Separated at Birth

It has been a long road, but I am on my way.

This list is everything I have done since I started physical therapy that I wasn’t able to do at all or wasn’t able to do comfortably before surgery to repair diastasis symphsis pubis that I sustained during the January 2012 delivery of my son.

• Picking up my son from the floor
• Giving my husband a proper hug while standing and supporting all of my own weight.
• Sitting with my son on the floor
• Crawling as I push a toy for my son
• Carrying my son from one room to another or walking with him to soothe him
• Taking my son from the house to the car and putting him in his car seat*
• Rinsing my son’s cloth diapers**
• Stepping over something on the floor without worrying about toppling over.
• Standing with my feet slightly more than shoulder-width apart
• Standing long enough to take a shower
• Standing from a sitting position without using my arms.
• Sitting from a standing position without using my arms.
• Walking up and down stairs of our apartment
• Walking from the living room to the kitchen and back without having to mentally gear up first.
• Walking backward
• Walking into my son’s daycare classroom (for the first time since August 23) and talking with his teachers
• Getting myself a glass of water
• Getting a bottle off the shelf
• Starting laundry, moving laundry to the dryer, moving laundry to a place to be folded, putting folded laundry away.
• Vacuuming
• Picking up and putting away toys
• Actually looking forward to completing a chore

*I was not able to stay hunched over long enough to buckle his seat.
**I can only do about two before my back really hurts

These are my goals for the next seven days:

• Carry something that weighs about as much as the Little Guy up and down the stairs for practice.
• Walk to my class across campus with my walker.
• Improve the flexibility in both legs
• Remember to tighten my abs while I’m walking in order to build strength
• Use heat at the end of the day before I take a pain pill (to determine if heat is enough first).