Many of you know that I have been having back problems for a long time now – over two years. The severity of back pain has ranged from bad to none, though since August of last year it has been constant. After seeing a German physiotherapist (translation: someone who is actually qualified as opposed to the treatment you’d get in the physio department of the local hospital here) for some months and seeing little improvement, God made a way for me to leave my family for 10 days and fly south. This would be 2 ½ day trip by car (over some bumpy roads) but I was able to fly only two hours to the capital city of Maputo, then take the bus 3 hours west, crossing the border into South Africa.
Long story short, x-rays revealed that I have mild scoliosis (which we knew) and a tilted pelvis. Because my “core” muscles that support the back are very weak (after 3 c-sections) my spine is not properly supported and parts of my spine are rubbing together, resulting in some arthritis. This is part of the reason for more severe pain when I do a lot of driving over our bumpy roads here in Nampula. Since my core muscles don’t work right, my back muscles are trying to support the spine and have all gone into spasm. Pain cause number two. The physio I saw who specializes in backs feels that strengthening my core muscles will resolve a lot of the back pain, and has given me an hour-long program which I do every morning. I appreciate your prayers for me, that all back pain will be gone! I am so grateful to God for the doors he opened for me to take this trip, and to Kevin for being willing to shoulder so much while I was gone, as well as to the dear friends who helped him out.
by the way, I brought back MacDonalds french fries for the guys, but they were a sad disappointment - 30 hours on the road did not leave them very tasty! Toby still loved them, though. – C
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