Pelvic Health & Orthopedic Physical Therapy
Addressing your questions about pelvic, women's, and musculoskeletal health. Health is a journey. Movement is healing!
This post brought to you by my recent trip to the Grand Canyon, it got me reflecting...
Chronic pain is a bit of a beast. It bears its ugly teeth and its bark is as bad as its bite. As time continues this chronic pain can feel like it is worsening. Pain is a nervous system response to something the body perceives as dangerous. Acute pain is a natural protective response of the body. If you step on a Lego your body recognizes the threat (you know exactly what I am talking about) to the foot and responds by having you pull your foot away from the Lego. The pain goes away and you continue to function. Wallah! That is what we want our bodies to do. It gets tricky when we have an experience or injury that causes longer lasting pain. Let's say you are a working mother of a few young children. You have a desk job and commute into work. You also have young kids at home which requires lifting kids, taking kids in and out of carseats not to mention the housework you do with standing, lifting, and bending. Your youngest still has a difficult time sleeping throughout the night so rarely do you get a full night of sleep. Since the birth of your youngest you really have had time to return to exercise. Sound familiar? Maybe you can identify with aspects of this hypothetical case. You start to notice some back pain throughout the day. It really isn't that bad, you pop a few ibuprofen and get back to life. Your pain gets progressively worse over then next year. You now have this pain constantly that is altering your ability to do the things that you need to do or enjoy doing. Movement is healing. Movements can help to regulate the nervous system to decrease the intensity of pain in the body. They key is finding movements that feel good and possibly making some changes to the movements you do throughout the day. This is where physical therapy can be really helpful. Physical Therapists are movement experts, especially in the rehabilitative process. The key to healing from chronic pain is to remember that is a journey. There will be good days and bad days, but the number of good days will increase with persistence. Persistence and patience are crucial! Just like the Colorado River in forming the Grand Canyon. If the waters of a river can persist to form a canyon 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and a mile deep you can persist against your rock barrier, pain. Comments are closed.
|
AuthorHello! I am Caitlyn, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Board Certified Women's Health Physical Therapist working in St Louis, Missouri. Faculty in developing residency program. Endowarrior Categories
All
Archives
July 2021
|