I hate to admit that Baby Schmidt sidelined my goals of being a fit pregnant mama. That my goals to continue to run as long as I could barely got me out of the first trimester. By the second, my hips and lower back and bum were in excruciating pain.
Thus, middle of November, I scheduled myself for an evaluation at the PT clinic I work for. Best thing. Ever. (Never mind the turkey trot that Adam and I “ran”/walked at Thanksgiving with Fleet Feet)
What’s going on?
According to this blog post:
At the lower end of the spine, just below the lumbar spine lies the sacrum. The sacrum is a triangular shaped bone that is actually formed by the fusion of several vertebrae during development. The sacroiliac (SI) joint sits between the sacrum and the iliac bone (thus the name sacroiliac joint). You can see these joints from the outside as two small dimples on each side of the lower back at the belt line.
….
The most common symptoms from SI joint dysfunction are low back and buttock pain. The pain may affect one side or both SI joints. The pain can radiate down the leg all the way to the foot and may be confused with a herniated disc in the lumbar spine. The pain may radiate into the groin area. People often feel muscle spasm in one or both of their buttocks muscles.”
In short, baby Schmidt is a pain in my rear. Literally. But generally, the Sacroilliac joint is stable (during non-pregnancy) but during pregnancy, things get all elasticized, and stretched and given that the SI Joint is already a pain sensitive joint, any stretching of the joint causes great pain. Thus, the pain in my rear.
Once I went in for my eval, my therapist (one of whom happens to be one of my bosses) told me no more running. Swimming is fine (excepting that the county pool on Riva Road is freezing. Always.), the elliptical is fine. But that nothing that’s going to cause a major pelvic imbalance like running, biking, that kind of stuff.
Wamp wamp.
So I won’t get to be a pregnant runner. I can still do yoga, though one therapist reminded me that my joints are already super elastic so some poses might cause a lot of pain. Thankfully, prenatal yoga doesn’t try to be super bendy, it just creates a lot of space with standing poses and lots of breathing. I happen to enjoy it a lot and it really has given me something to look forward during the work week.
In the meantime, I’m going to look on with envy as blog crushes and friends get ready to run races that were originally on my race wish list for 2013- Cherry Blossom 10 miler, Nike Women’s Half in DC, Zooma Half, TriRock Annapolis, among many, many others. I have high hopes for a fall racing season that will hopefully include Iron Girl Tri (August), Army Ten Miler, Annapolis Half Marathon, among others. I’m not signing up for anything just yet, and I might find myself back in PT depending on post-natal recovery, but for now, I’m going to keep my hopes up and set big goals for myself for next fall.
What do you do when you’re sidelined by injury?
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