I had an MRI on my back on Friday--the pain had become intense at times and my foot was regularly loosing sensation or just getting tingly, like it was asleep.
The MRI showed that I am extraordinarily short waisted. Well, that's not what the doctor said precisely, but that's what he meant. He pointed to my spine and said that spines aren't really supposed to curve out so dramatically at their base. Then he pointed to the sacroiliac joint (where the spine and pelvis meet) and said that one of my bones there isn't fused properly, which could be a congenital thing or could be the result of injury, which was most likely a repetitive stress injury. He said you see this a lot in people who play a lot of tennis, volleyball, and swimming (see, I KNEW swimming was a horrible sport!) but then said that the small amount of swimming I did to train for the triathlon wouldn't have done it. He said sports where there's a lot of forward-and-back movement from the waist can cause this sort of injury. He was more interested in what I had done much earlier in life, something I may have participated in long-term. I told him I hadn't participated in any sorts of sports like that, but then on my way back from the doctor I remembered, duh, rowing. Three years of five days a week in the fall and spring, all bending back and forth at my waist. A quick Google search tells me that 66% of sweep rowers on the senior national team have SI joint dysfunction.
So whatever the cause (as he said, could be congenital because of the weird shape of my spine. Thanks Mom and Dad!) the treatment at this point is anti-inflamatory drugs and physical therapy. If that doesn't work, we move on to injections, and if THAT doesn't work, then we move to surgery. I hope it doesn't come to that.
I'm kicking myself for not spending more time focusing on core conditioning this past year. I was so focused on doing what I had to do to make it through the triathlon that I ignored conditioning like that.
1 comment:
Don't beat yourself up! Exercise gurus love to say, "And this helps strengthen your core, too!" about everything -- swimming being a perfect example, because if you don't use your core you'll die -- and we all love to hear that because it means we can skip stupid Pilates, given that it makes us feel awkward and lopsided anyway. At least, that's how my mind works. I have been doing crunches and leaving it at that, but I KNOW that's not enough.
I'm so sorry about your back troubles! Do you suppose my short waist is the reason for my back aching when I do push-ups or when I kneel? Or is that just wishful thinking, when I KNOW it's because of a weak core?
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