This week has been a bit disheartening, but as far as we can tell, everything with the pregnancy is going well.
But you know things are no longer perfect in your world when your chiropractor says "In all my years of practice, I've never seen anyone with it this bad!"
The "it" is sacro-ilial subluxation (which is what was causing all the pain in my piriformis). Lots of women get it during pregnancy. The reason the chiropractor said it was so "bad" is at the beginning of my appointment, my left leg was being pulled up a whole 1.5 inches shorter than my left. In the last few days it's caused me constant pain in the SI joint, to the point where I'm having trouble sleeping. What a bummer.
And my physical therapist said that as long as relaxin, that pregnancy hormone, is in my system I won't be able to run. She then proudly said she ran all through her pregnancy, even the day she gave birth. Of course I thought that was wonderful. That's just not going to be my story, I guess. She even said that the effect of the relaxin may last as long as I breast feed. Well, that's just great. I have to admit I doubt that to be true, though. I mean even if it is still there, the baby will be out, so running should be tolerable again, just like it was at the beginning of the pregnancy.
But why do I have such a bad case? The chiropractor said it's because my abdominal muscles are so strong that the baby had nowhere to go. I don't think I buy that, though I do get joy out of believing I have such tight abs. I doubt that could work against me if they were that strong, but there are many things I don't understand about the pregnant body. The physical therapist said I was "genetically very flexible" and that's why my ligaments loosened up so easily. We'll I think that's bs since I started out as the least flexible woman in prenatal yoga. Whatever the reason, they both encouraged me to continue exercising as much as possible as long as it wasn't painful. But both said I wouldn't be able to run until after pregnancy.
When I told all this to SR, he seemed more heartbroken than me. We have a running in the sun vacation in Florida planned for next week. And he was planning on doing a running series this winter, but now doesn't know if he will. I am amazed by how much even our physical ailments affect each other. And I felt terrible last night because one of the kids jumped on me and I started crying. And it seemed like everything spun out of order in their world as well as in mine and SR's.
All that being said, I feel 10x better tonight after a beautiful SI adjustment by the chiropractor (which I had found the exact steps to in a study and shown to her). And I am wearing one of those sexy SI pregnancy belts.
Let me just take this moment to say that if any reader out there has trouble with SI subluxation, go to a chiropractor! 2 adjustments of the nature described in one study (if anyone wants the details, let me know) have a 91% success rate at relieving the pain for the rest of the pregnancy.
So who knows, maybe just a few more adjustments and I'll be running again... looking unlikely, but at least my left leg is only 1/2 inch shorter than my right now :).
Running Song of the Day: Don't Lose Yourself by Laura Veirs
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