Lately I have been reading medical journal articles about women with extreme cases of Diastasis Symphysis Pubis (separated pelvis) during childbirth. In two of those cases the women were considered healed with gaps still larger than mine is today.
That gets my mind racing about a million things. Among them:
- How much, if at all, does one’s frame have to do with the effects of the injury?
- Am I just “weak” in comparison to these women?
- Are they settling for “better than it was” as I did for so many months?
- What would be different for me now if I had gotten help sooner?
- If I had been put on bed rest for the first few weeks?
The surgeon reassured me that the things I was told to do – wear the brace, use the walker, rest when I can – did help but won’t anymore. And he said it will get better after the plate is in place.
He’s actually going to remove my symphysial disk — the cartilage between the two halves of my pubis. Then he will clamp the bones together while he secures the plate into place. Removing the symphysial disk, he explained, would cause scar tissue to fill the gap. Scar tissue and cartilage are very similar so it will do the same job and my pelvis will be stable again.
I am looking forward to Phase 2. To recovery. And I am focused on the things I know rather than the things I don’t. I hope the anonymous women behind those medical journal articles are doing well now and living the lives they want to be with their families.
<My separated pelvis will be a page in my story. It will not rewrite it.
Separated at Birth 