Linda Canedy – Urinary Incontinence Success Story

Linda Canedy raves about Methodist Mansfield’s nonsurgical alternative for treating incontinence

“I did a jumping jack, and everything was okay!”

Her story starts in summer 2012. A busy wife and mother, Canedy decided a little pampering was in order and planned a spa day at home.

“I had put lotion on my feet and slept with socks on,” Canedy says. “The next morning, when I stepped into the shower — boom!” Although bruised and sore from the fall, she brushed off the aches. But by a week later, the pain had escalated.

“A series of specialists ordered X-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans, and no one could find out what was wrong with me,” Canedy says. Over the next year, her misery increased as she developed acid reflux and incontinence.

“It seemed like my body was doing all these strange things,” she says. “And it was all happening at the same time, which led me to believe it was interconnected.”

The incontinence was especially frustrating, as it interfered with her family and social life.

“I didn’t want to go places,” Canedy says. “I shut myself out for fear of being embarrassed.”

Connecting the dots

'These are not words you’re likely to hear from women struggling with incontinence. So when Linda Canedy could finally say them, she was thrilled.

In fall 2013, Canedy saw Tracy Cannon-Smith, MD, urologist on the Methodist Mansfield Medical Center medical staff, who is fellowship-trained in female pelvic floor rehabilitation, a form of physical therapy for incontinence. She suggested that Canedy try it. NaKisha Jackson, PT, DPT, at Methodist Mansfield is one of only a few people in the Metroplex who specializes in this therapy.

“The hospital is so blessed to have someone like NaKisha,” Canedy explains. “She put together the picture of what was going on with my body. It felt so good to have somebody say, ‘Yes, this is all interconnected.’?”

When she fell, Canedy’s sacroiliac joint in her pelvis shifted, Jackson says. Months later, her body was so out of alignment that its silent scream was expressed in other symptoms, such as incontinence.

“The pelvic floor is the true core, and that muscle is designed to contract and stabilize the pelvis before you move any part of your body,” Jackson says. If unstable, it can cause issues with movement, incontinence, and intercourse.

Hope for women

In the early weeks of therapy, when Jackson would ask how things went during the week, Canedy would reply, “Well, I wet my pants 20 times.” But now, she’s bragging about doing jumping jacks.

She’ll tell you there’s life after putting lotion on your feet.

“We’re women,” she says. “We’ve had children. Our bodies have changed. And it’s hard to admit you’re getting older. But if pelvic floor therapy is going to make me feel 43 instead of 53 and feel like I can do the things I want to do, then that’s a great alternative.”

From the summer 2014 edition of Shine magazine.