Week 9: Lumbar spine, Sacrum, Coccyx, and Abdomen

(This is me drawing on my own back for lack of a willing participant in my home this week.)

L1- Signifies the spinous process of L1 found by palpating the attachment sites of the 12th ribs at T12 and moving inferiorly 1 vertebrae. 

L2- Spinous process of L2

L3- Spinous process of L3

L4- Spinous process of L4, found by locating the lateral aspects of both iliac crests and sliding fingers across toward the spine (medially)

L5- spinous process of L5, just below L4 and above the sacrum

SB- Sacral base

My finger- Sacral apex

PSIS- Posterior Superior Iliac Spine, found by following the iliac crest all the way to the sacrum and feeling for the little lumps just before you get there

SIJ- Sacroiliac Joint, felt for seam between sacrum and ilium (They aren't really as straight and vertical as I drew them but that was as good as it got in the mirror, all twisted around like I was.) 

I found this website as I was perusing the internet and I think it has a really easy to understand explanation of the interaction of the sacrum with the innominates if you would like to check it out!

http://thelowback.com/how.htm 

LG- Lamina groove

Unlabeled .'s- Transverse processes- unable to feel whilst standing and twisting and contracting my back muscles to label, so they are labeled on the knowledge of where they lie.

Not Shown In The Marker Chart:

Sciatic Notch

Sciatic Notch- The greater sciatic notch and the lesser sciatic notch are noted in the image above. 

(Sorry, I was not willing to bear this much skin in the photo!)

Iliolumbar ligament- runs from the transverse process of L5 to the inner lip of the iliac crest

It is a difficult diagnoses, but it is believed that I sprained this once while idiotically attempting to jump my snowboard through the terrain parks of Breckenridge like I was Shaun White.

He I am not. I ended up on my rear end, unable able to walk correctly for a over a month. The interesting learning portion of this injury was the postural deviation that I assumed in order to walk (laterally rotating my left leg- so my foot was pointed out to the side- so I could get myself through the acute stage of the pain with the help of the stability from my external rotators.) After the pain had mostly subsided, I had to train myself to break that pattern by consciously focusing on discontinuing that deviation and forcing myself to walk with both feet pointed forward again. At least I learn a lot from my injuries!