When Acute Injury Leads to Chronic Pain

We never think much of it - we have an injury perhaps a serious one like a fracture or a soft tissue tear and we just wait for it to heal.  In the meantime your body is making all sorts of accommodations for this injury to make sure you can get on with your day and obligations.

This is the most important time for you to take a moment and really analyze how you are moving.  What compensations are you making to get through your day?  These accommodations are the conditions that will make your injury last for a much longer time than it takes to heal a fracture or soft tissue.  

We are beings of patterns and our bodies are willing to change patterns pretty easily.  We are easily swayed.  If we can bear just a little less than full weight on one leg we easily accommodate this by kicking our leg out to the side of our bodies to avoid putting full pressure on it and then over using our hip flexors to drag it along.  Meanwhile our sacrum, spine, knees and even ankles are getting quite a twist.  Once the injury heals and we can bare full weight again you would be amazed to find that though your right leg has moved more towards the alignment of your sitz bone it is still not in true alignment.  This is because your body has adapted to the new alignment of being way out to the side so the re-alignment of center is not quite straight.  The body is confused because other parts of your body have adjusted to the sideways moving leg.  So where is the real straight?

Imagine over time through the different injuries that often occur in our lives if these matters are not addressed how quickly the off alignment becomes the new alignment with all the different variances that have happened over time.

It is vital that during an injury and especially after it is healed to seek out advisement for correct alignment as soon as possible so that the interim way of being straight does not become the permanent way of being straight from that point forward. 

The curious thing about the body is that you may feel fantastic once the original injury heals and think that life is back to normal.  However, the adjusted alignment that is incorrect may manifest as pain months are even years after the original injury has healed since our bodies are so resilient.  This is when an acute injury becomes a chronic one.  

In our busy modern lives we rarely take time out for ourselves.  As they say when you fly, “Please secure your own mask before assisting others.”  It is imperative to take care of you.  This beautiful physical vessel we are in can last a really long time, however, it needs care and maintenance just like your car, house, etc.  Even daily tasks that are repetitive can cause alignment issues that help you get through the overuse and continue on.  So I urge you to take time out for your and to take care of you.  Your body will thank you and you will feel better and better.   ~ Jennifer Wilson