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June 16, 2004

My Odyssey With Low Back Pain

Since I began studying and practicing massage therapy in 1997, I've had chronic back pain. The origin of the pain was hauling a piece of furniture up 4 flights of stairs to our apartment. The pain would be excruciating around the left sacroiliac joint and often leave me bent over like an old person right around my menstrual period.

One day, I had the bright idea that it might be a gynecological problem such as ovarian cysts, which can refer pain into the low back. I went for an exam and, surprisingly, he suggested I may have endometriosis, which has a common onset in women's 30s and 40s.

I asked to be referred to an orthopedist just to rule out muscle strain before I agreed to surgery. The orthopedist seemed reluctant to refute my OB-Gyn's diagnosis of endometriosis, but said there was a possibility of strain present because the pain responded to exercise, giving me temporary relief.

I bought the book Treat Your Own Back on my doctor's recommendation and discovered that I had been working with a slight pelvic tilt under the misguided impression that I would save myself from back pain. This was actually causing my pain, so I've corrected my body mechanics and have seen a great improvement in my back pain (until my menses come around again).

This past April I attended my second Visceral Manipulation class, confident that someone would discover an adhesion around my left ovary which would be responsible for my nagging back pain. While reviewing manipulation of the sigmoid colon, my lab partner did a wonderful job freeing my sigmoid colon from the body wall and another huge piece of my back pain cleared up.

So, I went to my OB-Gyn this week for my annual exam and was happy to report the improvement in my monthly back pain. I still have discomfort, but can do some yoga stretches which afford me a gristly feeling release of the tissue around the sacroiliac joint (I obviously have more work to do). But I feel the problem is now manageable with stretching and massage.

Posted by linda at June 16, 2004 12:30 PM