Diagnoses: Symphasis Pubis Dysfunction

Before I get into this diagnosis, there is an overdue announcement I need to make.

I am currently almost five months pregnant with our fifth child. This is part of the reason for my erratic posting and my inability to meet goals I’d set. However, being pregnant is intimately related to this diagnosis.

Symphasis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD) is a pregnancy-specific condition, although it can continue after the baby is born. To understand what SPD is, you need to understand the musculoskeletal system a little. There’s an area of your body commonly known as the pelvic girdle. This is an area of bones including the pelvis or hip bones, the sacro-Illiac joint (where the pelvis joins the spine), the sacrum (the lower part of your spine), and at the front are your pubic bones. The front part – the pubic bones – are two bones joined by the Symphasis Pubis – a ligament. There is usually a small gap between these bones – less than 1cm.

When you are pregnant your body produces lots of different hormones. Some of these, such as relaxin and oxytocin, help the muscles and ligaments to relax and stretch so that your body can accommodate your growing baby. Symphasis Pubis Dysfunction is when the Symphasis Pubis ligament becomes too relaxed and allows the pubic bones to move around far more that they aught to. In some women this can cause the bones to come too close together and rub against each other. In others it can cause a misalignment of the bones, which ripples through the musculoskeletal system, causing pain in the pubic area, the lower back and sometimes down the legs.

Misalignments can be corrected but there is no “cure” for SPD except for some precautions to help prevent making it worse, treatment for the symptoms and ultimately having the baby and the hormone levels returning to something approximating normal.

Typical activities that need to be avoided when you have SPD include pushing (prams, trolleys etc), lifting (toddlers, baskets of wet washing), heavier housework tasks (vacuuming, sweeping floors, washing floors), climbing up or down stairs, and anything else that causes weight to be unevenly distributed or involves separation of the legs.

Rolling over in bed can be extremely painful as can getting in and out of a car or the bath (which is a shame because the warm water can act as a pain reliever). It will usually reoccur with each subsequent pregnancy and will usually get worse with each subsequent pregnancy and get worse as the pregnancy progresses and the weight pressing on the pelvis increases.

Personally, my 4th and 5th pregnancies have been a little easier with the SPD. Part of this is due to moving out of a block of units where we were upstairs during pregnancy #4 and this time around it is partly due to having better core muscle strength – strong core muscles can bear some of the weight of the baby etc rather than all of the pressure being downwards.

While this pregnancy has been better (in that it started later) it has arrived with a bang in the last few weeks. We are going to have to come up with an action plan that will help me to stay as mobile as possible for as long as possible, while still getting the housework done and caring for my children. We may have to put calls out for help with various tasks at various times and we may need to lower our standards in housekeeping or be less able to be out and about, attending functions or taking the kids out to things. My limited ability to be active during pregnancy will also impact the amount of weight I put on during the pregnancy, so I’m going to have to be extra cautious about the foods I eat and I’ll have to place a greater priority on the types of exercise I can do.

We’ve managed this before and I know we can manage it again, although each time the challenges are unique and, well, challenging in their own ways.

The Escape Plan: Challenge #10

Challenge #10 was called Memory Maker.  We’re supposed to do something to spend time with someone and create a memory with them.

The other day, after I picked the kids up from school, we went to a park instead of going home before our afternoon appointment.  Not just any park with play equipment.  No, I took them to a park where there were piles of autumn leaves from liquid ambers all over the grass.  The kids threw the leaves, kicked them, piled them up, jumped into them, and even climbed a few trees.

I can’t guarantee that my kids will remember it in ten years time, but I do know that doing these sorts of things will help them remember at least some of the fun things we did.

Just a shame my phone was dead and I couldn’t get any photos…  However, I’ve got some photos from a few years back when Zoe and Reuben did a similar thing…

The Escape Plan: Challenge #9

The ninth challenge as part of the plan to escape Adultitis was to do something to support a cause you believe in.

I got a little stuck on this.  I have things that are holding me back regarding offering financial or practical support to any cause.  So I did something, however small, to support some causes I believe in.

I hopped onto my Facebook page and “liked” some organisations that we support.  Granted, it may not give much back to the organisations, but maybe someone out there is considering sponsoring a child, and my “like” may give them an organisation to contact or remind them to do something about that thought.  I have to consider my own limitations, but I also don’t want to underestimate the power of lots of people doing small things to support something greater.

So maybe not awe-inspiring or life-changing, but a step in the right direction.

The Escape Plan: Challenge #8

Challenge number eight was pretty easy.  It was called Doodlesmile and for it I had to draw a silly picture and put it in a place where someone else would find it.  So, the other evening I got out a whiteboard marker and I drew on our bathroom mirror.  The mirror is about 1m square so it’s a pretty big picture.  It’s of an animal I called an Elirglish which has an elephant’s head, a giraffe’s neck, an eagle’s chest and legs and a fish’s tail.

Now that I’m feeling slightly less tired I hope to be able to complete these challenges more freuquently… here’s hoping anyhow.

Sensory Diet – Heavy Work

It took me a long time to get my head around what “heavy work” meant, in the context of a sensory diet.  I’d envisaged pulling and pushing and being squashed quite fine, but it took me a while to see that heavy work could be a smaller scale thing, involving just a small part of the body, particularly the hands.

Enter a stretchy toy.

This nifty little stretchy band was $3 from the shop at the Australian Museum. It stretches quite easily but provides good resistance.  At resting size, it’s perfect to fit around an adult’s wrist (not suggesting that you actually would want to wear it as a bracelet, just giving you an idea of size).

I haven’t actually measured it at full stretch but it easily fits over my head as a headband (because you know that it’s a great fashion statement).

The great thing about this little toy is that it’s light and easily fits into my handbag.  We can take it anywhere and if my Little Man is getting restless but can’t leave the pram, I can whip this out for a bit of entertainment and muscle stimulation.  If needed, I could even thread the pram strap through the middle, in case I thought we were likely to lose it.

A great investment for $3… actually, we have two now, just in case.

The Escape Plan: Challenge #7

Challenge #7 was to choose something I love to do, but rarely have time for, and set aside at least 30mins to do it.

I enjoy sewing, as long as I choose a project within my limited capabilities.  So when my children were being looked after by my Mum, I set aside some time to sew myself another maxi dress, that I’d been meaning to do for ages.  I made so many mistakes – I think I was a bit tired to be attempting a sewing project – but I didn’t give in, and I have another dress!  All it cost me was a few dollars for a vintage/retro sheet from the op shop and some bias binding, thread and time.  From one packet of bias binding I’ve trimmed two dresses and, at a guess, have enough to do one more.

It was fun, despite the mistakes, and I really need to set aside time for me more often, when the kids aren’t here, instead of running errands.

Now on to challenge 8!

Sensory Diet: Soap Mud

When browsing on Pinterest a while ago (I’m no longer active on Pinterest) I came across this great activity to make clean “mud”.

The recipe is simple.  Take three bars of soap and grate them (I used a veggie peeler I have set aside for soap – I used to use it to make laundry detergent).  Take a roll of toilet paper and tear it into small pieces.  Mix them together and add about 1.25 L of warm to hot water (not too hot though!).  Use your hands to mix the water, soap and toilet paper.

The more you mix it, squeeze it, play with it, the more mud-like it becomes.

If the mixture is too dry, add some more warm water.  If it’s too wet, add more toilet paper.  We had about 1.8L of water and had to add another half a roll of toilet paper!

This is obviously an outside activity.

And is apparenly a whole body experience.

It was really quite fun to play with.  It’s basically a modified Papier-mâché so if you want to sculpt with it and leave it somewhere to dry, it will work.

Have fun!