Two days ago, after a week or so of some very mild muscle tugging in the area of my sacroiliac joint, my lower back finally "locked up." This hasn't happened since late June when I got TOTALLY stressed out preparing for our summer vacation. I am unsure why it happened now. I am not particularly stressed about anything. I usually suffer from "lock ups" during periods of great demands on my time, when I have many competing goals and pressing deadlines. As "lock up" events go, this one is pretty tame, giving me only short periods of incapacitation if I forget to take a dose of ibuprofen. When my daughter was younger, some episodes were so severe I could barely walk without the assistance of a cane or crutches. I guess all that chiropractic care I paid for (and continue to pay for) is helping.
I am definitely irritated with my body. My 50th birthday is on Friday and I have a short field trip planned that requires quite a bit of walking. In an effort to find a "quick" remedy so I am ready for my excursion, I started searching for a solution. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my sacroiliac joint may not be "locked up" after all but might be misaligned instead due to too much flexibility. An imbalance in the tightness of my calf muscles (the right side being worse) or stiffness in the sacroiliac joint itself (or both) may be creating inflammation that is probably causing the pain, confirmed by the fact that ibuprofen is effectively addressing most of the discomfort at the moment. The fact that I was neglecting my daily "before I hop out of bed" stretching routine surely didn't help, either.
So, I have three days to heal. Hopefully, my almost 50-year-old body cooperates.
Yoga Journal article on sacroiliac joint
No comments:
Post a Comment