Walking

One of my favorite things to do is going for walks. When Michael and I adopted Bella 9 (!!!!) years ago, we started a regular walking routine. We walked all over the neighborhood at our old house. When the owners sold the farm next to our street and it turned into a massive new build neighborhood, while we were bummed–it created a great new walking route! We took Bella all the time and when Logan came along we did SO MUCH walking. My maternity leave was basically Logan and I going for long walks. The walks got longer and longer the stronger I got and eventually turned to running. It was great when I got a jogging stroller and Logan and I went out a lot!

When we moved and then a year later Covid hit and we were home 24/7, walking was a savior for us — and me. While I am cool being at home and love teleworking and want to do it FOREVER, a change of scenery is good. Michael and I were regularly taking Bella for walks 3x a day. All of our breaks and lunches from work were walks with Bella.

When I was pregnant this last time I kept up with the walking. Until the very end. The last month of my pregnancy was rough. I had pelvic dysfunction disorder (or whatever it’s called) and it hurt to walk. I was very very slow. But I still took B out for walks as much as I could.

When Zoey was born and my old SI injury flared up a week after the birth, and it got progressively worse, the thing that upset me the most was that WALKING WAS IMPOSSIBLE. I am not exaggerating when I say that I could not walk. It was hard to walk, I couldn’t do stairs at all, I couldn’t put weight on my right side. So putting on pants? Shoes? Standing on one leg? Walking up stairs? Yeah right. Excruciating pain.

I have a fairly high pain tolerance (although it’s gotten a little lower in the last few years–childbirth will do that!) and it was so horrible. I was taking SO MUCH advil and tylenol and prednisone. Prednisone helps–even though the side effects suck. Hunger, weight gain, irritability, insomnia…but it works. The combo helped me manage the pain and be able to at least walk a little bit.

Last year before I got pregnant I got a cortisone shot in my SI joint and it worked really well. I was able to be pain free for almost a year and that included during pregnancy! I had other issues (like the pelvic pain) but my SI pain wasn’t acting up. It was so frustrating when it flared up. And it was so much worse this time. I did some research and I think the SI flare up inflamed my piriformis. Apparently that is common.

The piriformis muscle is basically your glute/butt area. Piriformis syndrome can cause pain, sciatica , numbness/tingling, etc. I don’t have sciatica or leg pain or numbness in my leg. But what I read said you can have just pain (yes) and that things like walking and stairs can be painful.

I was able to get another cortisone shot in my SI joint recently at the doctor and it helped a lot. Didn’t fix it entirely but it helped and with the SI joint not inflamed, I noticed that the pain moved. It was in the glute area. That’s when I did the research about the piriformis. I went to the chiropractor and massage a lot in the last 6 weeks and two different massage therapists said where my pain was now was the piriformis and the QL muscle in the back:

It was kind of a relief to get information instead of just feeling broken!

So recently I have been back to doing some of my PT exercises for the SI joint and back issues. I am trying to strengthen my core and stretch my back. Pregnancy does a number on your body and every part of my body needs attention right now.

So right now, I am working on that. What have I been doing?

Yoga

PT stretches

Pilates videos

Postpartum exercise videos (mostly stretches and weights)

Weight lifting (easy)

I am trying to build up my strength. I can’t do cardio right now until my hip/SI/glute heal so I am going to focus on that. Until recently I couldn’t even stretch or do my PT exercises because was in too much pain. Last week I was finally able to start stretching! Yoga helps a lot. It’s weird that I can’t put weight on my right leg to put my shoes on but I can do yoga moves where I stand on one leg. Makes no sense…

Anyways, I am really really hoping that I can soon be back to walking more. All I want to do on my maternity leave it take Zoey and Bella for long walks. Especially now that the weather will be getting nicer soon!

Cross your fingers for me!