Hubby's Back Injury...Oouch!

I am back, finally!

Haven't been updating P-latte regularly, as I was struggling badly with work and completing my Masters. FINALLY it's done! no more stress over it! I felt so mentally exhausted after completing the writing and it made me unable to look at the computer screen or focus on my thoughts for more than 2 minutes. Luckily, I am slowly recovering from this mental constipation. But really thanks to all those who wrote to me urging me to put up new post, it is really encouraging :)

Anyway, there is something I REALLY need to share since Chinese New Year.

During Chinese New Year (CNY), my parents in-law went to KL to visit my sister in-law, so me and hubby had a super rare opportunity to have solid 4 days all alone in the house. We were excited & determined to take the opportunity to execute our baby-making plan.

On the first morning of CNY, while we watched DVD and chilled in the living room, my hubby jumped up abruptly to pick up a phone call. Suddenly he screamed out of pain. I turned to him only to find him fronzen beside the phone with the handset stuck between his right ear and right shoulders. He literally couldn't move because he was in immense pain.

Hubby was rather frightened (he deserved to be as it was VERY painful for him even to breathe or talk!), and thought he had a slipped disc. I did various physical tests on him and was quite sure that he had sprained his back muscles rather than slipped any disc. He couldn't walk on his own, and there was no way I could carry him to the doctor without calling for an ambulance, the only thing he could do was to rest and take pain killers to manage the pain.

So for the whole CNY holiday, hubby could only lie on the sofa to watch tv, and he was in my total mercy. He couldn't even shift his butt on the sofa without my help! I had to "wheel" him around the house on a chair and even had to help him to the toilet. And yeah, you guessed it right, baby plan over the holiday was completely blown (before it was even started).

What exactly happened, how could an otherwise healthy & active young man sprain his back just by answering a phone call?

Well, NOooooo, unlike what all my dirty-minded friends thought, it wasn't the baby-making. Hubby's posture, lifestyle and past injury were the culprit.

• Lifestyle: too much sitting, driving and little walking give him weak core. Hamstrings, buttocks & hip flexors became super tight. It made things worst that hubby is the typical guy who run and train but NEVER bother to stretch. So muscles get shortened by exercises but were never lengthened after that.

• De-conditioning: Due to his study, Hubby no longer exercises as regularly. So his muscles weakened due to dis-use, and tightened too
  

• Poor posture: He always slouched when he sits (creating posterior tilt in the pelvis), thus further weaken core, shorten hip flexors & psoas.
  

• Previous injury: Hubby pulled his priformis during a ball-game years ago, so he has been unconsciously leaning more on the good hip when he walks or runs. This compensatory movement strategy caused imbalance in his pelvis, legs and even his back.
  

• Last Straw: As hubby felt the tightness all over his body in the fateful morning, he tried to "stretch it out" while he tilted his neck to hold the phone handset. Fryette's Law states that when the slack of a spinal segment is taken up in one direction the movement availability in other planes will be decreased. So this sudden stretch (spinal flexion & rotation) cum the neck tilt (lateral cervical spinal flexion) greatly challenged the spine flexibility.
  

Summing these up, all unfortunate factors occurred at the same time sprained his back. Since then Hubby is much more receptive to stretching and I have not stopped nagging him to sit properly, stretch and do Pilates whenever possible, we both want to prevent this kind of "disruptive" accident from happening EVER AGAIN.