Not sure what to do

[tightasadrum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by megacorp-firee Why is that?

MF,

In my case it has to do with a congenital problem in the lower lumbar region, specifically a wedge disk. A normal backbone has fairly uniform shaped bones that protect the spinal cord. The curve is seen only from a side view. The wedge -shaped bone in my lumbar region, around #7, shifted everything to the left viewed from behind and slightly rearward viewed from the side. (It makes lumbar-style chairs uncomfortable as you might imagine.) It sounds worse than it is. But doctors tell me that arthitus [sp?] will probably begin it's ugly work starting in that area. At 61, other than spells of spasms and a few siatical events, I feel pretty lucky overall. But the next 30 years could spell trouble. That's why I try to stay fairly active.

I have been lucky to have had several very good orthopedic surgeons through the years give me pretty consistent advice, the first one in the navy, for dealing with the problem. Stay away from the knife, deal with pain with exercise, heat and drugs in that order, and don't become a back invalid. Suck it up!

Time will tell whether serious complications await me further down the road, but right now I don't have time to dwell on it.

[hopingtomakeit]

sorry to hear that dwk...

if you have a moment, google pete egoscue. it's worth a shot.

he has a book, "pain free" which is worth a look. and a forum, though i've never been on it.

he's PT'd a lot of athletes, and a lot of people with structural pain. and done a lot of rehab, for people who've had compromising situations.

there are other avenues if it's not, in the future, genuinely a surgical situation. including a good qi gong program. but, simple is best, at the beginning.

i've not done any of egoscues' work, formally. but he comes with good recs.

contact me if you want.

obviously, i, or anyone, can't guarantee a thing. at the same time i was once told i would never walk without pain again, by an osteopath. and i'm doing martial arts, still after more than 30 years, and not in pain. go figure.

best...

[Shredder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords Have you looked at Jolie Bookspan's blog? She's come back from similar injuries and her stretches/exercises/lifestyle advice have helped others with chronic pain. The Fitness Fixer

Thanks for the link Nords. I went to the web site, then to Amazon and ordered three of her books. I have not read through all them yet but she seems like she knows what she's talking about, and has helpfull things to try..............shredder

[Buckeye]

I forgot all about Egoscue. His book helped me keep the pain in check for many years. I need to go check the bookcase to see if I still have it.

[dwk]

Its almost 6 weeks since surgery and things have gotten much better, although there was a rough 4-5 weeks in the beginning. After surgery, I still had significant/constant pain even while taking my spasm/pain meds. About a week ago, the spasms started to return -so I decided to call my doc and headed to the ED.

While in the ED in got some really good IV drugs and it was great to be pain -free even if it was only for a couple of hours. I was also given IV steroids and started on a Met pack. A week later, my resident pain is tolerable -- I've reduced my pain meds --I'm not using my walker and I'm feeling much better.

I want to thank everyone for their messages, certainly my bad body mechanics have contributed to my back/neck problems -- but I believe the primary culprit was significant trauma in the past. Got hit in the head by a tree (a whole different story) and a nasty fall that started my lower back problems.

Hoping to start PT soon and work on better/smarter body movements. I may have someone else work on the boat and cars.

dwk