Back Care...

[Dragonwyst]

After ignoring a chronic niggle in the lower right of my back for over year, the time has come to act. The pain worsened last week, and while I don't have an official diagnosis, being a nurse gives me enough insight to suspect a bulging disc. I have therefore started a life-changing adventure to tackle the matter, becasue I ahve no intention of taking this lying down when there's plenty I can do to help myself. I have thus started a blog on my website to keep me accountable to anyone who might read it, and to share the many strategies that I am bringing to bear on the matter. you can just never tell when someone else might find something helpful too. So, as I set out on this journey, feel free to drop by at http://www.dragonwyst.com/blog.htm where I will record progress, set-backs and strategies to deal with whatever arises.

Cheers
Dragonwyst /|\

[DaRC]

Hiya - I'll check you're blog out ;-) I've had a chronic back problem for almost a decade now.
I'll give a brief synopsis of how I manage it..

1) Keep moving, when it initially goes into spasm's use Ibuprofen and Deep Heat to manage the pain and start reducing inflammation.

2) Yoga - morning and night. When it's really bad keep doing the movements upto the stretchy pain feeling but stabbing pain is the stop point in a movement - get to feel when the stabbing pain is likely to come and stop just before that point. I've a set of Yoga Asana's and stretches that work for my back. Certain postures (e.g. Halasana) can't be done; although one posture (Ustrasana) took me over a year initially to achieve but is now an important posture.

3) General posture -particularly whilst sitting.

4) Read Treat your own back by Dr Robin McKenzie http://www.amazon.co.uk/Treat-Your-Back ... 0959804927

Just (hopefully) coming out of a bad patch at the moment.

[Dragonwyst]

Hope you are out of that bad patch completely very soon, DaRC. Long term chronic pain is a devil to live with. Thanks for the book suggestion too.

[Serpentia]

I've managed to avoid back pain for most of my life now and I ascribe it to dancing - particularly belly dancing, but any dancing will teach your body to keep your posture upright - and sleeping in a water bed since adulthood almost continuously. Two pregnancies, heavy children - no pain. And I don't do sports and spend my life in an office chair in front of a computer, usually 12 hours a day.

The moves you have in belly dancing are perfect for the lower back, too, because you rotate your spine, very gentle and yet powerful. You move in ways you normally don't, you loosen up everything..

Just two more ideas.

Serpentia

[DaRC]

Thanks Dragonwyst - yes it's improving.

Serpentia I'm not sure that I'm built for belly dancing I lost the belly last year training for the Etape...

[Dragonwyst]

An update....

Thus far - 10 weeks since I made my decision to take action, I have lost 8.5kg. My back pain is just a small niggle - much easier to live with. I am still doing Callanetics regularly and have begun using the Callanetics Evolution and Cardio-Callanetics DVDs. I am getting stronger. I am also walking 3.4 km every so often, sometimes the same day as a Callanetics work-out sometimes on alternate days. I have also enlisted the help of a chiropractor to sort out the wiggles in my spine that have resulted from chronic bad posture and compensation. The only things driving me nuts is that I slept badly on my left shoulder about three weeks ago and now am struggling to get the rotator cuff pain to go!!

[wolfsbane]

Hi Dragonwyst, I to had a bulging/prolapsed disc well that is what was diagnossed. It is a pain that i would not wish upon anyone. I have since had a spinal fusion to repair damage to disc and vertabrae L5-S1. een back for a checkup as the pain has still not eased and i need an MRI to see whether another disc has bulged. Hope everything you are trying works.

Bright blessings

[Lailoken]

About a year and a half ago I twisted my spine out of alignment. The first month or so was the worst, I experienced pain like nothing I had ever felt 24 hours a day, not something I would wish on my worst enemy. There was no comfortable position to be in that allowed me to be pain-free, and sneezing was excruciating. I swear I sneezed more during that time than I have my whole life! I always kept my back fairly strong with exercise and just being active, but a weekend of kayaking, hiking, climbing and a gym session where I foolishly pushed beyond my limits did me in. It's gotten much better, but every once in a while I can bend down to pick something up with very little weight can cause a spasm with hours of lingering pain. It's NOT fun.

The problem with back injuries or issues is that they can be life-long. I'm back to exercising and am doing karate again, so my back is getting stronger, but I just hate the idea that it'll never be 100% again and can cause me more problems down the road.

[reilz81]

back problems dont just affect the back they can also stuff with many parts of the body and the spirit suffers as you feel you cant do anything so its very easy to get depressed about it i was born with a back condition called spondololithesis prob spelt wrong but its where the lower vertibre dont form correctly leaving a gap so the rest of your back has to work extra hard i do half situps to strengthen my stomache and back muscles and theres a yoga pose i do when its bad which you put the foot from one leg on the back of the knee of the other leg then lean forward till you feel a pull if theres pain you have gone too far then you swap feet i have felt on the brink of paralisis and done those streches and felt enourmously better but it doesnt work the same for everyone so just try different things i guess

[Alatariel]

Back pain, especially lower back pain has a very strong association with depression. As one can see from the posts above. It's not uncommon for back pain to be missed as a diagnosis and for the patient to end up on anti-depressants instead. That said there is some evidence that the older anti-depressants e.g. amitriptyline have a role to play in relieving back pain.

All very good advice re exercise and posture. Personally I have found Yoga to be immensely helpful in chronic back pain sufferers, but it has to be a regular fixture!

Another technique that seems to show promise is acupuncture - there is no 'scientific' evidence for it however I have achieved excellent results where medication, physio and all else has failed which would suggest there was some merit!

[Aigeann]

Alatariel, thank you for your post. I see you are fairly new to the Board. I hope you find it interesting and enjoyable.

Blessings, Aigeann