My Daughter Got Back Pain for Her Quaran-TEEN Birthday

As if being 13 isn’t hard enough, turning 13 in Quarantine doesn’t sound like a great way to enter your teenage years…

…But that is what my daughter, Gianna, did this week, and it was not without EVEN more drama.

Not to mention setting up the birthday parade, getting all the gifts wrapped, and decorating at night without anyone waking up, Gianna came down with severe back pain the day before she turned 13…

So bad that she said she was having trouble breathing, because the pain was in her lower ribs and into what can only be described as her lower mid-back. This is a problem that has been flaring up for the last couple weeks, but nothing like this!

When I came home from the office, Gianna was lying on the living room floor because it was the only place that here back pain was that was keeping her pain at bay and was letting her breathe easily.

Good news for her (and those of us that wanted to celebrate this important birthday with her), she lives with a Physical Therapist who specializes in taking care of back pain and getting people back to doing the things they love…in this case—dancing.

So what happened?

My normally active dancer of a daughter has spent an awful lot of time lately working at her desk, curled up with a good book in her bed and sitting on the couch texting with her “Best Friend” (ask me about that friend when you see me). Her dance schedule is completely changed and has gone all virtual with a bunch of slouching to see the screen while the computer is on the floor, and to boot her brother is more than a foot shorter than her and is her only in-person companion.

(Can any of you relate to these things affecting your backs?)

So, I started by loosening up the muscles in her upper back with a massage and trigger point releases (something that almost never happens in my house), mobilized her joints, and taught her some exercises to combat the activities she was doing.

All that helped her back pain pretty quickly, BUT she was STILL having trouble with taking a deep breath…she could even point to the single spot that caused the difficulty.

Turns out that the difficulty breathing was that a Rib had stopped moving up and down like it should when she inhaled…it was “stuck”.

There is a quick and easy manual therapy fix for that…and she felt much better—she even made it through her 3 hours of dance that night without any breathing issues.

NOW, to convince my 13 year-old that she needs to always pay attention to the way she sits, stands, lays, and sleeps.

(Wish me luck, because you know how teenagers love when an adult--especially a Dad with his “little girl"--tells them something that they should do better.)

The good news for her was that I was there to fix the problem-- and while I don’t live with you, I want you to know that we are open and helping new (and former) patients in our office and on-line.

If you are having a new pain since quarantine and would like access to a specialist, click here to request a FREE Discovery Visit—where we can discuss the problem, the cause and the next best steps to correct it. (I’m sure that convincing you to take care of yourself won’t be as hard as convincing my 13 year-old that she needs to take the proper steps to stay doing her activities).

OH…she had a great birthday! Everything went off without a hitch and NO Back pain in sight.

But I can’t say the same for my next 5 years of living with a teenage girl.