Back Blog I

Next >>

Day  17 14^th February 2008

At the start  on Day 3 I said I’d come back later to why I put quotation marks round the word ‘acupuncture’.  This is because I seem to have experienced 2 types of treatment which come under the same name, but which are widely different in approach and effectiveness.

First time I had it was in 1995, during my first v. bad episode which involved 3 months off work due to a herniation at  L4-5.  The chap I went to see spent a long time asking me about my medical history and  other stuff.  He was a good listener and it was a ‘holistic’ approach, taking into account all sorts of things, not just the overt symptoms.  (I’m afraid I can’t remember exactly what things now, cos it’s 13 years ago!) 

When it came to sticking the needles in (which really isn’t that bad, just don’t look), he bunged them in in several places all over, and I seem to remember there were quite a few.   Then he’d leave me to doze off for a while (10 or 20 minutes, something like that) before coming back to remove them.  The needles themselves weren’t usually uncomfortable (occasionally one or more would ache a bit) but the overall sensation was indeed a strange one.  Something appeared to be ‘going on’ beyond what is often purported to be merely an endorphin effect. It’s difficult to put into words unfortunately, but having had some experience of meditation, can only liken it to that type of experience. Afterwards, although a bit spacey and tired, there was a feeling of well-being, and, although I am the worlds laziest meditator, during the time I was having acupuncture (a couple of months)  I found it easier to be disciplined about sitting down to meditate, and concentration came much more easily.  When I stopped having acupuncture this effect unfortunately stopped too!

At the end of the day I can’t say the acupuncture did much for my back pain (no sciatica then), but it did make me feel a lot better in myself, and I think gave me a new strength and determination when I needed it most.

So that was my first experience. The most recent one (a few months ago)  took place during physio, and was markedly different.  Oh, a pain in your leg? Ok, we’ll just stick 3 needles in your leg for a while then.   After the first treatment I did feel very spacey, but without the ‘feel good’ factor .  I thought it might have helped the sciatica a liitle, but wasn’t sure.   After the second one my sciatica worsened alarmingly, and I felt like I had the flu for a week.  I went back and told her I didn’t want any more.

How come they can call this ‘acupuncture’?  As far as I can see it’s a travesty of the complex system based on Chinese medicine.  It reminds me of a GP I once saw who reccomended needles for everything and applied them himself ( to no effect whatsoever in my own case), but at least he had the good sense to call it ‘needling’ and not ‘acupuncture.’

Anyway, that is my little rant on the subject.  

Valentine’s Day, hooray!   Tonight we are going to have lovely thick sirloin steaks, Ball 'e' Chips, and asparagrass, with a bottle of  Rôtes du Chône  naturellment. J

Day 11 Friday 8^th February 2008

This week I’ve been attempting to do the push-ups reccomended for Exercise 3.  It’s tiring and not just on the back – I shall have muscles like Arnie! In fact the bit where your arm meets the inner bit of the shoulder was starting to hurt ominously, so I thought I’d give myself a bit of a Friday treat and only do Exercises 1 & 2 for today.   The funny thing is, the sciatica has felt better today than it has all week. I’m starting to wonder if the push- ups are maybe superfluous – for me only, of course, I’m sure others can get a lot from them.  I still don’t fancy walking further than across the room however, so I think the improvement is still very relative. 

But these exercises definitely do work. Immediately after you can feel a huge difference. However I’m concerned that the effects are shortlived, and ultimately am I going to be able to keep the pain centralised enough?  At the moment it’s all too happy to pop back down my leg at the earliest opportunity.  Still early days yet though, and we are talking long-term chronic problem, so maybe I should try and be a bit more patient?  Hoof!

Day 7 Monday 4^th February 2008

Recovery since Friday has been slow and tedious to be honest.  I’ve had difficulty moving the pain up to my back this time.  Having said that, I’m coming up a little higher on the exercise 3 extensions, and I think it might be starting to centralise things again.  Fingers crossed. No, better plan, I’ll get Pea to cross her paws.There is a peculiar  irony when, after a decade of back pain, one ends up atempting to actually cause  back pain. It is true that it is far preferable to leg pain however.

We went here on Saturday evening.  We had a totally yummincacious evening, the food was fab, the wine absolutely gorgeous, as was the company. J  

Day 5 Saturday 2nd February 2008

A very disappointing day yesterday and I felt really too gruntled to do an entry. I was definately making progress, walking more easily, less pain in general, but my back felt so stiff around the middle I wanted to do some loosening exercises. These were fine, until I committed the cardinal sin of a forward bend from standing, rolling down gently. I've been doing this exercise for months with seemingly no ill effects; however on straightening (with bent legs, doing everything properly) I felt a little 'nip' of pain in my leg. From then on everything was downhill for the rest of the day, and by the evening walking was very difficult again due to nasty stabbing pains in the back of my leg. It all seemed so much worse because the day before had seen the first real improvement in almost a year.

It was tempting not to record this episode, or at least not let on that it was my own fault. After all, McKenzie expressly prohibits this exercise until you are fully recovered. But then of course, what is the point of doing a blog, especially one which owes it existence to the hope that maybe a record of ones own pain and (hopefully) recovery may help other people. Possibly. So, in a nutshell, everything was going just great until I buggered it up.

Ok, moan over. From now on I do it by the book. I'm still getting stabbing pains on and off, but I am hoping that strict adherence to the 'extensions only' rule will pay off. I have made a start on exercise 3 today, where you put your hands under your shoulders and lift up, trying to keep everthing relaxed, which is not easy when all your back muscles are protesting loudly.

Tonight we are going out for Chickpea's birthday meal, so if need be I'll take some zonko painkillers so I don't hobble around too much like an elderly lobster. Should be an interesting mix with a glass of the old vino. The menu looks lovely, and I think I've already decided on Thai crab salad, loin of pork with gingerbread stuffing (how intriguing!) and vegies with a poncey gravy (or 'jus'), followed by 'a trio of chocolate'. What else!?!

Day 3  (Thursday 31^st January 2008)

Driving in to work this morning was what actually made me decide to do this.  The reason?  My leg wasn’t gripped with the usual horrible gnawing pain down the back of the thigh that makes you constantly shift around in a futile manner that does absolutely no good whatever, but you feel you have to do it anyway.   I suspect only those with long familiarity  with back or other pain can truly understand  (or imagine) the psychological significance of the sudden absence of pain after months or years of it..  I don’t delude myself – I am not expecting to be suddenly ‘cured’ or anything like that.  I expect a lengthy process, even for a best case scenario.  For the record I am a devout atheist and don’t have ‘faith’ in anything.   I look for evidence and try to form my beliefs and hopes accordingly. 

I first heard of Mckenzie when I was surfing around on the web looking for info. on disc problems and sciatica. I came across ‘Dr. T’s’ blog and thought, hmmm, maybe worth a try as a last resort.  I have to say I didn’t really expect any dramatic results, or even any result at all.

So, the Mckenzie method.  It’s basically a set of exercises which are supposed to centralise and reduce pain (or even eliminate it, but that may be too much to hope for!)  The first physio I saw last May talked a lot about centralising pain, i.e. moving it up from the leg to the back.  I never managed it at the time.

The previous two days I have only been doing exercises 1 & 2, as that is all I can manage, i.e. lying on my front for 2 minutes, followed by as long as I can bear on my front resting on my elbows. At the moment I am up to about  2 minutes, but it is a struggle as I am so stiff.  I’m doing this every 2 hours, or 7 times a day. 

Helen at work just noticed that I’m walking better today. J  Right, time for another set of backward extensions….

It’s 11.15 and I still haven’t had any painkillers yet!

The other thing McKenzie bangs on about is posture. It’s one of those ‘yeah yeah’ things for me, and I’ve never really spent much time thinking about it.  Not any more – I’ve bought one of those back support thingies for the car which will probably come in handy for chairs too.  Plus one isn’t allowed to slouch or bend over at all for the first 3 days.  Bending is normally quite difficult anyway, and I don’t do a lot of it, but have since come to realise I spend most of my working day and two long drives to and from work in a slumped over position. 

The wonderful Chickpea , in addition to all the many things he already does to help me, has also taken over ‘poop scoop’ duty temporarily so I don’t have to grovel around on the floor every  morning.  I have to say that the ‘no bending’ rule would be extremely difficult without an understanding and helpful partner. It doesn’t help of course when the bloody cat is then sick all over the rug.  Sigh. We both ended up bending over for that one!

Blog intro. waffle bit

This blog is starting at Day 3.  For a start, it’s  a change from a ubiquitous Day 1 start, but also, I’ve only just thought of doing it.  The reason for doing it at all is that for the last 10 years, and the last 11 months in particular, I’ve had an interminable lot of back problems, resulting from a bulging disc at L5-S1. The last 11 months has been particularly excruciating and disabling with sciatica in my left leg which has left me unable to walk beyond the necessities of getting to work, and once there, getting to the toilet.

I’ve been having physio for the last 9 months or so, including traction, ‘acupuncture’ (I’ll come back to the quotation marks later), and mobilization techniques, plus a tidal wave of exercises to add to my already pretty extensive repertoire.  None of these have seen more than slight improvements, which haven’t lasted.

For the last 6 months I have had stored in my Amazon wish list a book called ‘Treat your own back pain’ by Robin Mckenzie. It was there as a last resort, if all else failed and the Physiotherapist finally washed her hands of me and sent me off for another MRI for want of anything better to do.  Well, funnily enough, last week that did in fact happen, so I ordered the book and it arrived and I read it on Monday.  Hence, Tuesday, when I started the exercises, was Day 1.  See?

Next >>