It has been over a year since I have written on my blog.
I would like to say that it was due to the extremely busy nature of my life, but that would only partly explain it. It has more to do with my back injury. In February of 2015 I fell on black ice and hurt my back. To be more precise, I herniated the disc between my L5 and S1 which pinched my sciatic nerve in my right leg. Sadly I further injured myself when the cart I was given at work collapsed as I pushed it it, and the disc herniated more. The resulting neuropathy in my leg meant that I could no longer avoid back surgery which I had in July.
What does this all mean?
It means that for roughly 18 months I have been parenting and teaching while in pain. Constant pain.
I have been in and out of physical therapy and tried a variety of pain relieving options. I am not a medical person, nor would I pretend to be one, but I have an opinion on how to help with the pain.
First of all, I am not a fan of taking medication, I prefer to work through it rather than surrender to pharmaceuticals. Add that to the fact that most narcotics/opioids don't agree with me and you will
quickly understand why I prefer homeopathic options.
After trying different options, I found I can tolerate Ibuprofen and Lidocaine patches something that I found was non-habit forming and good enough relief. One medication that a friend of mine took without a problem but was terrible for me was Gapapentin. Its side effects for me made me feel as if I was trying to move through a membrane: always surrounding me, slowing me down, delaying thought, and preventing me from reacting. It did help with the nerve pain, but I could not function. It took effort to get out of bed, to take care of myself, and remember to eat. You can imagine how that effected my children. They were afraid to leave me alone because I was so changed. I took it for two weeks and it took over a month for me to return to normal. I know that was not normal, that was my reaction. As I said, a friend of mine took it without a problem, but with any medication there is a chance for a strange side effect. So, I chose to stick with Ibuprofen and used the Lidocaine patches nearly everyday until I built up the ability to tolerate the pain.
Another medical option that did help was to get a lumbar epidural. Not like the ones you get for giving birth, it provides a precision steroid injection exactly where the pain is. I had three. The first one gave me relief for a few weeks, the second for a month and a half, and the final one for about three months. They allowed me to begin aquatic physical therapy one of the best physical therapy options for me.
The aquatic physical therapy I got was at a therapeutic heated pool and it took the pressure off the nerve and increased my range of movement. I progressed through walking, kicking, core strengthening, and "bicycling" movements that allowed me to stand straighter and walk longer. The best part for me was the 15 minutes I got to spend in the hot tub at the end. I brought the pool noodle into the hot tub, and floated around. This took all pressure off my back and the heat was relaxing.
If you talk to some physical therapists, they will also encourage massage. I must say that some of the best relief I got was from hour long massages. I could lie back and get relief for a short period of time. Not complete relief, but enough that it was worth going back each week because it took enough of the edge off. This combined with the PT improved my range of movement and sped up the healing process.
I also used a chiropractor, which many physical therapists do not suggest. I know that not all chiropractors are equal, but I was extremely happy with mine. I believe that I was well on my way to improving without surgery because I went for this buckshot approach to my healing. When you have an injury, especially a back injury, there are other parts of your body that are effected. When your back in out of alignment, it adds stresses to other body parts. My shoulders, neck, arms, and knees all had stress. By getting adjusted and getting massages in addition to PT and steroid shots, I was making sure that my injury did not add too much additional stress to the rest of my body.
It was the second tumble I took that sent me to the surgeon. The two MRIs I had showed that not only was I not improving, I was getting worse. The second fall undid a year's worth of progress. What the surgeon could not see was that I had developed a bone spur which led to the neuropathy. Had the neuropathy not begun, I would not have gotten surgery, I felt like I was making enough progress, but that second fall did me in.
It is important to know your body. Pay attention to little differences and don't just let the doctors dictate your recovery. I questioned the doctors along the way. I wanted to make sure that they were not comparing my injury to others anymore than was medically needed. I am an overweight female but I was active and flexible. That is an important detail. I could do things post injury that a non-active, non-flexible person could not. Shoot, my husband is still not as flexible as I am now! This led them to determine that my injury was not as severe. When I had surgery, the surgeon was surprised by the mess he found. Know your body and question. I did not present like other patients and my inability to take medications meant that I had a high pain threshold. During the course of my recovery I was around others who had the same injury as mine and were still unable to stand up straight after months of therapy; each person is different.
I hope that my experience will help others.
