Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there!!

Mom's really are the core of our existence, aren't they?

My mom is one of the strongest, most amazing people I know. Not only was she diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis the year after I was born, but she defied all the doctors and had 2 more children after me. I myself was delivered by emergency C-section. My siblings were both planned C-sections. (In those days once you had one C-section any other births had to be the same way.) When I was 13 she had to have a hysterectomy and had a 4^th incision through that first scar. (We have loads of cancer in our family…thank God she did not and does not and this was just normal procedure for a Peri-menopausal woman in 1980)

Way back when in 1967 the C-Section scars were vertical and cut straight down the middle of the abdominal wall. As you can imagine, this would wreak havoc on the strongest of core musculature.

Mom has only had real trouble walking and standing upright in the last 10 years. She never in my life complained of pain…until recently. In the last month she has been complaining of low back pain. After going through a comprehensive evaluation, we performed manual muscle testing and found her Multifidus and her Gluteus Maximus dysfunctional.  

The Multifidus runs along the back of your body and helps to extend, rotate and side bend your trunk. The Gluteus Maximus extends, laterally rotates and abducts the hip. In order to stand fully erect, your abdominal muscles, your back extensor muscles and your hip muscles all need to be working at their best.

Given her history, and current complain of pain, I wanted to test that C-Section scar. We found one part of the scar working hard for another part. 

I did Myo-fascial Release to the overworking area and then activated the under-working area of the scar. When I retested her Multifidus and Gluteus Maximus they were working just fine, her back pain was less and she was able to stand more upright. She will need to do some ongoing work with some home exercises, but for the moment she was feeling and moving better. 

                                                          

Never underestimate your history of scars and how they can affect your mobility and pain even if the scar occurred a long time ago.

Most of all, if you’re a child of a Mom who had a C-Section, give her some extra love for the strength she has to keep moving and hold you up throughout her life.