This was a great awareness! I agree. After experiencing trauma, it can lodge in the body physically, although many don't believe or acknowedge this fact. Re-experiencing it is your body's way of giving you a chance to release it. It sounds like your body was ready to heal this, and so it happened this way. This stuff is not easy at all. It sounds like you have been through a lot, and are to be commended for your determination to persevere through it all.