Unexpected Benefits

I wish to discuss a dark secret many women deal with: stress incontinence. Stress incontinence occurs when the abdomen is engaged, or we bounce, sneeze, fall, etc. It is the leaking of urine regardless of how strongly we try to hold our pee. For many women who have had children, stress incontinence gets even worse due to the stretching and damage childbearing and child birth can cause. It is such a wide spread issue that FB routinely advertises pee proof underwear.

Yesterday I had a bout of stomach distress. If it is possible to be allergic to lamb, I believe that I am there. I woke up from a restless sleep to begin my worship at the porcelain goddess, leaving my poor son to suffer cheerios for breakfast. I crawled back into bed to suffer through. I hate the stomach flu and it has been about a year since the last time I was sick. Several times through out the morning, I ended back up in the bathroom.

I final time I was dry retching into the bowl, feeling a rib pop out of place with the violence of my poor body trying to turn itself inside out, and frankly the only bright light in that moment was that I did not also have urine running down the inside of both thighs. That was the case a year ago.

What changed? I started doing dressage.

I credit dressage riding and my lessons for that. Better than keigel exercises. I may look pudgy but underneath is a layer of muscle that I use to engage my core. And engaging my core must have helped the muscles responsible for keeping fluids where they belong.