Someone landed on my blog not too long ago after searching for this. Yes, you can live with diastasis recti, separation of the abdominal muscles, but I have to tell you that it's been quite a painful month. I wrote this post just about three years ago providing more information about my situation and not much has changed since then. With my weak core, I know what will cause back pain and I try to head it off before it becomes too bad. On a daily basis, standing at the sink washing dishes will cause pain in my lower back. When I start to feel it coming on, I'll take a break and sit down to stretch out my back.
What I cannot control are the random back pulls that happen for the stupidest reasons. Such as reaching over to pick up my brush. This should not blow out my back but it has. Here and there, maybe once a year, I'll turn and my back will blow out and I'll be in excruciating pain. I've had to miss days of work because of it. There were other days where I would pop some ibuprofen and slowly make my way into work, praying for a seat on the train.
Two weeks ago, as I was getting ready to bring the girls to school, I turned in such a way, causing something in my back to pull. I didn't notice it at first. My back just felt tight but then as I was brushing my teeth, I couldn't figure out why it hurt to take a deep breath. Not only did I have to bring the girls to school, but I had a big bag of Anna's supplies for the nurses. As I was walking into the school, this sharp pain went right up and down my back. And then Anna realized that she had forgotten her math book so after I dropped off the supplies, I had to go home and retrieve the book and drive back up to the school. I was pretty much useless trying to not move for the rest of the day but by the end of the day, it was feeling much better.
This past Thursday, my back was feeling achy but I didn't think much of it. That sometimes happens and it wasn't anything like what I had felt two weeks ago. But then that night, I sat on the couch for an hour or so editing photos and when I got up to go to bed, I could barely move. Here we go again. I was basically useless on Friday, which is becoming an issue because I do have stuff to do. I had tap class on Friday night and I really didn't want to have to miss it. Rich massaged it out for me, I applied heat and popped some painkillers. I was able to go to my class but I was soooo bad. I think I was focused on my back and there were certain moves I couldn't really do because of it.
As I sit here typing this, it's Sunday night and I'm still having some pain. I've been able to move around and function, taking care of laundry, etc. but there's a dull ache and if I move a certain way, pain. As I was sitting on the couch the other night, I realized that my shoulders were pulled up. It's like I can't relax those muscles and that definitely isn't helping the situation.
I can't pinpoint anything I've been doing differently. Rich wondered if my running speedwork was contributing to it and then he mentioned all the sewing I've been doing lately. When I sew, I actually have good posture. For these latest projects, it seems like I've spent more time cutting fabric than sewing and I always feel all hunched over when I cut fabric. But I've always sewn (and cut fabric.) This isn't new. I don't know! (I have projects to share this week though.)
Okay, so on to other things. Like snow.
Last week, for the third week in a row, we were hit with a strong storm. This one dumped 18 inches of snow in our area, giving the girls two more snow days, unfortunately.
This was the last photo I took of the deck.
Rich was home from work on the first day but on the second, he left early in the morning. When the girls came in and woke me up, I thought it was before 8:00. Nope, it was after 9:00. I couldn't believe that I had slept through Rich getting up and leaving for work. Although, I was running a fan to block out noise.
I went outside to take photos and the snow was so deep, I couldn't even see my boots.
Between this month's snow days, the girls attended their last father/daughter dance. Let's be real though. At this point, Dad is the driver who coordinates the post-dance frozen yogurt party.
At least the storm(s) originally in the forecast for this upcoming week appear to be in the miss category. Although, my weather app is back to showing snow with a high of 34 on Wednesday. Hooray for spring!
4 comments:
Your comment about "Dad is the driver who coordinates the post-dance frozen yogurt party" made me chuckle. My friends and I still reminisce about out last father-daughter dance in 6th grade, how all dads hung out in a corner with our shoes while we ran around, and then took us out for ice cream! PS I hope your back feels better soon!
Beautiful snowy pictures!!! But I LOVE that first picture of Rich with the girls (the second one is super cute too).
Doh! Sent my comment too soon. I follow a fair number of pilates/yoga instructors on my Instagram and several have had posts in the past about how to rebuild your core strength with diastasis recti. I'm sure you've already done tons of research, but I'd be happy to send them along if you'd like. You may need to search through their feeds a bit to find those posts.
The research I've done on diastasis recti concurs that running actually makes it worse. There are several programs that claim to cure/repair the muscle separation, but it's so hard to know if you're doing it right or not without someone there to spot you, so I've given up - it's too much careful work to waste on something that won't work if you do something slightly wrong. Anyway, I feel your (back) pain. 8 kids, but the twin pregnancy with 17 pounds of babies did the worst damage.
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