My Trip to Carter Physiotherapy: Part 2

If you haven't read about my first trip over to Carter Physiotherapy, you can check it out here.

My second visit started right where the first had left off, re-checking my hip alignment for progress. Thankfully, and due to the miraculous hands of Dr. Carter, I was able to do the at-home stretches to the point of alleviating my pain, and my alignment showed signs of improvement also! Score!

Though the appointment was initially scheduled in order to do a second treatment for my existing back pain, the visit's purpose changed dramatically when I revealed that I had woken up the day before with one of the worst cricks in my neck of all time. It was so bad, in fact, that 36 hours later, it was still going strong and keeping me almost entirely from turning my head to either side or looking up and down.

Dr. Carter checked it out, having me look in all four directions while manually feeling for the cause of the tension, and admitted that it was more than your run of the mill crick in the neck. A major reason likely had to do with the way I had fallen back to sleep around Ava in the middle of the previous night, so the pain I felt functioned more like that of an injury than your standard "I slept wrong" type of pain. Anyhow, once he was able to get a detailed explanation of where it hurt and what provoked it, he set to work on trying to alleviate the pain.

Now I'm sure this is starting to sound like a glorified massage. But let me tell you, it was much more than that. Sure, he did use some massage techniques in order to decrease the tension in my neck, but he was also constantly evaluating the effect he was having on the area by having me look to the sides and up and down to see exactly how much my range of motion was increasing, and studying the way in which his techniques were affecting what was going on with me intramuscularly. And, if we're being completely honest, it was more painful than your average massage!

What I can honestly say also, though, is that the pain was entirely worth it, and I felt relief almost immediately! Whereas I walked in grateful for my blind spot mirrors and with a very limited range of motion, I left being able to turn my head significantly farther in each direction, especially to each side. I was sent home with instructions to apply ice three times daily (with a barrier to prevent the ice from burning my skin), and to work on my posture in order to keep the muscles relaxed. And, much to my extreme relief, I felt significant improvement immediately that carried over to feeling completely healed within a few days!

Here is more on what Dr. Carter recommends for the all-too-common crick in the neck!

My Trip to Carter Physiotherapy: Part I

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been having all kinds of issues with my back. Namely, my mid-to-low back on both sides of my spine has been basically made sore by a repetitive stress injury, one that was caused by lifting the infant carrier in and out of the car on a regular basis, as well as tossing around four kids each day. Luckily, I finally reached out to get some help, and found myself in the extremely competent and professional hands of Dr. Jarod Carter with Carter Physiotherapy.

One of my first concerns when scheduling my appointment was regarding pain. Anyone who has ever known someone who has gone to either physical therapy or a chiropractor with the hope of easing pain in their back has heard horror stories about the potential for pain involved, and so I went into my appointment with this in mind, worried that he'd have to crack or pull something that would - at least momentarily - make my pain worse. Thankfully, this did not end up being the case. Here is what he did instead:

My appointment began with an explanation of what I was feeling, as well as a thorough evaluation of my bone structure, amongst other things I have a minimal understanding of, despite his attempts to explain the process to me :) He had me stand on one foot on one side and then the other, and discovered that one of my hips, either due to leg length or postures and habits, was slightly off balance and higher than the other. Not coincidentally, that just so happened to be the side that my pain was occurring on! Because of this, and with Dr. Carter maintaining the utmost respect and understanding that moms are busy ladies, he gave me some exercises to do at home to help. The best part? The two particular exercises/stretches that he sent me home to practice take just minutes a day, and have already seemed to offset my pain!

After the evaluation, it was time for the hands-on portion of the hour-long appointment. I laid down on what could only be described as a massage table, all the while dressed in my yoga pants and tank top, while Dr. Carter checked my range of motion in my joints. He explained that sometimes pain that is felt in one place can be caused by dysfunction in another, less obvious place, so he did a thorough exam for that purpose, to see what exactly was going wrong. Between the imbalance in my hips and the repetitive motion straining my back, he was able to target his treatment to those areas for amazing results in just one hour!

Dr. Carter varies from your run-of-the-mill physical therapist in that he is well-schooled in Manual Therapy methods, which, rather than requiring gym equipment, manipulates the problem areas manually. While there were a couple of times that I felt discomfort, nothing that he did was downright painful, and I felt relief by the end of our visit! Between that and the exercises I've been doing at home, I have not had pain in my back since my appointment!

For anyone, mothers of young children or otherwise, who are experiencing muscle pain or other athletic type injuries, I would highly recommend you hightail it over to see Dr. Carter, especially if you're short on time and want to see immediate results! I'm so happy I did!

Catching Up: Holidays and Ava Turns Two!

Wow - it's been two and a half weeks since I last posted! OMG. That's a first around here. I wish that I could provide some reasonable excuse for my absence, aside from being out enjoying my abundant blessings! So much has been going on around here, so let's play a bit of quick catch up.



First and foremost (though not chronologically!), Ava turned TWO! Holy cow! How am I the mother of a two-year-old?!? It still blows my mind. We had a fantastic day with her on her birthday, but so much to say and so many pics to share about that, I'll need to write a separate post. Look for that in the next few days...

Also, David and I have been insanely lucky to both be off this entire week together! We've been having a crazy fun time together all week, knocking things off our to do list and just reveling in the opportunity to spend an entire week as a family of three. Ava has been loving it! So much so, actually, that three times this week she skipped her nap. Uh oh. Also, she's been sleeping in until 9am! Booyah! Happy vacation to mommy!




Another fun time that shouldn't be overlooked is Christmas! We had such a lovely, blessed Christmas. David's parents came up on Christmas Eve and we were able to spend the day with them, as well as Christmas morning. Ava loves her grandparents, grandpa especially, and so she was so happy to see her extended family!



She had such a fantastic Christmas - complete with her playscape (we built back over Thanksgiving), a wagon that I'll be reviewing after the first of the year, some amazing rainbow design blocks from nana, a Mickey Mouse that she's obsessed with, some wonderful Christmas books and a beautiful dress, and a train table, amongst other things. She also got some lovely gifts from the two families I work for, including a fabulous Dora dress-up outfit and a little V-tech laptop! We are so insanely blessed :) Ava was really, really into Santa this year, and we also got an elf visitor that came. We can't wait for him to come back next year!





Another extremely fun thing we've done since I last posted was that the D's took Ava and I for a girls afternoon at The Nutcracker, put on at the Long Center by Ballet Austin. I went two years ago when I was like 38 weeks pregnant - haha! - but I was more nervous about this show. Turns out, I worried for nothing. Ava was amazing. The production was 2.5 hours, with an intermission halfway through, and Ava sat fascinated and watched the whole thing. Now, when she sees a ballerina, she says "nutcracker!" Needless to say, it left an impression! One of her favorite parts had to be meeting the little mice from the ballet outside during intermission!




Alright, I'm off to prep for Ava's birthday party tomorrow! More posts on birthday fun, The Nutcracker, and her party to come! Also, I recently saw Dr. Jarod Carter of Carter Physiotherapy, and he worked wonders on my back, so I'll be talking about that and how he can help you as well!