Running through life and adversity

By Anthony Matt

Anne Hyopponen and her husband, David, have been married for about three years. The couple are avid outdoors people and live a happy and active life. Two years into their marriage a new passion was set to enter their life.

“We found out we were pregnant with Peyton in April of 2019,” said Hyopponen. “It was just exciting because we wanted to have a family, and finally it was happening.”

Their passion for running is what drew the duo together. They met nine years ago and have been running side-by-side for the last seven.

Hyopponen enjoys it so much that she was running into the third trimester of her pregnancy. That’s also when she noticed something was wrong.

“(I had) a lot of high, inner-groin pain,” she said. “Being pregnant, I just assumed it was pregnancy pains.”

Hyopponen’s experience was something women all around the world can encounter. Due to the physical trauma associated with carrying a child in the womb for nine months, and the subsequent delivery process, her pelvic-muscle strength had severely decreased from the pressure.

“It got to the point where I thought, ‘I think I need to go see somebody,’” she said.

She called her primary care physician at Essentia Health, Dr. Margaret Perko. While some women heal naturally, Dr. Perko explained, others require pelvic floor therapy. It’s a type of physical therapy designed to help people regain strength in their pelvic muscles.

“Your body has to relearn to do stuff after trauma associated with pregnancy,” Dr. Perko said. “You shouldn’t have pain during sexual intercourse, and you shouldn’t be leaking urine when laughing, running, sneezing or engaging in other physical exercise.”

A nurse herself, Hyopponen always knew therapy may be needed, so she quickly connected with physical therapist Diane Brinkley. While Hyopponen’s symptoms were mostly centered around hip and pelvic pain, it still took her away from what she likes to do most — running.

For the next two months, Hyopponen saw Brinkley once a week. When the new mom started to see results, she decreased her visits to every other week. Hyopponen also did a lot of the exercises at home.

“They were super easy. I would literally do them when I was brushing my teeth. I didn’t feel like I was doing a whole lot, but every time I went back in, we saw progress,” Hyopponen said.

Once she felt like she was on the road to recovery, she set her sights on a more ambitious goal — running the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon during Grandma’s weekend. The training wasn’t easy, but Hyopponen completed the race with her loyal husband by her side. They, along with Peyton in a stroller, ran the entire 13.1 miles, virtually, on July 31, 2020.

“It was really cool,” she said. “Just thinking back to February and March when I started all this, I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it.”

Dr. Perko said it’s natural for women who recently gave birth to experience what Hyopponen did for two to three months after birth. If it lasts longer, the doctor says therapy may be an option.

Now, about eight months later, Hyopponen is happy to report she is relatively pain-free and has resumed her normal day-today routine.

Dr. Perko said the process is fairly easy and is similar to other physical therapy programs, such as rehabilitation on a knee or shoulder injury. She adds most of the rehab can be done in the comfort of your own home. There’s no medicine or prescriptions associated with it, and the program revolves around resetting your body.

“Our therapists want to do this, and they want to make people feel better,” Dr. Perko said.

Hyopponen agrees and says any woman experiencing symptoms should seek treatment right away.

“I feel like moms very much put themselves not first, and I feel like this is something you should put first, especially if you want to have more kids,” she said.

Much like distance running, the highs are really high, and the lows can be really challenging. Hyopponen is just happy to be running on a high once again. D

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