to be getting nutrients. So, what are the things that you could be doing to support it instead? Or the modifications, right? Like one cup a day of coffee for me, I can live like that. Three cups, that's when I start getting into trouble, you know. So, like, how do we still enjoy the things? Because a lot of endometriosis patients, there are a lot of foods that they cannot eat. So it's like, or they don't tolerate rather. So, and it's like we won't even get into orthorexia. But you know, it's like almost like another three hour conversation. So it's like, how do you find that balance of what works for you? So kind of going back to that, the three pillars of natural management in endometriosis are downregulating, our pelvic floor therapy, and our anti-inflammatory lifestyle. A lot of times the downregulation, I mean, it really does feed into the physical body of pelvic floor therapy. And then it also anti-inflammatory lifestyle feeds into the downregulating. So it's more of like a Venn diagram, right, where they overlap versus like just one, two, three separate entities. They all feed into one another with the patients who really, really complex, really, you know, we have all the things going on. And I bring up, we kind of we finally have the conversation, whether it's in the first visit or third visit, because when you drop a endometriosis potential on someone's plate, like that's a lot to process. And so if someone comes in like real hot, never heard of endometriosis, I might, I'm probably not going to talk about it with them the first visit, because we have to honor where they are in their physical body and their nervous system. Not that we're withholding information, but there's other things we can work on first and then where there's still therapeutic value to not bringing it up, and then when it's right, we bring it up. Right. So when sometimes we'll have patients that come in and they're like, eh, like, I'm not convinced. And I'm like, that's okay. I'm not trying to convince you of anything. And I also do try to operate off of the lens of like, what else could it be other than endometriosis? What is it if it is? What if it is as if it's not? Because they don't try to operate from bias. But when there are times where it's like pretty clear that this is what they're dealing with, and if they have only learned of endometriosis, like it has been engraved into their brain that endometriosis is a reproductive condition. And I I say to them, I'm like, okay, if I were to tell you, if we were to look at this through the neuroimmunological lens, would that change the way that you perceive your symptoms and what's driving them? And then it's like this shift, like, oh yeah. And it's like, yeah, because like what we were saying earlier, it's more neuroimmunologically driven. Yeah, yeah, there's there are people who they all they have is painful, period. That those people exist or all, I shouldn't say all, but their main thing is infertility. No other symptoms. Okay, but that's not the majority, right? That's not the majority. So if we look at it through a different lens, can our brains perceive it differently?

SPEAKER_02: 22:22

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 22:22

And they're not insignificant symptoms. I think that's something that, you know, the saying comparison kills, it's so true, even in chronic illness. Just because you don't think that yours is significant compared to this other person's doesn't mean that it's not significant to you. Like it doesn't mean that it's not a driver of the pain that you're experiencing, whether big or small. I mean, you hear excision specialists all the time talking about this. Like, it doesn't matter the size of the lesion, it can cause significant pain. So I really truly believe like you shouldn't compare your pain to someone else's, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 22:58

Absolutely. I I've had I've had multiple patients come in who they did not, they did, they had zero pain. And again, like, and I I kind of jokingly say, like, well, did they not have pain or they just didn't recognize the pain? But self-reported, they did not have any pain. So they didn't have symptoms, but they found out that their AMH was low.

SPEAKER_02: 23:17

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 23:17

And maybe they also had low ferritin. And this is this was the patient of a very skilled excision surgeon and reproductive specialist, based on what they see, because it's not an N of one, it's an N of thousands. They it's like, hey, your goal is to be able to have a child one day, based on what I'm seeing. And from a physical exam, when there's stage four, category four, however we want to refer to it, you know, there's what we call like frozen pelvis. And you can feel like if you're skilled with your hands, you can feel like it, your abdomen just feels like one block and it doesn't, it it's not soft and supple, it doesn't like to move. And so she also had what they called frozen pelvis, like that was from the physical perspective. And then on her pelvic exam, they the surgeon, it wasn't painful to her, but the surgeon found trigger points, like increased tone. So anyway, they had she had surgery and and this this one specific patient that I'm thinking of, and it was it was stage four. She ended up staying in the hospital for a week.

SPEAKER_03: 24:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 24:14

Just because of how severe things were, and then she also had a bleeding condition that they had found out through doing all this testing. And so it's one of those things, like, yeah, she had probably one of the most severe cases that I've worked with, aside from like needing a a bowel resection or you know, like it's cost me losing organs, you know, or parts of organs. So just kind of going to say, like, it doesn't staging category, really, as far as quality of life, means nothing. It it's it's helpful to identify. And I think a lot of times people really I will say with patients, like they will really feel like, what? It was only stage one, like after surgery, they really feel almost defeated by it not being more severe. And I have to tell them, I'm like, it it has nothing. It has nothing to do with nothing. Like it really is your perceived pain. It um it depends on where the lesion is. Like it can, there's so many things that can influence somebody's quality of life and what they're experiencing. And it doesn't mean they're weak, it's just again, there's so much we still don't know. Yeah. And until there's like funding for unbiased research, yep. So somebody famous with a lot of resources gonna have to get invested in this.

SPEAKER_01: 25:25

Well, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 25:26

Like it I mean, more people aside, you know, from how do we become friends with those people? I don't know. I try to jump in their DMs, but you know, um we could tag teams.

SPEAKER_01: 25:35

I mean, blow them up. I'm like, yo, Wendy, Robert, help. You know, and something that's interesting. So I'm gonna go back to this is rewinding a little bit. So going back to those that you were talking about hip pain and not period pain, you know, because a lot of people think endometriosis is period pain. I have to tell you, I think hip pain is one of the most missed symptoms of endometriosis. Do you find that like within physical therapy, seeing this over and over again, you're familiar with it. But I don't think a lot of other physical therapists are familiar with the fact that hip pain is a main generator of endometriosis. Like, can you touch on that just a little bit? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 26:18

Yes, 100% of everything you're saying. And I think probably because impingement, hip impingement is a very common issue that we see in pelvic floor therapy. Even if someone comes in with a little back pain, they're gonna have some degree of hip impingement. Not always, but a lot of times. So the pain patterns that we see with someone who has hip pain, and I'm not necessarily talking about radiate radiating pain during your period hip pain. I am just talking about like what we're referring to, just kind of the generalized um hip pain, um, it it looks almost just like hip impingement. So it's super easy to miss. It's super, super easy to miss. Because it's not necessarily like if we were to screen um a hip condition, like a torn labrum, like it's a very specific pain patterns, and there's very specific motions that tend to get limited. Uh hip impingement is a little arbitrary, honestly. Like it could be, is it your hip flexor that's tight, like tight? Like, what's going on? Is it your the the head of the femur isn't gliding in the socket? Like, what's going on here? So, and it's really easy. It's so easy to say, like, oh, you have a tight, a tight illusoas. Let me give you an active release for at home, or let me give you a strengthening exercise. And guess what? A lot of times those exercises will improve the symptoms, the hip pain that you feel associated with endometriosis, because we are still dealing with mechanical mechanical tissue. So it's like, oh, well, that ileosoas exercise helped you. Cool. Oh, well, you didn't, oh, that pain came back. Were you sitting a lot? Like, did you sit all, or did you like lift something funny? Oh, it was probably that. Let's just get back to your exercises. And so that's where you have to really go back to that drawing board where we like, okay, get your different colored sharpies out or dry erase markers and be like, wait a second, wait a second. I only feel this hip impingement on day 14, 15, 16, 17 of my cycle or during my period. Because it doesn't, uh, when I tell people to track their pain cyclically, it doesn't mean just on their period.

SPEAKER_01: 28:25

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 28:25

It could be any phase of the cycle. Typically, you know, not normally like ovulation plus is gonna be where we start to see things ramp up, but it could be at any time. So and it sucks because it doesn't have to be cyclical. It doesn't have to, but those are one of the things that we look for. Or, you know, it's like if it were truly like a hip impingement or say it's a labral tear, there should be specific activities that really light it up. I will I will say one of my patients, the only time she would feel pain is when she was doing like a single leg deadlift. And she so she she had this pain that was that a lot of people were calling hamstring teninopathy, but it had been going on for years and she'd done therapy for it, and it's like this should have gotten better.

SPEAKER_02: 29:14

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 29:15

So again, going back to that, like how many years have you had this going on? It should have gotten better. And then we looked, okay, is this a neural tension issue? Like, do we need to treat more like the nerve gliding and the disc? Okay, that didn't work, but you only feel it with this specific motion, and then it tends sometimes it tends to get a little worse after ovulation. Okay, that's when we look at like somebody like Dr. Possover, look through look at it through the neuropalveology lens, and be like, all right, this isn't teninopathy, this isn't a sciatic nerve entrapment issue. This is like, right, are we looking at endometriosis here? So this is where it really matters. And this is this is, and I'll just make a little caveat to why non-insurance-based therapy is important. Or I'm not saying it's you just gotta find a really good therapist, and it's hard for those therapists to thrive in an in-network setting because you have to see a patient every 15 minutes. You have to see 20 plus patients a day, and that is hard. I'm human. I would, if you saw me, if you were my last patient on a Friday, I'm sorry. I hope your case was easy. You know what I mean? It's like, it's really hard. And like I care about the progress of my patients. So if it meant staying late, if it meant like, you know, whatever, like you do what you need to do, but like your practitioner is a human. And so if they're confined to a small box and they have a bajillion other patients, yes, your issues are significant, but they can't always give the attention it needs and the problem solving. So when you have recurring symptoms like maybe a hip hip impingement or what looks like hip impingement, yeah, this exercise should help. Oh, you get you gave it a try for four weeks and it's still not helping. Oh, well, let's try this instead. Oh, well, you're 70% improved. Well, insurance is only going to pay for 70% improvements. Patient met their goals, they're 70% improved. Bye. Yeah, it's it's a really hard. And so when you're working with one patient and you're talking to Mr. Smith across the gym because he's doing his bridges completely and correctly, you know, like what are you supposed to do? So it's it's hard. It's hard. It's the whole healthcare talking to the choir. Everybody that's listening, probably talking to the choir. It's just it's trying to fit a peg in a round, square peg in a round hole. Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 31:29

And I think too, like, a lot of people don't think, especially because they don't teach this in GY like OBGYNs are not taught about uteryl sacral ligament endometriosis, like, and it is found there so frequently, which can cause a lot of pain in your legs, in your hips, like all of those things. And I would say that's probably more prevalent than finding it on the uterus or ovaries, which is why this is not a reproductive disease and it shouldn't be looked at like that. And so that's, you know, for me, I have had back, leg, hip, whatever pain my entire life. And no one, no one picked up on that until my excision excision surgery. I mind you, I've had two ablation surgeries prior to that, and there was ablation done on other organs, but no one looked at that. And that's why having a skilled surgeon that does just endometriosis matters. Like it is worth having those people in your corner to do that. If that is a path you choose and that you can, it is important to do that, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00: 32:36

Oh, absolutely. I would agree. It's like we we have to serve the person that's in front of them. So if surgery is an option, and again, like I'm not the first to say this, and I won't be the last. No surgery is better than a bad surgery.

SPEAKER_01: 32:48

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00: 32:49

So if if I had a patient, and again, I can't, you know, you gotta be careful with the red tape and like how you say things, but you know, there's just there are two surgeons in Dallas that I would trust with a family member. Uh-huh. And there's others that I feel extremely differently about. And so it's a really hard line to toe when someone is considering surgery with the not preferred surgeon. And so, you know, being able to have a transparent conversation with them about what does this mean, what does it look like, and also saying things in a way that's not gonna get you in trouble. That that's tough. But okay, it's like if you can't have surgery with this person that's really excellent, but is out of network, and this other surgeon has like a nine-month wait list because they are in network, what are we gonna do? Like, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna manage your symptoms? And that's where my specialty obviously is not pharmaceuticals, but I think that's where you you kind of have to have the dialogue with a doctor about okay, what what do we look like? What does it look like to have to play with some hormones? I'm not I'm not even gonna try to touch on that subject because that's not that's operating off I have opinions, but it's operating outside of my scope of practice. So right, right.

SPEAKER_01: 33:56

Well, and I I think that's true. Like we all have to figure out ways to manage our symptoms if surgery is not an option. And I don't think everyone is a good candidate for surgery right away. I think doing physical therapy first is key, honestly, to understanding your symptoms better and understanding your body and what you're living in without as much dysfunction. Like if you can work through some of the dysfunction have and and wait to have surgery, I think you are better off that way. Yeah. And I never had that option. And I and I can tell you it was a really hard road and still is a very hard road for me. And so I really recommend people doing that. For you, are there tangible tools and ways that people can help alleviate some of these symptoms that we've talked about? Because endometriosis is one piece, but there's so many other pain generators that I'm wondering if, like, are there good tangible ways that you have found for a majority of your patients that they can use?

SPEAKER_00: 34:55

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So symptoms vary. What I will say, and again, I know there's gonna be some people that listen to this and it's gonna make them really annoyed because for in their story, it's not true. You know what I mean? Everybody's story is different. But if we're just kind of going like off of our top three things, every single one of my patients is gonna get diaphragmatic breathing. Every single because of, we know that it stimulates the nervous, it engages parasympathetic nervous system, vagus nerve directly, and because the lymphatic the impact on the lymphatic system. So, but what I do try to really what makes a difference because belly breathing and diaphragmatic breathing are not the same thing. Right. So people think I'm doing yoga, I'm trying to calm my body down. I do belly breathing, I do diaphragm breathing all the time. It's like you're actually doing belly breathing. It's not wrong, but it's not the same thing. And what I will say, especially for my EDS people, is a lot of times it's because the body likes to find the path of least resistance. My my EDS patients, their bellies just balloon up when we start doing diaphragm breathing. So if someone's not familiar with diaphragm breathing, I like to use the term three-dimensional breathing. A lot of good pelvic core therapists will do this. You put your hands, like if you think Lego hands, you put your fingers in the front of your ribcage and your thumbs in the back. So you're holding on to the sides of your ribcage. So fingers in the front, thumbs in the back. And then you take a breath in through your nose. And when you do that, you want your hands to expand. You want your fingers and your thumbs to get further away from each other. So you want to feel movement in the front of the ribcage, the sides in the back. You don't want to use your neck a lot for anybody watching when you breathe in. Sometimes you'll see that like scalene, platismus, activation. We want to bring the air down. So you want to breathe down into the lower rib cage. And so most people, especially who are really overactive, not the EDS can't be overactive, but a lot of people are overactive, they tend to breathe in in the neck. EDS people tend to breathe down into like the lower abdomen pubic bone area. So we want to find that middle. So as far as dosing goes, you know, I like I'll tell people either to just set a timer for three minutes. So they're not really, they're not concentrating on reps, they're just focusing on time. And when the alarm goes off, they can stop. There's also uh four, seven, eight breathing that is really nice because we know that a breath hold. So four, seven, eight breathing as you breathe in through the nose for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of seven, exhale through the mouth for a count of eight. That is it's a good way to control your breath. So we're getting the diaphragm breathing on the inhale. With the breath hold, we're increasing our nasal nitric oxide, which can help with vasodilation and is again good for pelvic floor issues in general. And then with the forced exhale, we're really expelling a lot of that CO2, more controlled. So we're focused, it's intentional and it's controlled. Or there's the box breathing, which I feel like a lot of people are familiar with. So we'll do some form of diaphragmatic breathing. And then, especially if someone is trying to operate their care at home. I really love pelvic wands to work on lengthening and reducing trigger points in the pelvic floor because that muscle tension can be a pain generator and it can also feed into constipation and it can feed into bladder dysfunction and a bad mortgage. I mean, I'm just kidding. But like pelvic floor therapy, like pelvic floor tension is like the bane of our existence. So it also keeps us in business, unfortunately. So I like a pelvic wand. What I will say, if if when you're inserting a pelvic wand, if if because you need to use lubricant with it, if it increases if your pain, if it's like, okay, there's a difference between like, oh, this is weird and awkward and like I don't love this, versus like owie, owie, owie, this is sharp and it hurts. If that's more than like above a two on a like uh one to ten scale of pain, we might you might not be a candidate for a wand. Or you may need to like try again at a different time, or you may need to use dilators because a lot of times with endometriosis, we're looking at what we would call superficial and deep dysprunia. So superficial dysprunia would be like a superficial pain with penetration during intercourse, and then there's deep dyspronia, which is like, hey, my guts are getting stabbed anytime I have a penetrative intercourse. That's actually a big sign. If someone comes in and they say, like, oh yeah, when I have sex, it feels like my guts are getting stabbed. I'm like, and normally those are my words, not theirs, because you know that's not something people they just say it hurts. I'm like, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. So that's a huge flag to me that they that they could have adenomyosis and endometriosis. But, you know, we have to differentiate, okay, are you having penetrative pain only with sex, or is it anything like vaginismous? So insidious pain with penetration with tampon speculum partner, whatever. So if a wand, which the the tip is not super large, if that's painful, then I would pivot to doing a dilator set to work on letting your body become accustomed to having some penetration, but also it's just like just stretching the muscles, like any other place of the body. I tell people that pelvic fourth, when we do internal work, it's just orthopedics in a warm, cozy cave. Like, It's just it's not taboo. It's not weird. It's just, it is what it is. It's muscles just like your hamstrings or your biceps. So we can use the dilators to help let your body become accustomed to a little bit of stretch, which can help relax the muscles to allow you to do the pelvic wand. I will say across the board, this isn't the case for everybody. Across the board, people with endometriosis don't typically have a t a problem tolerating the penetration of a wand.

SPEAKER_01: 40:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 40:27

So now if you do have like you'll if you have vaginismus, you'll know like early on, as soon as either you try to use a tampon or you go to the OB or you have intercourse for the first time. Or if you use a a uh a vibrator or something, a toy, you'll know. So it's like it's just getting into the weeds and teasing out what's what.

SPEAKER_01: 40:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 40:48

So using pelvic floor tools and even on our, so I have my Dr. Taylor Rea's Instagram and we have our fire physical therapy Instagram. Both we have instrument basic instructions on how to use that kind of stuff. And like uh Intimate Rose is a site my go-to because they're just great. Amanda Olsen, she's a uh physical therapist, she developed the products. Um, they're really user-friendly, great ergonomics. They have information on their website as well. They have a lot of really good free information. So we like to use the tools because some sometimes people don't want to put their hands in their body. If you don't want to spend money on a tool, you can absolutely wash your hands and use your thumb even for just some basic internal stretching. You could get on your hands and knees, you could prop one foot up on the toilet and just kind of get your thumb up in there and just start stretching down towards the ground. Typically, with wands or with our hands, we don't really need to be pushing up towards the bladder. Typically, we're pushing down. Like if you think of a clock face and you think of like uh your clitoris as like uh 12 o'clock and anus as six o'clock, you're typically staying between three and nine o'clock in that bottom half of the clock face when you're doing any type of muscle work at home, whether it's with your hands or a tool. And so I think it's just getting comfortable, being open to it. I do have patients that want to stick nothing up their body at all ever. And that's when it's like, okay, we just really gotta do a lot of hip mobility and a lot of diaphragm breathing. Internal rotation, external rotation, yeah, squat sumo squats are the best. Now, what if you have a knee or hip issue? Okay, well, we can find modifications for that.

SPEAKER_01: 42:21

Right, right. I think breathing, even, you know, Dr. Mark Possover talked about that very thing. Breathing makes such a big difference. Your body needs that oxygen flow, you know, just that that chamber to keep that sympathetic system better regulated. And the other thing I, you know, he talks a lot about this too. You can't, it's really hard for someone to down-regulate their sympathetic system. You have to upregulate the parasympathetic system. So you have to upregulate that rest and digest because the fight or flight is a stubborn little beast that it it's nearly impossible to snap yourself out of that. You know, like you have to, it's it's practicing those things that will allow you that rest and digest, which will bring down that sympathetic system. Um, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00: 43:10

There's a this was just one of my experiences, and yes, everything, everything to what you just said, yes, 100%. Uh, but there after when I had my surgery, most of mine, it was a lot of places, but I had a lot of bladder and ureter. And so one of the symptoms that really ramped up for me before surgery was urgency. Like I I was going to pee all the time. All the time. And I will, this is where I want to say there's a lot of pelvic chlor therapists that know nothing about endometriosis. That's no shade to them. They just don't. It's just a different specialty, just like traditional OB guys don't know what endometriosis is, actually. So, all that to say, if you go to a pelvic floor therapist and your urgency isn't getting better, probably not it's not just overactive bladder or whatever, however they're treating you. So the that symptom for me got better, like 60% better, um-ish, like plus or minus, depending on the day after surgery. And then shortly after that, I started using this little haptic feedback tool called the Apollo Neuro. And this isn't, this isn't necessarily a plug for that company, but just for for tool wearable tools that you can use to stimulate your nervous system or parasympathetic nervous system. And it was a little bracelet that would it just needs to touch your bone and vi it vibrates at a frequency that's supposed to bring, kind of help bring you down. And when I started wearing that, after a couple weeks, I realized my urgency was like 90% improved.

SPEAKER_01: 44:32

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 44:33

Yeah. And so, and that's where we kind of get back to teasing through okay, what is mechanical tension because of either overactive muscles or pathology, or what is your nervous system being like, where's the freaking bear? And why, like, is it still here? I don't know. So it it significantly improved. And then I eventually didn't need to wear it anymore. So it's in a closet somewhere. I don't know where. It's expensive. So I wish I knew where it was, but um, but you know, it was a really great temporary tool for me. And they make there's other devices like uh Sensate and Pulsetto. Like you could just type in like Vegas Nerve Stimulator, and it's gonna, and there's stuff you could probably find something on Amazon that's like 20 bucks. Right. It really doesn't, it doesn't have to be fancy. Um humming is another thing too.

SPEAKER_01: 45:19

Music or humming, like a deep hum will stimulate that as well. And you can do that for free on your own.

SPEAKER_00: 45:26

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I teach there's this workshop I teach about how to manage your vagus nerve at home for free. Yeah. And it's like when we're accessing like the the whatever cranial nerve feeds into nerve. Like I said, my brain is a little sloppy today. So when we're basically accessing the ear component, like you said, listening to pleasing music, listening to an audio book, listening to certain frequencies. Was it like the 457 hertz, something like that? And then the humming. So that accesses the nasopharynx branch. So open mouth or closed mouth humming, gurgling, then we we can get down into the cervical branches and we can do gentle stroking to the sides of the neck, not the front. If it's beating, get off of it. So stay to the sides, you know. So you want to do that, and then you can come down and do some diaphragm breathing. Sipping on cold liquids can help stimulate the vagus nerve. So there's like there's like you said, there's so many things you can do to help access it. And one time is not enough. So people, patients, everybody, not just patients, be like, Well, I tried it and didn't it work. Well, how many times? Like, you have it, it's free. Like it's free. This isn't gonna if it was, if it worked perfectly 100% of the time, everybody would be doing it. And you know, we wouldn't need all of this other stuff. So you have to give it time. You have to start teaching your body, like, oh, this is what we're trying to do. You have to retrain like people get this with hair styling. You know, if you're trying to, if you like curls in your hair, you kind of have to train your hair to curl, right? Right?

SPEAKER_01: 46:53

Like yourself how to curl.

SPEAKER_00: 46:55

Yeah, you have to teach yourself how to curl your hair, and then your hair will eventually start to hold curls more, or vice versa, if you have curls and you're straightening it. It but it takes time, and it's like you wake up one day and it's like, oh, my hair looks great, or whatever. It's the same thing with your nervous system. Like you have to put the reps in and you have to put consistency in. The uh uh red light devices, red light stuff is huge right now. Red light is there's a lot of strong science behind it in general, for especially for acute healing or uh surgical healing, acute joint issues. But the thing is I have patients, should I buy this? I'm like, I don't know. Can you be compliant five days a week for 10 to 20 minutes at a time? Because if you can't, it's a waste of money. Like, it's like antioxidants, right? Like you are being hit with oxidative stress all the time, every day. So for an antioxidant to be effective, which it is, you have to consume it regularly. So it's the same thing with red light, it's the same thing training your nervous system. If you want your strength to maintain, you have to exercise your body. If you want that your pelvic muscles to learn to live in a relaxed state or an efficient state, you have to put effort into it. Yeah. And I think I don't know, I think we were talking about this. We're we're kind of in this uh culture of comfort and borderline entitlement to results. And it's like you get the results when you put the work in.

SPEAKER_01: 48:14

Yeah, 100%. I wish that weren't the case, but it just is. We we are instant gratification people, like just culture-wise. This is a broad statement, but like we we thrive in instant gratification. We Google instantly, we expect the answers instantly. We don't have dial-up anymore, right? So it's like it's so different. Like those the the 90s, 80s, and 90s babies, they get it, you know, like the dial-up and the you know, we don't have that. We are instant gratification. We get our news instantly. We get and there's so many things that can be good about that, but there's so many things that aren't great about that, right? So I think just like everything, it's consistency, it's it's habit, it's something that you implement, it's a lifestyle change. That's true with our eating, that's true with the way that we sleep. That's you know, all of these are lifestyle habits that we have to form, otherwise, it's just an you know, a fad diet of sorts. Exactly. Exactly. Question for you though, we were talking about breathing when we're talking about diaphragm uh diaphragmatic breathing for EDS patients. I've used the balloon method before with where you inhale same same count with a balloon to help me feel that tension in my diaphragm as opposed to belly breathing. Have you experienced that or do you use that at all?

SPEAKER_00: 49:37

That's EDS patients. Balloon therapy can be, absolutely can be. There is sometimes it just doesn't connect, and we just have to like just dig deep, like, okay, what cues can we use to help the person connect? But yeah, balloons, balloons are a great diaphragm tool. There's a style of therapy, Postural Restoration Institute, PRI, and they're they're big into the balloons. Um, and it can be some really great stuff, especially for EDS patients. It can get we don't do a lot of it in our clinic. We don't have anybody tr like really specialized in PRI, and it can get when you go deep into it, it can get a little convoluted and it can make it hard. Like some like you're the patient almost has to become the expert, also. Yeah. Yeah. And it's so so with compliance, it can get a little bit hard, but compliance across the board is hard anyway. So it's just like I try to go for low-hanging fruit that involves as little steps as possible. Because we get a lot of moms, yeah, and it's like, oh, you have 17 exercises you want me to do that involve getting down on the floor with equipment, that's gonna work. Like, no, it's not it's really none of us. So, you know, it's yeah, it's just but that's when we look. And that's and I will also say to the patients out there, when you're working with your therapist, if they give you a plan and it doesn't work for you, you're allowed to say that. Like, right. You're allowed to say, like, hey, like, I'm being honest here. I'm I don't see myself doing this. It is our job to figure out, hey, why? Like, what is it? Is it too hard? Is it too boring? Is it accessibility? Like, do you not have the time? It is our job to modify it to where it does meet your needs or meet meet your time constraints or whatever the limiting factor is. I get, I feel just uh sad for people when they say, like, oh yeah, I went to PT once and then I just stopped because it was just too much work. I'm like, oh, like you should have said something. Yeah. Because I like seriously, and that's a conversation I have in our evals. I'm like, okay, that there is no wrong answer here, but what is realistic in a how many minutes a day, how many days a week is realistic that you can devote? You're allowed to say 30 seconds twice twice a week. Like that is an acceptable answer. There's only so much we can do within those 30 seconds twice a week. Well, we'll or do I give you exercises that you do while you're sitting at your desk that don't require focus? You know what I mean? It's our job to get so I think people think that just because the the PT says X, Y, and Z, that that means that's the only option. No, there's always an opportunity to dialogue. And if your therapist is like, eh, I don't love that, then that's then just go find somebody else. Like it's your time, your money. Nobody cares about your body as much as you do.

SPEAKER_01: 52:11

Yeah. That patient autonomy is like huge. I was I was looking at Instagram the other day, and there were these doctors, they like interviewed them and it was at a fertility conference, and they said, What do you wish you your parents or your patients would know? And they're like, Stop trying to overdiagnose, like, let me treat you. And I'm like, No, it it's a team effort here. Yeah, and I just was like appalled by that because I felt like you're taking away some of their power by telling them this. The pay they have to live in their body, you don't. They have to live with these decisions, you don't. And so I think exactly what you're saying is like be vocal to your providers and stand up, you know. And it's hard, especially, you know, a lot of us that are it doesn't come natural to us to stand up and say, this isn't really gonna work for me, or I don't like that approach, or I don't like taking opioids for pain. I don't want to do that, you know. It's okay to stand up for yourself in doing that. So a hundred percent. Like, I really think advocating patient autonomy is very important across the world.

SPEAKER_00: 53:14

It's also it's also okay to just sit and listen, say thank you very much and never go back. Yeah. Because some people get really like intimidated by the concept of conflict or the potential of conflict. And it's like you can actually avoid it. You just don't go back. Yeah, you just don't, you know, you just unsubscribe, like, you know, just block the number. I even had a a a physician appointment a couple weeks ago and I was not seeking their advice, but they decided to give me their I just it was a really frustrating conversation. And especially somebody who's in healthcare, I didn't think I was gonna be in a position where I was like, I wasn't even asking to be gaslit, and I was, and it was really frustrating. And at one point I just I just stopped the conversation and I said, Thank you for having this dialogue with me. I don't agree, but I I also don't need your answer. And I kind of finished up care with what we had going on, and I am transferring the next time I need services from a provider like this, I'm driving the four hours to Houston to see a different provider because that's how important it is.

SPEAKER_02: 54:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 54:12

Because I'm like, I'm done talking to these people who refuse to leave pride at the door. Right. You know, it's like this is it's my time, it's my money, it's my journey. And but even getting to a place, and I'm a practitioner, even getting to the place to have the confidence to say, like, no, thank you, it's hard. So you don't like patients don't owe anybody anything. If they, if something rubbed them the wrong way, they don't agree, they feel a certain way, they're allowed to just say bye. Yep, and never look back. That's so true.

SPEAKER_01: 54:41

Oh my goodness. Like, I feel like we could talk for hours and hours and hours and hours because there's so many things that we, I'm sure we could solve the world problems by just sitting down. If everyone would listen, right? But just sitting down with you, gaining your knowledge, gaining just the way that you look at care and the expertise that you have is just so refreshing for someone like me. You know, this is why I love doing what I do, is because I get to learn alongside of everyone else and get to meet amazing people like you. And it just is such a breath of fresh air to sit down with you. And if you want, if people want to learn more from you, where can they find you on any platform?

SPEAKER_00: 55:22

Yes, so on Instagram, it's primarily Instagram. My handle is Dr. Taylor Reyes, just D-R-T-A-Y-L-O-R-R-E-Y-E-S. And we also have our clinic page. It's Instagram at fire, physical therapy, f-i-r-e, and then physical therapy. I will say that my my personal page is kind of that more silly educational content, like we're talking about all the silly weird stuff, or I might get a little salty and spicy. And then you also will get a little mix of like orthopedic, low back pain, core, TMJ. Um, because that's a whole other subject.

SPEAKER_03: 55:54

That's a whole specific potential. That's a whole other subject. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 55:57

And then our fire page is we, you know, it's a little more professional, a little more refined. So, but we have a lot of information on both pages. I'm not really on TikTok. I might be actually, but I don't, I'm not active on it. It's a lot of work.

unknown: 56:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 56:11

It's a lot of work. I'm too old for TikTok.

SPEAKER_01: 56:13

So same. I'm not on TikTok either. But your content is amazing. If you don't follow Taylor, I recommend you do it because you will learn so much in a way that isn't aggressive or oversensationalized, but simple, direct, and full of like really good tangible tools, which I appreciate that. So thank you for making it simple for this little brain of mine.

SPEAKER_00: 56:37

Thank you. I I will say our clinic website is firephysicaltherapy.com. And we do have uh, I've been on other podcasts and we do a lot of endometriosis, some TMJ stuff. And so if and then we have philosophy and things like that on our clinic page too.

SPEAKER_01: 56:52

Yeah. And it's, I mean, if I lived closer, I'd be there in heartbeat. It's just, you know, this distance thing. I know it's it's it's it's a factor. I think it's a factor. It's really a bummer. Thank you so much for taking the time to sit with me. And I just really loved this conversation. I I love this fruitful nature and the relational nature of just sitting down with people at the table and being real. So I appreciate you just being real and honest and authentic and taking the time to do that with me. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, same, all of the above, same. Until next time, everyone, continue advocating for you and for others.