Loose Joints

Loose joints. Loose joints. That's what the drug dealers on my street in New York City used to whisper to me as a I made my way to my dance class. Loose joints. Yep. That's me.

The splits, no problem. Wrap my let around my neck. Sure. Why not. I have always been flexible. Some people just are. First row in yoga class. That's my place.

Little did I know that all that flexibility that I enjoyed so much was going to come back to haunt me one day.

I first noticed that something was not right when I was pregnant with my first child.

I had THE WORST sciatica. I couldn't sit longer than 20 minutes.

It disappeared as soon as she was born and reappeared with my second pregnancy. Only to disappear when he arrived. Then this nasty sciatica only bothered me after an especially hard dance class. I could hardly walk home afterward.

What was happening to my super flexible bod? My Sacroiliac joint was sliding around just a little too much, THAT'S what was happening.

If you have a pelvis, you have a sacroiliac or SI Joint. It's a strange little joint. More of a slider than a rotator like most joints. And it is not supposed to move very much.

But mine was moving way more than it was supposed to...because of my very loose ligaments or connective tissue which gave me those super flexible loose joints. The surrounding muscles were going into over-time to try to stabilize this looseness. The busy busy over worked muscles were pinching my sciatic nerve which just happened to be in the way. It was SERIOUSLY painful.

Now whenever I see someone who is very very flexible I think, " Oh my, poor baby. You are going to feel that one day."

Just so you know. Highlighted words in my blog have a link to the explanation, usually Wikipedia.