One step at a time to learn, grow, and do better
I recently completed a 3-month series of physical therapy appointments. My physical therapist told me I needed to first relax my weak and overstrained muscles. Then I could build them back up.
This felt like such a wonderful metaphor for so many things in growth and learning. I immediately started writing this post in my head.
As it happens, this physical therapy journey coincided with the stressful period from the early May draft leak on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to the final decision and the fallout therein.
This may seem like a non sequitur, but …
… it also happens that the reason I was in physical therapy is an introverted uterus and a weak pelvic floor.
I’m going to stop there and emphasize, this is not meant to be a political post. So go @ someone else if that’s your immediate reaction. This is about growth and learning, but also …
… maybe if we stopped being so afraid or uncomfortable talking about women’s reproductive health, there would be some learning.
Maybe we could have a shared understanding of exactly how impactful legislating women’s health and bodies is.
So.
Yes, I have an inverted uterus.
It’s a thing.
The organ tips back instead of forward. It’s not super common, but it’s also not uncommon. I found this out when I had my first gyn exam, and the doctor commented, “It’s kind of like being left-handed. Other women in your family probably have the same thing.” No big deal.
Every gynecologist and obstetrician I’ve seen over 20 years repeated this refrain. So I never worried about it.
Except …
… when women are pregnant and give birth, it is not overstating the matter to say these things cause a ton of stress on our bodies. For me, that plus time led to weakened and overstrained muscles.
That sounds very official. But…
… what it meant is that in April I started having pelvic cramps. Every couple of days. Not during my period. For a month.
Huh. Well, that’s not normal.
Is this some secret bonus awfulness to do with menopause no one told me about? (Spoiler Alert: No.)
And, Sweet Hunter S. Thompson, some of these cramps were curse out loud painful.
I don’t have personal context for endometriosis. I can tell you the pain was definitely worse than any of my typical menstrual cramps. It reminded me of the intensity of labor contractions. Mercifully, they were also often short like early labor contractions.
For those of you without a uterus or familiarity with women’s anatomy, it’s a muscular organ. This sounds cute, but lots of muscles involved. More muscles in the pelvis. And I’ve always suspected pain from cramps and contractions is a special kind of awful because of those muscles.
My truly amazing gynecologist at Women First of Louisville suggested trying physical therapy before considering things like laparoscopic surgery.
My physical therapist narrowed things down to the right side of my pelvic floor and hips. That helped a lot in creating better awareness. My tipped uterus was the culprit for increased lower back pain during my period. It was also straining a weakened support structure connected to my pelvic floor. And that was causing the awful, awful cramps.
And, look, I’m not interested in having any more kids at this point in my life. But having another pregnancy and delivery would probably make this situation worse. Thank goodness for birth control. And, yeppers, there are loads of issues that can make a pregnancy and delivery harmful to a woman’s health.
And there are also ways an issue with a reproductive organ can cause ripple effects. The magical woman who gives me massages several times a year noticed my hip flexors were super tight. I told her about the uterus/pelvic floor situation, and she said that was the culprit. Plus, it can cause issues in my lower back and ripple up to my shoulders and neck. The human body is a miraculous creation with loads of interconnected systems. Guess who is going to start getting a massage more often to deal with this?
Who knew women’s reproductive health included more than periods and making babies?
Every woman who has ever had a health issue related to her reproductive organs.
Every woman who has had a mammogram or does monthly checks or has a family history of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, etc.
Everyone who is familiar with women’s anatomy. But …
… now you know, too.
To deal with a painful charley horse situation in your pelvic floor, you do a lot of small exercises. Those exercises build on each other. You start with learning to isolate and relax muscles. Then you learn to engage them. It also involves your abs — a lot. Bonus: I’m also rebuilding my core muscles.
Every week at Dunn Physical Therapy, as I worked on a small series of exercises I saw this quote:
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at at time.”
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Given the surrounding circumstances, this was reassuring. I come from a family of lawyers and other smart people. And we enjoy talking about Supreme Court cases and public policy. (Seriously, we’re big time geeks!) So this is my language.
I’m a practical optimist, and this quote is so beautiful and motivating to me.
It reminded me so much of what it’s like to learn and grow as a person — around both career and life.
The small things I was doing were allowing me to build back strength.
And it resonated with me, because that’s what you do when you learn and grow. You work through steps to get there, and those steps often build on each other to have a much larger impact.
It’s not always comfortable. In fact, a lot of time the learning happens when you are deeply uncomfortable. But …
… you learn and grow, and get comfortable, and get better.
The quote on the opposite wall at Dunn Physical Therapy is:
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then you you know better do better.”
- Maya Angelou
Let’s get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Let’s talk in detail about the whole spectrum of women’s reproductive health.
So you can know better, and do better.
