I've been going to physiotherapy sessions for the last few weeks after I "put my back out" one weekend.
When I first got to physiotherapy, my therapist started treating my most problematic symptoms - in my lumbar area. She gave me exercises to do. The pain started to become more manageable. She got me to sleep with a pillow between my knees. Sometimes the pain would be better, sometimes worse, depending on how I turned in bed or moved at work, getting in and out of the car, going up or down stairs. The pain - when it came back - settled in one hip or the other and there were days it would radiate down the outside of my thigh.
About two weeks into treatment, my physiotherapist started talking about my sacro-iliac (SI) joint when I described the pain.
I thought she was way off base, because for years my chiropractor had been telling me that the problem was in my spine. Perhaps part of it was. But this felt a bit different ... and I did the exercises she suggested, and things started to improve, as long as I did them correctly. But I didn't quite understand what I was supposed to feel, where that "pull" she talked about was supposed to happen.
I just knew that I hurt, and I wanted it to stop.
Out of curiosity (or was it desperation?) I looked up the SI joint online and found that it is the joint between the sacrum (just below the vertebrae, above the tailbone) and the ilium. A dysfunction there will pinch the sciatic nerve. And voilà - pain! A little more searching and I discovered a specialist's site which talked about a way to correct SI dysfunction through targeting that specific joint in a series of similar exercises which one could do one way lying down, another sitting, and another standing. I spent about ten or twenty minutes studying the mechanics of the exercises so I could be sure I knew how to do them.
And then I tried them. What a difference! I suddenly knew exactly what I was supposed to feel because I felt it! Deep inside - I felt the stretch exactly where the pain originated. It was difficult to get into that position. But SO needed. SO worth it.
It's amazing. But if I had operated on the assumption that this was a lumbar spine problem rather than an SI problem - I might have wasted a lot of time and been in a lot more pain for a lot longer. It's so important to know what the REAL problem is. Going on a wrong diagnosis might fix something (more by accident than anything) but knowing what the issue is, goes a long way toward dealing with it.
True in physical pain... true in emotional pain.
I've been in emotional pain, a lot, and thought it was because the people in my life wouldn't listen to me, or because I needed to have this or that one need me or thank me or ... whatever. And I imagine (because I am human and as such, selfish) that I'll experience that kind of pain again. Hopefully not as often. :)
I found the information I needed to be able to heal inside. And it was hard. But I started to heal. And that was far better than just doing the same old thing and getting the same old results.
Being able to be honest with myself, and targeting the source of the pain, rather than dealing with just the symptoms and what I THOUGHT it was ... even though it might have been harder ... resulted in healing. It still does.
It appalls me sometimes that it took me this long to find what I needed to heal from the inside out, to be able to have the right emotional diagnosis so that I could do what I needed to do to stop the pain. That's a big part of why I wrote my book: I don't believe that a person should have to wait until he or she is 48 years old (like I did) before starting to get better.
But regardless of how long it took to start .... I'm so glad I did. So glad.
When I first got to physiotherapy, my therapist started treating my most problematic symptoms - in my lumbar area. She gave me exercises to do. The pain started to become more manageable. She got me to sleep with a pillow between my knees. Sometimes the pain would be better, sometimes worse, depending on how I turned in bed or moved at work, getting in and out of the car, going up or down stairs. The pain - when it came back - settled in one hip or the other and there were days it would radiate down the outside of my thigh.
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| This diagram I found HERE |
About two weeks into treatment, my physiotherapist started talking about my sacro-iliac (SI) joint when I described the pain.
I thought she was way off base, because for years my chiropractor had been telling me that the problem was in my spine. Perhaps part of it was. But this felt a bit different ... and I did the exercises she suggested, and things started to improve, as long as I did them correctly. But I didn't quite understand what I was supposed to feel, where that "pull" she talked about was supposed to happen.
I just knew that I hurt, and I wanted it to stop.
Out of curiosity (or was it desperation?) I looked up the SI joint online and found that it is the joint between the sacrum (just below the vertebrae, above the tailbone) and the ilium. A dysfunction there will pinch the sciatic nerve. And voilà - pain! A little more searching and I discovered a specialist's site which talked about a way to correct SI dysfunction through targeting that specific joint in a series of similar exercises which one could do one way lying down, another sitting, and another standing. I spent about ten or twenty minutes studying the mechanics of the exercises so I could be sure I knew how to do them.
And then I tried them. What a difference! I suddenly knew exactly what I was supposed to feel because I felt it! Deep inside - I felt the stretch exactly where the pain originated. It was difficult to get into that position. But SO needed. SO worth it.
It's amazing. But if I had operated on the assumption that this was a lumbar spine problem rather than an SI problem - I might have wasted a lot of time and been in a lot more pain for a lot longer. It's so important to know what the REAL problem is. Going on a wrong diagnosis might fix something (more by accident than anything) but knowing what the issue is, goes a long way toward dealing with it.
True in physical pain... true in emotional pain.
I've been in emotional pain, a lot, and thought it was because the people in my life wouldn't listen to me, or because I needed to have this or that one need me or thank me or ... whatever. And I imagine (because I am human and as such, selfish) that I'll experience that kind of pain again. Hopefully not as often. :)
I found the information I needed to be able to heal inside. And it was hard. But I started to heal. And that was far better than just doing the same old thing and getting the same old results.
Being able to be honest with myself, and targeting the source of the pain, rather than dealing with just the symptoms and what I THOUGHT it was ... even though it might have been harder ... resulted in healing. It still does.
It appalls me sometimes that it took me this long to find what I needed to heal from the inside out, to be able to have the right emotional diagnosis so that I could do what I needed to do to stop the pain. That's a big part of why I wrote my book: I don't believe that a person should have to wait until he or she is 48 years old (like I did) before starting to get better.
But regardless of how long it took to start .... I'm so glad I did. So glad.
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