After leaving a sniveling message begging for a callback -that I thought would surely get results, because I sounded pretty pathetic according to my co-workers – I still had to track him down after 3 o’clock.  I didn’t even want to talk to him, just to get a recommendation from his nurse for a PT person in NYC who wasn’t afraid of pregnant women.  But after hearing my story of woe the nurse sent me on to him, worried that I couldn’t tell a skeletal problem from a preterm-labor contraction.

*sigh*

I realize he’s a high risk OB and so has to think of these things, but really – I’m pregnant, not stupid, and if I were in any doubt as to what was going on here, I’d be in his office demanding emergency care, not calling for a PT or chiropractor recommendation – you know?

Once he established that the shooting, grinding pain when I walk wasn’t accompanied by, say, contractions or gushes of bloody, watery fluid, he suggested I not wear high-heeled shoes.

Um, really now.  Do I seem like a high-heeled shoes person even when not pregnant and suffering from self-described agonizing back pain?  You all have (mostly) never even seen me, but I’d bet you understand just from this blog that I’m not the high-heeled shoes type.

I think I snorted derisively.

So then he suggested I might take a warm shower.  Or perhaps use a heating pad dialed to low.  Was I aware that sleeping with a pillow between my knees might make me more comfortable?

*sigh*

I reiterated that I wasn’t trying to be a whiner, and that I really believed that this was a sacroiliac issue and that the pain level was inching up into the land of “I can’t walk at all without tears running down my face” and that a PT person might be my best bet, since the pain was really getting unbearable, but that when I was able to stop and do some exercises throughout the day, it improves immediately afterwards (although it doesn’t necessarily stay improved after I get up and start walking again).  But still, it would indicate that this is a problem that might be correctable through exercise and maneuvering of recalcitrant body parts by someone trained in the art.  His response?

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t walk anymore.”

Um, I kind of have to.  Real life, you know.  Besides, I’m thinking that going on bedrest for back pain is sort of stupid.  Get really weak in preparation for childbirth & the parenting of a newborn!  Yay!

“Well, if the pain is really unbearable, we could always put you on narcotics.”

Nonono.  You’re not listening.  Pelvic bones out of alignment!  Can feel the edges grating on each other when I walk!  Not a pain I want to cover up, I just want to get the surrounding muscles strong enough to hold together everything that’s going wonky due to a relaxin overdose.  Which sounds like a good idea for a number of reasons – yes? (not least of which is my determination that if Tylenol is too much to expose Thor’s developing body/brain to, there aint no way narcotic painkillers are getting anywhere near us unless I’m delirious from pain & unable to refuse.)

“Perhaps acupuncture would work.  A lot of my patients have really good results.”

Ok, what am I not communicating here?  Or what am I not understanding?  Is it me, or does it seem to others that there are actually 2 kinds of pain.  There’s the warning kind of pain that signals damage being done, so you try to react to the problem – like this here back pain.  Something’s out of whack and needs to be put back into whack and then the pain will ease or even cease.  And then there’s the kind of pain that is just pain.  Menstrual cramps.  Charley horse.  Hell, even though I’m a ‘wannabe natural birther’, I’d even put labor pains into this camp.  Nothing’s wrong, it’s just going to hurt for a while.  No damage done in the end.  But do you use acupuncture to treat a broken arm?  No!  nonononononono!  Look, doc, can you give me a recommendation or not?  Because if not, I’ll just keep calling PTs until I find one who isn’t horrified by the thought of touching a pregnant lady.

The short answer to this long anecdote is that, no, he has no recommendation to give, but that if I find a good PT I should let him know.  (Because apparently I’m his first patient to require assistance with managing sacroiliac pain in 30+ years of practice. *rolls eyes*)

And so I’m going to take it beyond easy this weekend.  On Tuesday, if it’s worse, then it’s time to call PT people who specialize in pregnancy issues like this.  If it’s better, then maybe it’s time to take a week of sick leave to enforce some

Oi.

Ow.

Argh.