Pregnancy, Pain and Self-Healing

A week ago today I sat on the floor crying because I couldn’t find a position to get up that wasn’t excruciating.  As a physical therapist it is inevitable that the professional will at some point become the patient.  I’ve been there several times before.  Once for a whiplash injury, another time for chronic vertigo and a third time for a shoulder problem.  My last pregnancy I had a lot of pain in my back, pelvis and legs.  There were many times that I could barely walk and trying to work through this was rough.  I almost passed out one time from excruciating pain while walking in a store. Advice from my OB and physical therapist friends didn’t help.  After several months I found a chiropractor that gave me some relief, but I was dependent on my visits and it was expensive.

This pregnancy I have had some similar pains return.  However, I had a tool in my physical therapy toolbox that I didn’t have last time. It’s a tool that allows me to systematically treat myself.  It doesn’t make me reliant on anyone else for relief and it doesn’t take much time.  I was consistently able to chase the pain away…until last week.  After running to get out of the rain on my loose preggo ligaments I really hurt myself. This time I couldn’t make the pain go away.  I could improve it, but then it would return full force a minute later.  I was afraid maybe this time my new tool wouldn’t work. Maybe this was it.  The pain would be back like last time.  I spoke to the developer of this tool and he tweaked the exercises I was doing by simply adding some additional motions to the original exercises.  He also suggested increasing the repetitions and frequency.  By the end of that day I was moving normally again and in mild discomfort here and there.  Several days later and I became completely pain free.

Nothing compares to being able to make your own pain go away.  No appointments, co-pays or pain in between visits.  Just self-healing.  Yes, I needed a conversation for guidance.  But that was it.  Just a conversation.  Am I able to treat myself because of my training as a physical therapist?   The answer is NO.  Anyone can do this once they learn the approach.  That’s the beauty.  To learn more watch some of the videos on totalmotionrelease.com.