One of the new year's resolutions was to get the back healed. After a Saturday morning of basketball a few weeks ago left me mostly immobile for 24 hours, a friendly visit to my HMO primary care physician revealed a strain of the "ilio labrum" ligament (Latin for "real achy"). As he explained that the ligament connects the upper and lower halves of the body, I was briefly distracted by the thought of children born without that ligament, walking around with their upper torso flopping crazily from side to side and their heads bouncing off the pavement. I recovered in time to hear him prescribe more physical therapy, which was a relief.
McDonalds have a theory for everything, and mine is that an old ankle injury caused me to overcompensate with certain muscles. Over five years, that had taken its toll on the leg, and now had spread to the back. Sure enough, the therapist confirmed that my left calf muscle and ankle were extremely tight, and she gave me a series of stretches to try out.
Today, a week later, I returned. She said that my flexibility had markedly improved, and my back appeared to be in better alignment than the previous week. She said that I was "kinesthetically aware," and once I stopped crying she explained that it was actually a compliment -- meaning that I had a grasp of how my muscles worked together which was helping me to make good self-diagnoses and adjustments. It seemed true enough -- I've not had a relapse in a couple of weeks, and my confidence is growing the more I stretch and move the back around pain-free.
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