Interrupted

My Life Thus Far
2008-01-19 13:41:54 (UTC)

Heartburn And A New Dysfunction

***

It's after 5am on a Saturday morning and here I sit.
Awake. Writing in my diary. Why, you ask? For two reasons.
Heartburn and a new dysfunction. The heartburn isn't so
bad. I've had worse after a run-in with Mexican food.
Nothing a little Pepto couldn't fix (if I had any. Reason
#1 why I have heartburn. No Pepto). The new dysfunction,
however is kicking my ass (crotch, actually) and I don't
know what to do about it.

For the past few weeks, I've had annoying pelvic pain that
came to a head yesterday morning. Minor aching in the
symphysis bone at the front of my pelvis. Nothing too
terrible. A few days ago it started bothering me a little
more and then yesterday morning, I fucked it all up trying
to put on a pair of pants. I lifted my leg to put my foot
in (as everyone on the planet does) and lost my balance.
My fault for not sitting down to put on my pants, but
anyhow. I went to catch myself with the half-panted leg
and felt my pelvic bones pop. From that moment on, the
pain has been ever-present. I had coffee with Gen (a
delightful treat), and it wasn't too bad, but by the time
I got to work I was hurting pretty good. The rotating of
the hips getting out of the car, the walk from the parking
lot to the store. It was all too much to bear. Standing
during my shift didn't help, either. Jenny (one of my
managers) brought me a stool to sit on, but that didn't
help because sitting puts pressure on it, too. Half way
through my shift, I was nearly in tears. The only way I
can describe the pain is searing. Like I was a little
chicken getting my legs pulled apart. I couldn't go home,
because we were short staffed as it was. So, I soldiered
through it.

Snookums had come to see me at work and I told him I was
in pain, so when I got home, he had pajamas laid out for
me in the bathroom. He put me in a nice hot tub of water,
washed my hair. He even made dinner. Grilled chicken,
macaroni and cheese, and broccoli. I was surprised. Aside
from the chicken being slightly over-cooked, he did a
really good job. But, then it was the only thing that
didn't come with directions. Even the frozen broccoli TOLD
him how to cook it. The chicken was silent. It was great
thought. Nothing a little (a lot of) barbeque sauce
couldn't fix. I ate dinner in bed, on my left side, with a
pillow between my legs to help level out the pelvic bones.
It helped, but moving in anyway negates all moments of
relief. I don't know what I'm going to do.

I went online and did some research. I simply plugged in
my symptoms and where the pain is living and got a name
for what I'm feeling. Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction.
Basically, the hormones released during pregnancy relax
all of the joints. In women, the front our our pelvis' is
held together with a thin layer of cartilage, which by
default makes it a joint. It relaxes in preparation for
birth and afterwards goes back to normal. In some unlucky
women (1 in 35 of us, to be precise), there's too much
relaxin (the hormone) in our system and it causes the
pelvic muscles to become misaligned. Which makes
everything from walking, sitting, rotating the hips,
having sex. Everything requiring movement, really, to be
painful. The bitch of it all is that traditional (i.e.
military medical, I'm sure) doesn't really even
acknowledge it as a real condition, because it will go
away after the pregnancy is over, so they tell you to grin
and bear it. This leaves some women bound to a wheelchair
by the time their ready to give birth.

This isn't really new to me. I had the same kind of pain
the last few weeks I was pregnant with Kiki, but that was
normal, because I was about to give birth. Turns out,
Naval Hospital had me in all the WRONG positions to give
birth without injury. They had me on my back, in stirrups,
which is the absolute wrong way to give birth if you've
got pelvic problems. I ended up dislocating a hip, which
they also played off. The way they had me deliver Kiki
injured me even more and made me more likely to have
problems this time around. Also, having several big babies
(8lbs and up, which is all I have) puts you at risk. Being
of Scandinavian or African American decent also is a risk
factor. I don't know if I have any Scandinavian blood in
me (German?), but I know I've got African American in me.
So, whether or not this baby is a boy, this is it. My body
is giving out at 25. I'm not meant to have any more kids
than that. You've got to listen to your body at some
point.

I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, but I don't
know what I'm going to do until then. I'm not going to let
them poo-poo me and tell me nothing is wrong, because I
know it is. There are treatments for it. Water therapy,
chiropractic alignment, physiotherapy. Something. I'm not
sure how I can work, if it's going to get much worse than
it was yesterday. I'm only 20 weeks. The pressure is going
to increase. The baby is going to get bigger. I need to
deal with this now while it's still manageable.

Not that anyone is too interested in what my crotch is
feeling like, right now, but it hurts, so I think I'll go
try to lay down for awhile. Snookums already said I get to
rest today. Not that I wouldn't have been doing that
anyway :) Ciao.

P.S. I also found some info on Polyhydroamniosis while
looking up Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction on a UK prenatal
site under a different name. (Hydramnios). It can be
caused by a congenital (contracted while in the womb)
infection. Which is exactly, to the T, what happened to
Kiki. So, I feel better about that. It isn't necessarily
likely to happen again. Mentally, I'm still feeling pretty
chipper. Even if I think my hoo-hoo is going to fall out!




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