How does fascia recover?

Submitted by louiseds on August 3, 2009 - 11:40pm
Body: 

I've been wondering why a bout of extra intraabdominal pressure, eg from shifting house or a nasty cold with lots of coughing can bring back symptoms, ie a 'setback', but symptoms disappear again within a week or so, with subsequent TLC.

On the other hand, we can do inversion exercises, firebreathing, nauli etc to give temporary relief of symptoms, which some Members find is permanent, or longer lasting.

Even after the enormous stretching of pregnancy and birthing the endopelvic fascia will revert back to 'almost' original size.

There must be several different types of deformation/damage happening, some of which are reversible, and some are not (ie surgical cutting or tearing with birthing).

I have been unable to find a visual representation of what the cells in endopelvic fascia are like. I imagine they are a bit like wool, kind of squiggly or wavy or like little springs that can straighten out, but have a memory that will allow them to go back to their resting size again, in time. They are all bound together into a 3D mesh (like woollen felt) of variable thickness that can stretch out very thin during pregnancy.

I also suspect that the longer it remains stretched the longer it will take to recover its original size, eg postpartum. That's probably why we can recover in only a few days after over-exerting ourselves for a day.

I guess that pregnancy stretches the fascia for so long that some damage is inevitable, and that is why we never completely revert.

They say connective tissue gets weaker as we age. I wonder if a woman who is 40 when she has her first baby will revert as well as an eighteen year old woman, or is 'aging' a polite way of saying 'with menopause'?

What do you think about my random thoughts?

Louise

bad_mirror

August 4, 2009 - 11:57am

I think I wish I knew the answers to your very well articulated "random" thoughts! It would be helpful to know what classification of "damage" one has -- like there are degrees of burns -- beyond the actual prolapse grade. Does that make any sense? As in "you have a grade II cystocele, but the facial damage is first degree, and you should recover quite nicely." Myself for example -- is my fascia more likely to revert since it was not cut nor torn and I had gentle home birth in warm water? Or does my almost 50 pound weight gain (blushing) during pregnancy and too much C-spine time in recovery negate those other factors? Can I expect a reversal similar to alemama, who seems to have had more stacked in her prolapse deck than me, as she has three more children an extensive tearing? Is it just down to ye olde genetic make-up in the end? Like (using your wool analogy) the wool of animals -- some have delicate cashmere, others hearty Shetland.

clavicula

August 6, 2009 - 8:06am

I like felting with my girls so I loved your analogue, Louise! This is how I imagined the fascia.
I think with proper diet (hope Christine will tell us in details what it is), posture, optimal weight and a healthy lifestyle our connective tissues will get stronger and stronger!
I'd love to see more responses, please ladies, share your thoughts on this!

Liv