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Elyse Trupiano
There’s a cabinet in Elyse Trupiano’s home in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, filled with trophies, medals and ribbons. Some represent championships won in barrel racing, some represent her achievements in auto racing, and others are for titles in dog shows.
Elyse has participated in them all during her 68 years.
“I barrel-raced when I was much younger,” Elyse offers. “I’ve also done some endurance racing on horseback. We would go from shore to shore across the top of the mitt in Michigan. When I gave up the horses, I got into agility training with my dogs.
“As for the car racing, I raced Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari in events staged by car clubs I was in. Those took place all over the United States. What can I say? I’m competitive with a capital C. I never had kids, so I’ve always been a woman of many hobbies.”
Elyse’s newest hobby is pickleball. She picked the game up a couple of years ago and plays regularly during the months that she and her husband spend in Florida. Elyse and her husband, a senior navigator, also do a lot of boating.
“We’re very active,” says Elyse, whose lifestyle was interrupted a couple of years ago by urinary incontinence, an involuntary loss of urine that can be sparked by something as simple as a laugh, cough or sneeze and typically results in the loss of a few drops of urine.
As with Elyse, the condition can also present itself as a strong urge to urinate or an inability to hold urine when the urge arises. No matter the symptoms, it is typically caused by a weakening of the bladder or sphincter muscles, an overactive bladder or nerve damage.
And while urinary incontinence typically affects older women, those who are pregnant, have had children or are going through menopause, it can affect men as well. Like Elyse, many people affected are forced to make drastic changes.
“What happened with me was, if I had to go to the bathroom and didn’t get to one right away, I would have a little episode,” Elyse relates. “It wasn’t anything real serious. On a scale of one to 10, my problem was about a three. But it was annoying.
“I had some friends tell me that doing a few Kegel exercises before you got up from going to the bathroom would fix it, but that didn’t work. So, I just dealt with it the best I could until one day, while visiting my OB-GYN, I saw an ad for something.”
Have a Seat
Elyse’s OB-GYN is Jeffrey Kotzen, MD, FACOG, of Distinctive Women’s Health Care in West Palm Beach. The ad was for a treatment offered by Karen Fish, a certified wellness professional and practitioner who shares office space with Dr. Kotzen.
Karen is also the founder of Palm Beach Wellbeing, where she teaches the principles of whole health and offers leading-edge wellness solutions that include wearable light therapy and the use of the Avacen® device for microcirculation.
Karen also offers a drug-free treatment protocol for urinary incontinence. That protocol uses a core-rejuvenation device called the BTL Emsella® chair that stimulates the pelvic floor muscles and restores neuromuscular control through high-intensity electromagnetic energy.
“A typical Emsella chair session lasts just 28 minutes with the patient simply sitting on the device fully clothed, and the chair provides the benefits of roughly 12,000 Kegel exercises,” Karen explains.
“Kegel exercises are designed to strengthen the pelvic floor, but no one can do 12,000 in 28 minutes. This chair not only provides that effect, it also impacts almost the entire pelvic floor, whereas Kegel exercises typically affect only 25 percent of the pelvic floor muscle.
“As a result, BTL Emsella chair sessions can also improve fecal incontinence as well as overall core strength. That’s important because it keeps people more stable, which is helpful in preventing falls. So, the BTL Emsella chair has many benefits.”
Another benefit is that it causes no side effects. Unlike other incontinence treatments, Emsella chair therapy is noninvasive, and it allows patients to immediately return to normal activities.
Most importantly, it works. Studies show that 95 percent of the patients receiving the therapy report improvement of incontinence symptoms while 73 percent experienced a complete resolution of symptoms.
“This is a treatment that’s good for everyone, including men,” Karen states. “I even know women who have no incontinence issues who are using the chair because they want to avoid those issues. So, it’s a preventive treatment as well.”
Dr. Kotzen agrees, noting that Karen “is providing a good service, a very safe service and a service that has results for the indication of the machine she’s working with. I’m happy to be sharing office space with her.”
Taking Back Control
After meeting with Karen, Elyse began treatment on the Emsella chair last summer. She followed a typical protocol that called for two 28-minute sessions each week for three weeks. The results, she says, have been fabulous.
“Let’s put it this way,” Elyse reports. “If I feel an urge to go to the bathroom now, I can hold it for an hour or more if I have to. That’s how good this Emsella chair treatment works, so I could not be more pleased with the results.
“And it was so easy. All you do is sit there with all your clothes on so you don’t have to change in and out of anything. And while you’re sitting there, all you feel is a little vibration. It’s not uncomfortable at all.
“And I could not be happier with Karen. She is absolutely lovely, and very open and honest. She tells you how it is and is very straightforward, and she’s always telling you about new discoveries and treatments that she’s offering. I love her.”
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