since my ex-lap (open abdominal surgery) around halloween 2017, recovery has been complicated. ignoring the health of my gastrointestinal tract, one difficult aspect of the recovery has been my abdominal muscles.
following my operation, my surgeon told me that she had difficulty suturing me up. as with most of my twelve open exploratory laparotomy surgeries, she incised my midline from the xiphoid process down to the pelvis. i had a significant amount of midline scarring, as well as a huge mucous fistula (mostly non-functioning) that healed from my previous open midline wound. the take-down of this fistula and the removal of the scarring left little remaining tissue to stretch over my abdomen. my core muscle tone was pretty good as well, which probably added to her difficulty in closing the midline wound.
i resumed yoga slowly, six weeks after the operation. it seemed to go well. it made me feel much better, physically and mentally. i kept up with yoga, and made gradual progress toward better health.
unfortunately, about four months after resuming yoga (almost six months post-op), i felt something change. i was pushing myself a bit harder than usual, upward dog, wheel, and boat (as well as some other poses that focus on the recti). and something felt weird in my midline. it felt like it was bulging, protruding. right where my huge mucous fistula had been. it was like i had those bowls protruding once again, now only a few millimeters under my skin.
since then, i’ve backed off all the yoga poses that engage my core significantly. i’ve read plenty about recommended exercises to address diastasis recti–i would argue that medicine lacks careful research into DR for post-partum women, and little research has been done on DR in post-op abdominal surgery patients. i’ll write more on this later.
for now, like i said, i’m going light on the upward dog, wheel, boat, and similar core-centric poses. i modify these poses to use my transverse and oblique muscles more than the recti. but without good medical research on this condition, i have no confidence in any course of action.