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Back Blog II
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Day 38 Thursday 6th
March 2008
I’d like you to meet my Personal
Trainer. I find her company invaluable in the mornings
when I’m blearily attempting to do my exercises. There
she is, shouting from the sidelines, and occasionally
shouting her breakfast back up too. Apart from that she
lolls around and generally hinders me. You just can’t
get the staff can you. Anyway,
here she is.
Day 35 Monday 3rd
March 2008
I’m still trying to work out
whether it’s worth taking anti-imflammatories. I’ve
taken a lot of varieties over the last 13 years, and of
course the ones that worked the best, the COX-2
inhibitors such as Vioxx, were the ones that had to be
withdrawn as they were found to be causing death and
disability through heart disease. So now we’re back to
the bad old NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-imflammatories)
which tend to give you ulcers, or at the very least
rampant indigestion. At the moment I’m taking Naproxen,
which contains a buffer to protect the tummy, although
I’m still meticulous about taking it with food, and so
far I’ve had no problems after several months on it.
But in one form or another I’ve
been taking the damn things for a year now, and I’d
dearly love to be able to stop taking them. In the past
I’ve tried to get off them * over the course of a week,
but things have worsened and I’ve started taking them
again. Each physio I have seen has said I should
continue to take them – however at the end of the day
it’s not their stomach lining on the line is it.
So, last week I came up with the
following wheeze: to wean myself off them. Slowly. 2
days on, followed by 1 day off, for maybe 2 weeks or so,
and then re-evaluate. I got as far as one day off and
on for the next, then of course upset my back yet again
with something overwhelmingly trivial. I’m sure given
the right conditions even a soft-boiled egg could manage
to upset my back if it put its mind to it. So, I’m
taking them again. But, as soon as it’s feeling ‘better’
I shall start stopping again.
Don’t misunderstand me. I have
great respect for anti-imflammatories; they can do a
great job for an acute problem, and they’ve helped me
loads of times in the past. I would just prefer not to
take them in the long term, especially as I’m not
really sure how much good they are doing now anyway.
*When I say ‘get off them’ I don’t
mean they are addictive, cos they’re not. I mean just
to make a start on stopping taking the bloody things.
You can’t just stop, as that is asking for a flare up.
Observation of the day We
all know that wearing heels are supposed to be bad for
us, blah blah.....which is a total pain when you love
shoes and you've got lots of nice ones gathering dust
cos they're a few inches tall. Well, apparently, high
heels put your back in *extension* - well how
utterly butterly FAB! Cos that is the good direction for
my back, and would account for the fact that I've never
felt more pain due to my footwear, even when wearing
something interesting. I'm not talking about 6 inchers
or anything, but say, heels up to 3 inches or so seem to
be ok, hey who knows, maybe they are even good for my
back! It sounds too good to be true, so it probably is,
but it seems logical at least. I will ask Ramona and see
what she thinks. Yippedy doodah.......
Day 25 22nd February
2008
Friday’s hot tip of the day (well,
2 actually):
- Do your last set of McKenzie
exercises just before bed. I find by not walking
around after and getting a good night’s sleep, my
pain levels are reduced the following morning.
- Try to spend some time on your
tummy a couple of times during the night. I don’t
find this a very comfortable position in bed as it
makes my back feel stiff, but just a few minutes at
a time can get rid of any leg pain that occurs
during the night.
- A glass of wine and a lovely
hot curry is essential if you’ve just knackered your
back again and are totally fed up and exhausted
after a day’s work. It really is true what they say
about endorphins and capcaicin (the active
ingredient in chilli), and even more so if
potentiated by a glass of wine. Happy Friday!
(Yeah ok so that’s 3…..)
Day 24 21st February
2008
Here was something very different
to what I was used to! For a start, Ramona’s approach
was hands-on and empirical. Most of the first class was
spent in the company of a life size skeleton, where we
learnt where all our major muscle groups and other bits
and bobs were, finding them on ourselves and sometimes
on each other where hard to reach, for instance shoulder
muscles and the like. Before starting an exercise, we
understood what we were working and why. At this point
I also had a one to one session with Ramona, which was
very useful in identifying problem movements and safe
variations I could use in class and at home.
After the 8 week beginners class I
moved on to the Level 1/2 group. This was a lot more
challenging, and involved a lot of modifications on the
basic exercises, many of which were quite beyond me.
Unfortunately when the sciatica got worse in early
January this year I had to stop going. Also, the
McKenzie exercises highlighted the fact that for me,
flexion exercises are A Bad Thing, at least for the
moment.
So, to cut a long waffle short (or
at least to a medium size), Pilates teachers are as
variable as Acupuncturists in my experience. In the
unlikely event that anyone ever actually reads this who
might benefit from it, if you are considering trying
Pilates do some research first. Your local NHS
physiotherapy dept. may well have a list of recommended
people, or ask your GP. My doctor independently
recommended the same teacher as the physio. Ask some
obvious questions, like, how big is the class, are
there any other people with back problems, what is your
approach to helping such people exercise safely. Also,
a one to one session is incredibly helpful as I said
earlier, plus you can get to know your teacher and see
if you are going to feel comfortable with them. Oh, and
lastly, make sure you start off with a Beginners course,
otherwise your back is likely to think that you are
simply gagging for extra pain which it will be only too
delighted to give you! ;)
Day 23 20th February
2008
I’ve been doing this McKenzie
method for almost a month now. Has it helped? Yes,
overall it has. On the whole the leg pain is very
often reduced to about 50% of what it was, although it
is still a constant battle to keep the pain centralised
and away from the leg. There seems to be a psychological
component here, in that it is sometimes possible to
focus on the lower back and almost ‘will’ the pain
there.
As ever, my main problem continues
to be walking. While the exercises have really helped
my general pain levels (especially sitting), I am still
unable to walk comfortably for more than very short
distances (up to 15-20 seconds at a time). After that
it becomes progressively more difficult and painful.
Actually yesterday I was feeling
so good that for a moment I forgot I had a problem, and
for a split second walked at a pace approaching what I
used to consider ‘normal’. Big mistake – PING goes my
leg. So, yet another setback, but at least I am more
confident that the exercises work now, and they are
already helping today, although I think my leg/back will
be unsettled for a while again.
Pilates – I’ve been meaning to talk
about this for some time. It’s a bit like acupuncture,
in that the variations are so extreme between different
practitioners. Badly taught Pilates is a menace in my
opinion, especially to anyone with a back problem, but
it is difficult to know what to look for if you’ve never
done it before. A couple of years ago I started off
with a class which was aimed at all levels of ability.
This may be fine if your back is strong and you are
pretty flexible already, but for anyone with a history
of back pain I think there is an element of risk, to put
it mildly. Especially if it is a large class and the
teacher’s attention is thinly spread. My sciatica
started the day after exactly such a class, and I think
I can even pinpoint the exercise which triggered it.
Having said that, I’d been going to this class for about
a year prior to hurting myself, and although I often
felt I’d done a bit too much, I also felt more loosened
up too. Consequently, when the acute phase of the
sciatica passed and I was confident I could at least
walk to my desk from the car park each morning, I felt
it was time to join another Pilates class, but this time
a safer one, which hopefully wouldn’t put my back
at risk again. This decision was also influenced by my
experience in Physio, where the staff were very
pro-Pilates, and indeed ran a basic Pilates class weekly
for 8 weeks, which I attended enthusiastically. They
gave me a recommended list of local Pilates teachers,
one of whom I contacted. After a fairly lengthy email
exchange, she put me in touch with a colleague, Ramona
Peoples
http://www.peoplespilates.co.uk/ who was about to
begin a class for beginners.
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