Page 22 - Family Wellness - Spring/Summer 2016

20 Back Pain
collaborative solutions to help Yonkman’s back. “Jim came up with different treatments that worked for me, that were really creative,” she says. “I would come out
of there, after doing the exercises and workouts that he gave me, just exhausted. Even though I was in shape, the exercises were new, and it was stuff that I hadn’t tried.”
Persistent Effort
Although Yonkman worked with her physical therapist at Performance twice a week and did her
exercise homework in between appointments, it took more than a month before she really started seeing and feeling the benefits of all the hard work.
However, it paid off around the five-week mark, during
what Yonkman calls “a breakthrough.” I was starting to get stronger with the exercises they asked me to do, and then all of a sudden, I got it. Something clicked in my head, and I think something clicked with my posture,” she recalls. “I started to feel better after that. I first noticed it when I was in the car.
I drove all the way down to Maryland to visit some friends,
and when we got down there, I didn’t have to get out of the car like an old woman.
It didn’t take me five minutes to stand
up straight the way it had for many months prior. I just popped out of the car and realized that it was working.”
But after spending almost a year making sacrifices because her body wouldn’t cooperate, Yonkman didn’t want to stop there. With the help and support of her team at Performance, Yonkman kept at it until she was back to full range of motion. Only then did she get officially discharged from Performance.
“Last summer, I couldn’t even drive to the shore to take my kids to the beach, and we’re beach people. To not be able to make it to the beach because I couldn’t drive that far was ridiculous—my kids love it there,” Yonkman says.
This summer, the Yonkman family plans to spend as much time as possible outside— hiking, backpacking, and going to the beach. “I’m so looking forward to it because I’m stable and my core is strong enough that I can pick up a 38-pound kid and carry him for a few miles in my baby backpack. That’s so important to me because it allows us to do the things that our family loves to do—to be out in nature and do the activities we enjoy.”
KRISTEN’S SACROILIAC JOINT TURNED OUT TO BE THE CULPRIT CAUSING HER BACK PAIN, POSSIBLY A RESULT OF GIVING BIRTH. THE SACROILIAC JOINT LIES NEXT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SPINE, BELOW THE LUMBAR SPINE AND ABOVE THE TAILBONE (COCCYX).
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