Healing Through Cooling: How the ShePak Is Transforming Pelvic Pain, Inflammation, and Recovery

Healing can come in many forms, and today, Lynn’s guest shares a simple tool that can change pelvic healing – bringing relief, comfort, and empowerment to countless women.

In today’s episode of the Birth Healing Summit Podcast, Lynn talks with Pam Cole, PT, CWS, a wound care specialist and founder of ShePak, to uncover what pelvic health practitioners can learn from the science of wound healing.

Drawing on nearly three decades of experience, Pam shares how principles of inflammation management, lymphatic support, and gentle cooling can enhance recovery for clients experiencing postpartum discomfort, vulvar pain, or post-surgical inflammation.

Episode Highlights ✨

• The direct parallels between wound healing principles and pelvic floor recovery
• How cold therapy and compression can reduce pain and accelerate tissue healing
• The vital role of lymphatic flow in resolving inflammation and restoring balance
• Practical ways to integrate cooling and inflammation-reduction strategies, like ShePak, into client care
• Real-world case examples showing how small interventions can make a big impact

Learn how simple, evidence-based interventions can support comfort, confidence, and faster healing for your clients.

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

About The Speaker: 

Pam Cole, PT, CWS, is an international educator and founder of ShePak and Femicor. Her work bridges the science of wound care with pelvic health innovation to improve healing outcomes for women worldwide.

Pam graduated from Boston University with a degree in Physical Therapy in 1996. She is a founding member of and has worked at the Methodist Hospital Wound Clinic in St. Louis Park, MN for 29 years. She developed and instructed full semester wound care courses at UMN and St. Scholastica for 18 years and 5 years respectively. Pam is a national wound care speaker and educator.

She has also gone on 6 medical mission trips to Niger, Africa and Haiti. Out of her own need, she invented ShePak, a pelvic floor cooling device, and is the President of Femicorp. 

Learn more at: www.femicorp.com/shepak, www.facebook.com/femicorp

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

Transcript

Podcast Interview with Pam Cole - November 06

@0:14 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

All right. Hello everybody. Welcome to this episode. And today I am just delighted to introduce you to a colleague of mine.

This is Pam Cole. She is a physical therapist for over, or physical therapist and wound specialist for over 29 years.

@0:33 - cole_

She is an educator, a international speaker, and she is the founder of SHEPAC and the president of Femicor. Welcome to the podcast, Pam.

Thanks for being here. you so much for having me, Lynn. I'm super excited to be here.

@0:48 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

I love this Pam, because I don't know if you know, but I am not a big, um, what's the right term, a gadget person.

Mm. Mm. In my practice. Okay. So I like my hands are my magic and, and that's what I rely on the most.

And so I've had a ton of people reach out to me over the years saying, please help me promote this, help me promote that.

And, and I just don't, I don't get involved in any of that kind of stuff. Yeah. When you and I talked and I heard your story and I heard what you've developed, I was like, wow, this is something that I really want my community to know more about, because I think what you have done is, is incredible.

@1:33 - cole_

So why don't you tell everybody your story and where you, where you came from and where you're at today?

Oh yeah. I am so glad to be here. So, um, I am from Philadelphia. I went to school in Boston and then I ended up in the Midwest.

And as I got my first job here in Minneapolis, um, you know, I just started out really being drawn to ortho.

@2:01 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

I think a lot of us. A lot of us.

@2:04 - cole_

I know I did.

@2:07 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

I'm going to be a sports medicine PT and look where we're at.

@2:11 - cole_

Especially as an athlete, I played lacrosse and got injured and I got curious. so then it led me to, yeah, so a lot of us did.

And in this hospital where the clinic, you could rotate through the different departments and we had the clinic part.

And the clinic part, if there were Whirlpool orders or debridement orders, they'd come down and everyone else would be grossed out.

And I'm like, Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, I want to do it, you know?

@2:38 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So. Okay, Pam, that was me as well. I worked in a nursing home and we had a lot of, and I started a womb program in the nursing home.

@2:47 - cole_

I loved working with wounds.

@2:50 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So you and I have that in common.

@2:51 - cole_

Yeah. So it's an actually quick sidebars. As we've trained new clinicians in our hospital to do wound care. We, we tell them like,

We will cross over to our side or to the dark side and love our gooeyes and, you know, like getting off a good hunk of escars, like super satisfying groups, but satisfying, and then they, yes, they caught the sickness.

@3:12 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So we are a special group, aren't we?

@3:16 - cole_

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, so, so then as these orders would come down, I would want to do them.

And then I kind of like within about a year working there. I had a vascular surgeon, he trained at Mayo, and he said, let's start a wound clinic for vascular wounds.

And I said, how about for all wounds? And he said, deal. So in March of 98, we opened up the Methodist Hospital Wound Clinic.

So I was the founding clinician, and it has grown now to be six or seven therapists on any given day treating inpatients and outpatients.

And we have over 200 visits per week, distinct visits per week. And we serve. And On average, anywhere around 25 inpatients per day.

@4:04 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So it has grown. Yeah, it's been fun.

@4:08 - cole_

And so somewhere along the way, I got invited to develop the DPT curriculum for integument. So I got to, that was super fun, was to develop that course.

I taught it for 18 years at the U of M and five years for St. Scholastica up in Duluth.

And at some point, I just handed it off to some of my co-workers who had a fresh set of eyes, and I think that was appropriate.

You know, at some point, it's like, let's have someone else take a look at this. And then I've done, I've gone to Haiti and to Niger, Africa to do wound care with the students.

Yeah, so it's like not just getting to do wound care with all the everything that I could ever want in, you know, in clinic.

But getting to make a difference with the same basics in a different country that's under-resourced and still. And still see better mood healing.

So I'm getting to practice my French. Whoa.

@5:07 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You said something there. They got better results in these third world countries?

@5:13 - cole_

Yeah. Yeah. So tell me more. Okay. Yeah. You know, and here in the U.S., we just want to put fancy skin substitutes or fancy dressings and this, that and the other on, which is great.

However, so many clinics and maybe people who are trying to do their best but don't know any better are missing some of the basics.

And one of them as PTs that we really get into is compression. Like you can't heal wounds in the setting of swelling.

So we have to wrap them. And so we taught them, they get donated ACE wraps. They have things that are stretchy.

Like we can still find ways to apply compression without the fancy dressings. Like, okay, my spoon healing. Okay. Get that dead tissue off.

Okay. Let's compress. And boom. You don't. don't. We need the fancy bi-layered skin substitute, you know, so yes, you can make a difference.

@6:08 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Interesting.

@6:09 - cole_

That's so cool. My other little interesting comment was, I noticed that there were certain hospitals in Africa that did a better job treating their patients' wounds than some of our nursing homes here in the U.S.

@6:21 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Wow.

@6:22 - cole_

Doing the basics, like doing good basics. Yeah, so, and I feel like that is what physical therapists are really good at, is taking the time to be hands-on and educate.

And we educate our patients, we educate spouses, partners, and we educate real change or empowerment for the patient. And I think that's what we can do, or I have done in wound care anyway.

@6:51 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yeah, yeah, that is our gifts. Yeah. Yeah. I love that.

@6:57 - cole_

So, somewhere along the way... So I then had chronic yeast infections. I was the classic, like, more than four per year is the definition of chronic.

And that one in 25 women will experience a period of chronic yeast infections. And this was a while ago.

It was, you know, I'd had a round of antibiotics. It was hot. I was wearing pantyhose. I, you know, there's a number of things.

And so I had to start to learn, oh, my gosh, my isn't just doing its own thing being normal.

It's off kilter. And when one night I was going bananas, like burning, intense burning itch on fire. And I didn't want to go to the ER because I know they're not going to be able to help me.

I knew I needed to go get the over-the-counter medication in the morning, but I couldn't fall asleep. It was so bad.

And I was, I called the nurses line and they said, take a warm sits bath. And I thought as a PT, like, we don't

We don't add heat to inflammation or injury. We ice inflammation. So I embarrassingly rigged something that I could put up there that was cold, and it actually calmed me down, and I fell asleep.

And even before the medication, I'm not saying I had a cure, but my was much better. I could get to work.

And I was like, oh, okay. So I invented ShePak for my own need to calm down my inflamed tissues from a vaginal yeast infection.

And it did break the cycle. Yes, I got the medication, and yes, that helped me get better, but I, you know, and as I started asking women, like, did you run into this problem?

Do you have this issue? It turns out, I had women that were saying, oh, I could have used that when, after Johnny was born.

Yes. Like, you know, they could tell me, I bear, my experience is. And sharing this with women, especially when I was making, you know, test versions and doing focus groups, I had women cutting me off, telling me when they wish they had had one of these.

@9:12 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Wow.

@9:13 - cole_

Yeah. So postpartum for certain scenarios, I had postmenopausal women saying that they didn't have the same pain the next morning after intimacy.

And it just started getting me thinking. And then I, so yes, I invented ShePak. I followed, you know, getting a design patent and, and starting the company.

And I made it to a nurse practitioner and women's health meeting. And I had a booth and it, you know, this big picture of, of this thing behind me, you know.

And so I ended up with four rows of nurse practitioners deep, just like, what are you, what is this?

Tell us all about it. I, they, they, I got rid of every brochure, every website card, every sample. And the one unique thing was the nurse practitioner said, well, I bet this would be helpful for interstitial cystitis.

So there are, like, I didn't even know, because I didn't know pelvic floor PT as I marched into this.

@10:15 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

But then, you know, clinicians and women started telling me what they wanted it for, and here we are. Go ahead and hold it up again, Pam.

@10:23 - cole_

All right.

@10:23 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

For those of you that are listening to this on audio, please go to the YouTube channel, and you'll be able to see it.

Or you can click on the show notes and go to Pam's website, too, to see it. Go ahead and tell us about I'll try to talk my way through this, too.

@10:39 - cole_

So this is the box that folks will get. And, yes, I've had some male patients say, hey, I could really use that.

So I kind of did the slash, you know, she pack slash he pack. It's really pelvic floor ice pack.

So you open up the little clamshell box, and inside we have directions. If you get this gusseted pouch for discreetly placing it in the freezer, so to make a crinkly noise, here's the gusseted pouch, and then here's She-Pack.

@11:17 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So this is the vaginal portion, this is the labial portion or external portion, and it looks like it's only half full, but when we freeze it upside down, it does fill the whole volume, and then we have a little room for expansion.

@11:34 - cole_

So it's food grade, a little bit of food dye in with water and a titch of alcohol just so it doesn't expand too much, and you place it upside down into this gusseted pouch, and let's see, I don't have it, but it stands on its own.

@11:52 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Okay.

@11:53 - cole_

you can seal it, and that's just this nice discreet package in the freezer, so when your teenage kid goes...

@12:00 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

I in for the pizza bites or whatever, but no one else knows what that is, yeah. There you go.

@12:06 - cole_

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, so.

@12:09 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Creative.

@12:10 - cole_

What I love about this is you can reuse it, like reapply ice like you would an ankle injury or back pain.

So you give yourself a break and then you can, it can be freezing and then you can go back in and ice again.

So, um, it's my hope or my interest is that why isn't icing or cooling these tissues part of the paradigm for healing?

Maybe because we didn't have something before, right?

@12:39 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yeah.

@12:39 - cole_

Yeah. You're shaking your head.

@12:40 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Go ahead and interject there. Yeah. No, I, we weren't taught that.

@12:45 - cole_

I wasn't.

@12:46 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

I mean, but it makes sense if we bring our PTOT knowledge to the pelvic space and to the intravaginal space, yes, ice is very much a part of the healing process.

@13:00 - cole_

Yeah.

@13:00 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

helping to decrease inflammation.

@13:03 - cole_

Bingo. So, you know, we don't think of that area as being injured and then necessarily needing icing. As a wound specialist, and then I did, we can jump back into this, I started seeing patients who had vaginal wounds from surgery, from primarily cancer excisions.

A few episiotomies that weren't healing, you know, so they tried all this other stuff months and months and months, they end up in the wound clinic.

And so my brain started turning. Like, I understand the phases of wound healing. What chronically puts wounds back into inflammation, the state of inflammation.

And then I applied it to the . And even though the doesn't get quote unquote injured in some, you know, weekend warrior thing, although maybe it could, that it's getting out of inflammation.

It's chronic inflammation. In any tissue that is a problem for the functionality of that tissue, not just the ability to heal.

So we have perimenopausal, postmenopausal women, and the doesn't stretch the same way, and maybe it's drier, and it's getting microtraumas.

We have a lot of, you know, there are multiple strategies to help with that, but what about icing and looking at those microtraumas as injury and inflammation?

@14:32 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Well, I just want everyone to realize that there is more recent research coming out about the actual injuries that occur in childbirth, like sacral fractures and symphysis pubis swelling and, you know, like the, and the micro tears and everything.

So, yes, yes, yes, after, after anything that. is creating trauma. I'm curious, like, pudendoneuralgia comes to mind, and I'm wondering what ice on a nerve issue would be like for someone.

@15:14 - cole_

That is the gals. So on Facebook, I get messages from women, and I've had a few just private message me like, oh my gosh, my clitoridinia, vulvodinia, vestibulodinia, any nerve, and I'm glad you brought that up, is we look at tissue repair for mucosal lining, nerve, muscle, they all have different healing times, but, you know, we can progress those.

So if we take nerve tissue and inflamed nerves, yes, ice and cold therapy does apply here. And so the testimonials I've gotten is, like, the one lady, she's 48, and she for two years was not able to be intimate with her partner.

Because of her nerve pain. And she said this device gave her her life back and deepened her relationship with her partner.

So I was like, I need to stay in business, you know, like, oh, yeah. many, though you're on to something in that the most passionate messages I get from patients are nerve pain patients.

@16:26 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Wow. And so any idea, my mind goes to, well, wait a minute, are we just numbing it up and possibly doing more harm?

Or are we numbing it up and creating more ability for the tissues to be mobilized, which may be helping with the pain long term?

@16:46 - cole_

It could be both. I a question. My, my gut feeling in what I understand about the chemicals of inflammation.

@16:54 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So inflammation just isn't a mechanical thing. It's a chemical thing.

@16:59 - cole_

Right. We've heard. It's We'll We cytokine storms and we've talked, you know, fish oil and vitamin D and, you know, decreased inflammation in tissues, there's chemical signals going on, and we do know the science of icing for decades in all of our modality texts has demonstrated that the chemicals of inflammation go down when we ice the tissue.

The way that we have been taught to ice it, I'm not saying super crazy cold, but in that 25 degree Fahrenheit range, we will get a decrease in the chemicals of inflammation and it gets us out of inflammation into proliferation.

Do I have a study that specifically says nerve pain, you know, chemicals? No, I don't. But when I lean on cold therapy, the decades that we have and what we know it does physiologically for tissue repair and the trends lately in, you know, doing ice bath submersions or, you know, there is so much.

My patient's experience has been that it decreases the chemicals of inflammation around the nerve. The nerve is actually repairing, and besides having a non-pharmaceutical way to control one's pain throughout the day, and then getting to be intimate, and then, so I'm not saying this is a total cure, but my patients, sorry, I guess they're more my customers.

Have messaged me that they are noticing a downward trend of their overall nerve pain, and that this is sort of, just like we'd say the, I used to interrupt the back pain spasm cycle, similarly here, and I bet there's muscle, pelvic floor muscle spasming that happens when, I mean, you tell me, how much, I'm here to learn.

I love love it. Well, my, my mind goes to endometriosis.

@19:05 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And tell me about that. Well, just the, the pain of those cells and what would, what would icing? I'm not sure if anyone's really looked at that and I'm, I'm excited to, I really want to go to the endo summit this year, next year to just learn more about endo.

That is not something that is, I I'm an expert at in any means. And, um, but it's such a chronic pain syndrome that unless you get excision surgery, you're just dealing with it.

And, um, yeah, I'd just be curious if anyone's ever kept this.

@19:44 - cole_

Have you had patients, truly asking, have you had patients where they have pain and let's just say it's from lots of different reasons in the pelvic floor and that you can feel the pelvic floor muscles spasming for being protective or tight?

@19:59 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

that? .

@20:00 - cole_

Yes. Maybe not. Yeah.

@20:02 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

No, no, no. I have. And what I find, Pam, is that it's usually a cervical restriction or a bladder issue internally.

I have to say, I don't see a lot of IC or padendal neuralgia or VV or any, you know, like I am seeing a few more endo patients in my clinic, clinical practice.

But my, um, the majority of my clients are postpartum and, or pertinent. And, um, I find that when I release those, the bladder and the cervix and get them happy, then their pain is, is gone.

The, you know, their muscle function so much better. Now I just did just this week, had a client that came to see me and she's had, she has endo.

And I believe they just diagnosed, diagnosed her with adenomyosis. And. And And so she said, well, on December 15th, my doctor's going to be doing a Botox injection.

And when I worked with another pelvic floor PT, we mapped out where all my trigger points were. And then she really focused in on that.

And I go, great. Okay, let's do that. So we did. And her, I mean, literally her entire right side was crunchy and painful, spicy is what she kept calling it.

And, um, and some, some spots on the left side. And after I got done mapping it, I'm like, she just needs to do the whole right side.

However, then I went and I worked with her cervix and her cervix was, um, restricted more on the left side, which was interesting.

And after I got done releasing that utero sacral ligament on that side, I went back and reassessed and her muscles were totally different.

@21:56 - cole_

Oh, wow.

@21:57 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So there's, there's something significant. about the uterine ligaments and the cervical mobility and its ability to affect the muscles of the pelvic floor, yet there's, you know, that's, I would say that's a more mechanical issue that can be addressed.

And we have all these other inflammatory issues that, you know, I wouldn't say is the majority of my practice, but I, I want to get this sheet pack on my shelf and let my clients know about it and know, especially, I would love to have some of my endo clients try it and see what happens.

@22:36 - cole_

I'd be curious. Yeah. I'd be really curious. And when I like, I, this is my thing, I love that you're talking about treating the underlying cause.

Like, yes, we, whether for me, it's seeing a venous leg ulcer and no one's put 30 to 40 millimeters compression on their leg.

They're trying to do fancy skin substitutes or skin grafts, but they haven't compressed the patient. And then what are we doing here in your, in the pelvic?

Yeah. Floor space is we do have to get to the underlying dysfunction or pain. And, yes, let's add in icing to decrease inflammation and get – so, yes, as an owner and a mentor of ShePak, I just think it's a part of the treatment paradigm.

Right. I'm not saying it's, like, the only thing, but to have this tool, my experience and what I've heard from women is it will absolutely shorten their time to healing and functionality.

It is making them go through phases faster. And then the emotional gain of being out of pain.

@23:41 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yes.

@23:42 - cole_

gain of being connected to one's partner again. Yeah. I mean, it's – and even without having any major dysfunction, even the – and I'd be curious to see your other, like, the comments that you get from those who follow your podcast.

Maybe they have some I have to tell us and share with us, but I've seen the menopausal community, I mean, more bluntly, is women, I'll tell the story with it, there's a couple that I know, the gal, they just love each other, you know, this couple loves each other so much, and as she's going through menopause, it would take like two weeks for her to recover from intimacy, I know.

And so when I gave her a sample of ShePak, and I said, okay, be intimate, and then insert this afterwards, and then, you know, see how it goes the next morning.

She told me she was ready to be intimate again in two days and not two weeks, and her husband said, I will happily give you an endorsement, you know, to, he's like, her recovery time is shorter, this is great, I'll help you in any way, okay.

You know, it's so, it speaks. Two, the microtrauma she was experiencing, the stretching of the when it's not bathed in estrogen as much.

And so I am interested to, in all these different areas, why the pelvic floor gets inflamed, treat the underlying cause, but let's move that tissue through the phases of wound healing and get into proliferation and remodeling and functionality.

And functionality is flat, like our ability to urinate and not urinate, to be intimate. Not have itching and cracking, drying, you know, and then, and I know that when my microbiome in my has been off, it does dry out.

And I was young back then and I had plenty of hormones. So I can't imagine what the decline in hormones.

So again, what are all the ways that ice can decrease inflammation in the, in the pelvic floor is, I think, a wide open conversation.

@25:56 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And I am looking forward to learning from other pelvic floor PTs. So... Awesome. Pam, what do you recommend with this?

Is it, you know, I remember way back in the way as far as timing, is it a 15, 20 minute insertion of this ice pack or less than that?

@26:12 - cole_

Because, you know, what's your recommendation? Love it. Yeah, so 15 to 20 minutes. And usually with the device, you will find it's, I'll go back and say there's no seams on the internal parts.

@26:26 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

We made the seam to seal it to be on the external portion.

@26:30 - cole_

And so when you pull it out of the freezer, pick, apply a little bit of lubricant to make it, you know, easier to insert, especially if you're someone that has a little bit of sclerosis or you are painful.

Or too itchy. The size of sheep pack, we tried to go with average anthropomorphic data of length and, I guess, girth of the .

And we do hopefully plan on making a larger and a smaller, but we tried to at least We get it to be pretty narrow for the patients that are having issues, and when you, you know, pick a healthy lubricant, not a moisture-robbing lubricant or one with the improper pH, insert for 15 to 20 minutes, but you'll pretty much know that when it goes from solid to being all liquid and you can feel that the cold is done, you can take it out, soap and water, or this resin is a medical-grade resin, so you can disinfect it with hydrogen peroxide or isotope.

So, propyl alcohol, rinse that off, put it back in the bag. Give yourself an hour break, maybe, and then you can reapply.

So, just like we would for an ankle sprain.

@27:43 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yeah. And so, the water, the ice is melting, and so there's really no damage. I can imagine people doing this before they go to bed and falling asleep, possibly with it inserted.

@27:54 - cole_

Yeah.

@27:56 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And that, because the ice would continue to melt, there wouldn't be any... Correct.

@28:03 - cole_

Correct. Oh, and the other thing with medical, you're not going to get your tongue on the flagpole, frozen flagpole thing.

@28:15 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

The metal piece.

@28:17 - cole_

Yeah, this will not do that. So it is melting and you will not have prolonged cold causing any frostbite.

Okay. That is 100% no frostbite.

@28:29 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Oh my gosh. There's another thing that you said earlier that I absolutely love is that wounds need compression in order to heal.

And I, one of the big tenants that I teach in my courses is compression of the tissues in order to help them to release.

Okay. Yeah. And I, I remember telling you that I did have a client who had this cyst on her labia and she had been for years had been.

much. Thank Dealing with it and it just wasn't healing. And when I first saw her, it was probably the size of a big chickpea, the cyst, and then the surrounding tissue was just hard.

And I just gently offered compression to the tissue without creating pain for her. And we were able to get that thing down to less than a pea size.

And it really did help facilitate her healing. By getting more blood flow into that area and, and working with that tissue.

So, you know, I'm just thinking of, um, perennial scars, episiotomy scars, all that we could really help facilitate the healing of those tissues after birth with this, the sheep hack.

@29:52 - cole_

So two things is your manual work. Cause I live in a lymphedema world to your manual work. lymphedema lymphedema world lymphedema world lymphedema lymphedema to

That you did, not only, you know, it's like massage, but what are we doing when we do that is we are increasing lymphatic return in the area when we massage.

And then you're breaking up fibrosis and adhesions that have developed around those areas of inflammation, chronic inflammation. And we know that when we break down fibrosis and scar tissue that we get more interstitial fluid movement and that the lymphedema world is really expanding in our knowledge in how we move lymphatics, what supplementation include lymphatic, to improve lymphatic return, and that we now say all edema is lymphedema.

So how do we move lymphatics that are mechanically challenged, especially in patients with a lot of scar tissue and maybe someone, like we, I see patients.

We've had cancer excisions of the , the , and there is scar tissue. It changes the soft tissue mechanics, but the lymphatics, and we can massage, we can do movement, compression in whatever way is appropriate, putting vertical lines in the tissues instead of horizontal lines along the lymphatic chain.

And then ice does move lymphatics, so the science that comes out from doing, like, infrared sauna or heat sauna and then doing cold plunges and then heat and then cold plunges, we know stimulates the lymphatics and gets them moving.

And so cold therapy in the pelvic floor can then stimulate lymphatic flow for very congested tissues. That's the thing to think about is this conjecture.

conjecture. So that can come from just having chronic inflammation, maybe not the patient not being very mobile, not getting to exercise, not getting to move, not getting that normal pelvic pistoning and figure-aiding that happens during walking.

These are, you know, so I think, yes, I believe there's a strong connection between ice and lymphatic flow and how lymphatic flow improves the wound healing and not stepping over manual therapy to get into breaking up the fibrotic tissue and starting to encourage that flow out.

@32:37 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Wow.

@32:38 - cole_

Yeah. point.

@32:40 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

So important here, Pam. I absolutely love your, your device. And I am excited to share this with the, those listening into this podcast.

And I want to encourage everyone listening into this podcast. You all know a colleague that needs to hear. So please share this podcast interview with as many colleagues as you can, because I truly believe this device is going to transform our results and healing for our clients, no matter what they're dealing with.

How long has it been since you developed this, Pam?

@33:24 - cole_

It's actually been about 15 years, but a lot of that was the patent process and maybe the longest part.

But now, you know, we've been to market for many years now and it's been, you know, word of mouth.

@33:41 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yeah.

@33:42 - cole_

But I would, of course, feel like it needs to reach so many more women and clients. And I just wanted to add the cost of sheet pack is $45 and it's reusable.

So I think that that's a value, you know, a really great value, but for patients, they can use There's this brochure that I have that comes with the product, but focusing on it's HSA and FSA reimbursed.

So it's considered an ice pack and patients can just use their HSA or FSA accounts if they don't necessarily have the upfront cash.

@34:18 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Okay. Wow. That's great to know, too.

@34:22 - cole_

Holy cow. make it accessible for many patients. I've heard that like finger splints cost like $365 when they get billed out.

@34:29 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

But, you know, what is the value?

@34:32 - cole_

And I just wanted to make sure that the price point was something reachable for absolutely almost all women.

@34:39 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Yes. Okay. So thank you, everybody. Anything else you want to share, Pam, before we sign off here?

@34:44 - cole_

Yeah. So there's one thing that I'm hoping this community can help me answer. Um, you know, as I have had treated patients that have wounds in their .

So the story being OBGYN does a great job cutting out the cancer and stitching patients up and then... I've had a few where they've had chronic yeast infections and chronic bacterial infections in the area, and their wounds don't heal.

So then they end up in my clinic for wound care, and thankfully we are PTs, and so we have some pelvic knowledge, and the idea being, okay, well, why isn't this healing, and what are my tenets of wound healing, and one of the things is if it's infected, it's not going to heal.

Okay, so in the , we have this chronic BV and yeast, and they, the patient has been through multiple rounds of medication from OBGYN, and no one has talked to them about restoring the vaginal microbiome.

And my experience with the yeast, and BV, and using my own She-Pak is that boric acid has really good evidence for restoring the microbiome of the in a very natural way with its pH.

And so, and then I play wound So I would have patients do boric acid for a week or two, and then insert cultures, like just a capsule of the lactobacillus that the normally has, and then I would take wound dressings and wrap them around a wad of cotton, like a tampon, and insert it so we'd use silver dressings against the incision.

And I've had these patients just say, I cannot understand why the doctor couldn't figure this out, that they were completely, like, relieved in days from having chronic yeast infections and chronic BV infections.

And, and so I'm curious about the role, just as the role of ice and wound healing and pelvic floor, is what is the role of restoring them?

Vaginal microbiome for our patients that are dealing with nerve pain, tissue functionality, like it's not stretching, it's not getting wet and making its own mucosa, what is, and we know that there is one, but I think the conversation, like, I'm interested in, if physicians don't have time to talk about that, do pelvic floor PTs have time to talk about that?

And what does this community already know about, you know, the microbiome, and here's my circling home, I know it's a long thing that I said, but the idea is, we know that yeast especially likes warmth and moisture, and if we insert cold into the , does it at least interrupt or decrease the ability for that yeast to proliferate?

Has someone done a study that inserting ice will actually take the yeast elements and break them or kill them or something?

I don't know. I'd be curious because I know there's one physician that is working on a cold device for the and she's claiming a cure for yeast infections.

I haven't seen the data on that yet, but it's just a really good question. Does an internal ice pack interrupt or at least help with getting rid of yeast and decreasing, you know, BV and yeast infections?

So I'll be looking forward to comments.

@38:31 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Well, in, in my mind goes to what does ice do to the microbiome of the vaginal space with, on normal people, right?

Like we should maybe start there and, and then, you know, is there a way that we can study what, what happens to the microbiome when we add ice?

And then what, what happens if we do have BV and, you know, a disruption? What happens if we add ice?

So in doing my own research, I know that the bones of the pelvis don't always return to the original position after birth.

And working with my research team, they're like, wait, we need to prove that this is a thing first and going back to the beginning, you know, so that's where my mind goes first.

But yes, like, let's, let's get this in front of some researchers. And I mean, what a simple research project.

ACTION ITEM: Email ATSU research team (Pamela, Rachel) re: ShePak research; offer samples - WATCH

@39:35 - cole_

Yeah, if there's any, any person out there looking to have a research project, I will send you She-Facts.

@39:42 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Okay. All right.

@39:43 - cole_

Well, I'll talk to my research team.

@39:45 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

I'm going to be there next weekend. So if I can get, I'll talk to them and see if there's anybody in there.

They're It's a A.T. Stills University, Pam and gosh, I'm forgetting my other research team. It's been a while, Pamela and Rachel, I think it is.

Anyway, I'll reach out to them and see. But anyway, Pam, wow, it's people like you that are really changing our pelvic health world.

And I'm so grateful to you. And this is incredible.

@40:17 - cole_

I'm going to be ordering my sheet pack today.

@40:19 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And I hope everybody else out there will order one. And or at least, Pam, can we reach out to have you send brochures to us?

ACTION ITEM: Add ShePak brochure/website card downloads to website - WATCH

Is that possible? Absolutely. Or can we download? Can we just download something from your website?

@40:35 - cole_

That's a great point. I do not have that up. I should do that. In fact, I'll put that on my to-do list.

But yes, I am happy to mail out the brochure I have that I showed before. I also have these little website cards that are discreet so that you can just hand that to a patient and she can put it in her purse.

Yeah. But if you are a pelvic floor PT, I'm happy to send a sample for you to show your patients.

in So, I'm That they know what they're getting into, you know, some are like, do I, you know, is it too big, especially if they're at the place where they're still dilating and trying to get that functionality back?

@41:10 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Are we at this size yet? I don't know.

@41:12 - cole_

So I'm, when I've advertised in the APTA section before and PTs have asked me, you know, do you give out samples?

@41:20 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

The answer is yes. I'm happy to give a sample. Okay, great.

@41:24 - cole_

Awesome.

@41:24 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And yeah, all pelvic health therapists, you guys, we all need to get the word out because I think this is going to really revolutionize supporting your clients, especially those with pain.

@41:36 - cole_

And a shout out to all these pelvic floor physical therapists making a massive difference. I didn't know what I didn't know, but the amount of pain women are walking around in that you all are making a difference, whether it's postpartum or when I learned briefly, like that 75% of aging women do not need to be incontinent if they actually strengthen their muscles.

You like that. Yeah. That is huge. So this community is extremely important for patients with , you know? Yeah, yes, it is.

@42:11 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

And even men's health too. I mean, it's such a special field and I'm so honored to be a part of it and to know people like yourself and all the colleagues that work in this space.

We are a special crew and I'm just so grateful to each and every one of you for the work that you're doing in the world.

It's so needed, just like Pam said. So thank you. Yeah, I am so honored to introduce you to my community and please everybody listening into this, share this information far and wide.

I'd love to see this episode get the most views because I think it's just going to be so incredibly helpful and we need to get this word out.

So do your best guys, share it with colleagues, let them know this is out there. Have a to Invite Pam to be on your podcast, if you have one yourself, and let's help spread this word far and wide, okay?

@43:10 - cole_

So if your community wants to reach out to me, my email address is pamela.cole.femicorp.com.

@43:21 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Great. And we will have that in the show notes too, everybody. So check that out. Pam's website will be on there as well.

And I can't wait to connect you all.

@43:32 - cole_

That's what this is all about. All right.

@43:35 - Lynn Schulte, PT (lynnschultept@gmail.com)

Thank you, Pam, for being on this. Thanks, everybody, for listening in. Here is to smoother burst, faster recoveries, and cooler .

Take care, everybody. We'll see you on the next episode. Bye-bye.