P.t.

I had my first PT appointment yesterday...my back was really sore afterwards. It's ok though because my mom came over and we made a pumpkin pie with a GF crust. So delish! Even Nic liked it. :) Back to PT. My PT explained Spondylolisthesis to me a bit better (he said it has to do with some type of syndrome that I can't remember the name of). Basically I have a stress fracture on the spine part of my L5 vertebrae. Most likely both sides of the spine are fractured. What that means is that the vertebrae has nothing to hold on it so that's why it has moved. They grade Spondylolisthesis in grades 1-4 - I have a grade 1 which means it has moved 1/4. When you think of how not big the body of a vertebrae is, 1/4 of a movement is quite a bit - about 5-6 mm. Eeek. Good news is that most of the time you can seek pain relief with PT and it will heal itself. Other times not so much. I don't even want to think about that. Let's start with PT and we'll go from there. I still have NO IDEA how it happened and don't think I ever will.

So in last night's PT session I did some ab exercises and stretching - all about strengthening my core. Ideally I will do exercises 5 times/week and get 20-30 minutes of aerobic exercise 5 times/week. For the first little while, my PT wants to see me a couple times per week and then it's up to me on how often I see him, which is nice that he's left it up to me. My abs were a bit sore this morning and I have my exercises to do. I'm glad I finally have some answers, because for a minute I didn't want people to think I was overreacting or making it up. I wasn't, I promise! ;) I don't want to mess around with my back. Bring on the PT!