If you’re reading this, give yourself a pat on the back.

Hi everyone!

I wanted to send out a different type of post today– one that’s a little more personal.

I’ve been hearing from so many of you recently, through email, Facebook, as well as comments on my blog.

And you’re all asking really great questions– so great I practically end up writing entire  posts when I answer you!

I know some of you feel a little bit lost, or might wonder if you’re asking stupid questions.  But I want to open up to you about something:

If you’re taking your SI joint problems seriously, and are taking proactive measures to fix them– you’re a step ahead of where I was, the first few years I lived with this problem.

Some of you may be more familiar with this part of my story than others.  I’ve written more about my personal life over on my more personal site, Sunlight in Winter.

But something I really struggled with, through my journey with sacroiliac joint dysfunction, is having enough faith in myself to believe this problem wasn’t all in my head.

It’s a pattern of thinking I’ve fought before, when it comes to other health problems I’ve tackled.  And for some reason, it seems to keep rearing its ugly head.

Sometimes I struggle with the belief that I’m good enough.  That, despite the long list of health problems I’ve dealt with– that other people don’t always understand– I’m still a normal girl who deserves to be taken seriously.

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So, for those of you who are reaching out to me– I might know more than you, intellectually, about the sacroiliac joint.

But some of you know more than I did, at the beginning– about how to believe in yourself, and how to ask for help.

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If you’re struggling with SI joint dysfunction, you aren’t weird.  There’s nothing wrong with you– even if so far, your problems don’t seem to have an answer.

That’s the way it was for me.  I had to piece together my own answers, after a long journey that included six physical therapists, four chiropractors, a confused primary care doctor, and four specialists.

I’m sharing my journey with you so you can see how I charted my path, and benefit from what I learned.  But it may take you a similar “patchwork” approach– collecting bits of knowledge from different people (and hopefully, my blog!) to find a way forward that works for you.

But for now, I just want you to know that if you’re taking proactive measures, and reading blogs like this one– you are on the right track.  Keep going.   Believe in yourself, and don’t settle for “no.”

If I found a way out of the mess I was in, you can too.