Yeah, right.
I've been dealing with my bad back acting up very badly this week. At 18, I was in a car accident that left me with whiplash and a herniated disc, which never healed. In fact, my orthorpedic surgeon told me it had calcified. And when I asked him whether that was good or bad, he said, "That depends. Are you still in pain?" And therein lies the answer.
And why did it never heal, you ask? Let me just say that while in PT for a knee surgery many years afterward, I got to talking about the disc with the therapist. He told me that the way they rehabilitate a herniated disc in the low back like mine was to have the patient do systematic arching. The bulging disc then would get "sucked back inbetween the vertebrae." I was shocked and told him even up at Mayo Clinic (where I'd gone in desperation for some relief when I was 35) I was told to do the opposite...press the small of my back down to the floor when lying down. Which I did over and over, even though when I awoke each morning, my body was screaming to arch! He winced. I pressed: "Why was I told that? Why do you do the opposite motion now?!"
"Because our patients weren't getting better the other way."
Oh.
Great.
The ole "trial and error" of medicine. Boy, did that give me a new perspective on medicine. I'm sure like many of you, dear readers, as I age, I have less and less faith in conventional Western medicine. And more in what I feel my body telling me.
Anyway, eating Advil by the bottle isn't good for my liver, I'm sure. I think I've been coping by doing a number of things I've kind of learned with my back over the last three decades, but it may be time to get an adjustment from a chiropractor, which on occasion has helped.
It just sucks not to be able to sit, stand or walk without pain. Especially for someone who was fairly athletic as a girl in gymastics, cheerleading, dance....and for someone who loves to be active, but has had to curtail so many activities because of the chronic pain.
Sometimes ya just gotta whine.
(And even with the pain, I'm thankful I don't have something worse. I'd still rather be "here" -- if you get my drift -- with the pain, than not "here" at all.)
But here's something cheery. The sunrise out the front of my condo here in Florida.
Click to enlarge to see the pier, mist on the pond
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So it really is a beautiful morning.
1 comment:
Hey Barb,
Read your blog --catching up on your activities!! And I thought--have you ever considered an acupunturist for you back pain. They really have alot of successes with pain. Of course my good luck was with vertigo--which is even more difficult to "fix" with acupuncture. Anyway it is a thought
and she once did something for my back along with a massage. Good luck--since nothing else has worked it might be worth a try!
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