A Woman Recently Emailed Me:
“I have had abdominal pain, right-sided pelvic pain, right-sided hip flexor pain, and right leg pain for about 1½ years. I have had all sorts of diagnostic imaging and referrals to specialists, but my tests always come back normal.
The only thing my doctors have been able to see is that I ‘possibly’ could have median arcuate ligament syndrome, which is a condition where the median arcuate ligament is tight and compresses the celiac artery and ganglia causing abdominal pain.
Another possible diagnosis is May-Thurner Syndrome, where the iliac artery compresses the iliac vein causing pelvic and leg pain. If you have one compression disorder, you are likely to have others.
No one knows how or why these compressions happen, but there also seems to be a connection with compression syndromes and dysautonomia, which I have had since I was twelve.”
My Clinical Thought Process:
Since she has been medically cleared, undetected fascial strain goes to the top of my possible cause list. My hypothesis is that her health issues began with soft tissue birth trauma which led to some infant conditions. Left untreated, those fascial strain patterns created her dysautonomia as a child.
With possibly more trauma since then, the strain has now shifted to her lower right side. I have found that over time, the medical model tends to put labels on various symptoms to create conditions, some of which are ultimately rooted in a restricted fascial web at birth.
The goal in therapy would be to help the body retrace and release its traumatic strains in the fascial web. I expect her to revisit her POTS symptoms from childhood, and the birth trauma that probably caused it. This concept of the space-time continuum is my basis for authentic healing.
"Disease begins in the fascia."
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