The world here is covered with sheets and chunks of ice. I don't think I'd be running outside in it even if I could.
My back/pelvic pain has now localized to the SI (sacroiliac) joint and it is quite painful to walk and is even getting painful to lay down. There is a hormone released in pregnancy called relaxin that loosens the ligaments, especially in the pelvis, to get ready for child birth. This is truly a beautiful thing (if it weren't so painful). I have previously alluded to the fact that my pelvis is very small and my hips have always been basically the same circumference as my waist. That seems to be changing: my legs are actually measurably farther apart!
The only thing I've found that makes my pain better is moving around. Swimming is the best thing. So I've been swimming, doing the elliptical, biking and doing yoga every day. I feel better after I'm done exercising, but then by night I am in pain again. The best analgesic is having sex and after that I can fall asleep :).
So what is the plan? Well, I've done quite a bit of reading into SI joint instability in pregnancy. The first treatments are physical therapy and manipulation. So tomorrow I'm going to a chiropractor (for the first time in my life and I am SCARED) and Friday I'm going to physical therapy. This is all covered by insurance, thank goodness. (As an aside, if you get diagnosed with this condition, called "pelvic loosening", in Denmark you get medical leave for the rest of your pregnancy with full pay. Unfortunately that's not the case here, but I think I can work without a problem.)
Hopefully I'll be running again soon. It sounds like both physical therapy and manipulation are highly effective. I can't wait to let you know how they turn out.
In the meantime, the ice and snow have not stopped SR from running. On Sunday there was a 5k race downtown here. I was a gleeful spectator, but was worried as people slipped and fell all over the place. The ice-covered path hardly affected SR. He won the race by about a minute over the second place finisher with a time just over 17 minutes.
He looked so strong and happy at the end. Sometimes it seems like he is not another human like the rest of us, but a superhero. Just before he crossed the finish line, two young girls were saying "Wow, look at that guy! He's so fast!"
"That's my husband!" I said smiling and laughing. Okay, so we're not married yet, but who cares, he's mine and I'm perhaps the luckiest girl in the world.
Running Song of the Day: Something Pretty by Patrick Park
4 comments:
I had a lot of sciatic (sp?) pain with my pregnancy. I found that doing cat stretches would help a lot. It apparently takes some of the pressure off of the nerves and ligaments ect. You probably already know what I mean. The stretch where you are on all fours and you arch your back up while tilting your pelvis in and tucking your head down then releasing. My son seemed to have a nasty habit of laying on my sciatic nerve and that seemed to be the only thing that would shift him.
You probably also know that the width of your hips on the outside isn't a real indicator of how much room there is in your pelvis. In case your worried about not being able to deliver.
I'll have to try the cat (probably not while at work now, though). I used to do that but had forgotten about that creature pose.
And, yeah, I do know about the size of the pelvis on the outside not being a good indication of the inside (good point), but I just have a FEELING it's got to be small based on the rest of my bones. But then again I'm sure the baby will be small, too. We'll just hope he's smaller.
Good for SR! Great race! I'm sorry about your troubles. I hope things improve!
check this SI JOINT VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvxZH7wGDfc
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