I started off with so much hope last week! Onnnnnnly to be side-lined (yes, AGAIN) by my !@#$*#$% back. If I had to guess (and I did), I'd say it was a combination of ten days off work (mostly slouched on the couch *shame face*) and returning to work and my not-so-hot office chair - by Tuesday, I was in so much pain it was almost unbearable. I wasn't able to get into to see my chiropractor until Friday, but I'd had enough and called to make a physio appointment.
My first appointment was last night. Physio Dude said that my posture isn't BAD, but that backs are not designed to be in one position for eight hours straight - they need to move every 15 minutes. He said that there are very few "true" chronic back pain sufferers, that we injure our backs and they heal, and when we experience pain again it's a NEW injury (that I find hard to believe, but I'm not the expert?). He also said that a large part of back pain is just "letting it go" and pushing through it (I just need to set a time limit (like a couple of months) to be pain-free and just DO IT, and I will be pain-free because it's that simple) - that there's nothing in the back to injure further, so there's nothing wrong with working out through the pain (that also is opposite everything I've ever heard about back pain, but... ?). Oh! And he told me that losing weight may or may not improve my pain: if I lose weight by cutting back on food (which he doesn't endorse), it will have no bearing on my pain because bad posture is bad posture; if I lose weight because I'm more active and become more fit, my back pain may lessen as a by-product of being more active. THAT makes little sense to me - if I lose 50 pounds, that's 50 less pounds of me for my back to have to support!
He showed me a couple of yoga stretches to do and asked me to come back next week to show me some exercises to strengthen my core muscles.
He showed me a couple of yoga stretches to do and asked me to come back next week to show me some exercises to strengthen my core muscles.
Have any of you heard Physio Dude's way of thinking? It kiiiiiind of sounds like mumbo jumbo to me... :-s Have you dealt with recurring (mid)back pain? How did you handle it? Somehow daily encounters with the heating pad and Advil bottle just doesn't seem right to me anymore than thinking it away does. I'm tired of being in pain all the time - I'm too young to feel this old and broken.
All in all, I'm not completely sold on the physio. However, now I feel a little better about getting off my ass and back on the horse again (he said that the best form of exercise for me would be walking - even just 20 minutes a day - so once Chebbar starts school in March, we'll be able to walk before dinner again: in the meantime, as long as it's not causing me back pain, he said to go ahead and use the elliptical). I'm supposed to schedule an appointment with the chiropractor after next week's physio appointment; I'm going to ask both of them about acupuncture.
I also had THE worst episode of binging last Thursday that I've had in probably close to two years (for the record, I personally don't consider a chocolate bar and some potato chips a binge if I'm eating proper serving sizes/tracking/staying within my calorie goals: for me, a binge is out-of-control eating of anything and everything I can get my hands on in LARGE amounts). I knew I wasn't hungry, but couldn't stop eating. Nothing seemed appealing, but still couldn't stop. I ate myself to the point of heart burn and stomach pain that made it difficult to fall asleep. Even as I was eating, I kept asking myself what I was doing and WHY, but I had no answers. The best I can come up with is that the back pain/lack of exercise/getting off plan so freaking soon was taking its toll on me.
And then there was the whole picture episode from Saturday... The old self-esteem has taken a bit of a beating lately, which makes activity that much more important: I always feel better when I'm active and moving. So, I'm going to give it another shot today after work and see how I do.
His point with the food vs. getting more fit is that if you have back pain you may still have it no matter how much weight you lose if you lose it by just altering your diet. But getting more active in turn is going to strengthen your back muscles. So if you have back pain as simply a by-product of having a weak back, that's how losing weight by just changing your food intake might not help because a weak back is a weak back regardless of weight. But if you strengthen your back you could potentially lessen your back pain at any weight.
ReplyDeleteSorry if you knew that already, you just sounded a little mystified on that point and I wanted to help. :)
I get the econd thing he said, but as for the 'if you decide to feel better and give it a time frame, you will' I'd be very tempted to call bullshit. With some things, left to their own devices they sort themselves out, but with back problems there's usually a source, especially if it's causing you this much trouble. Try a second opinion, especially if you're exercising again as you don't know what the extra demands you're putting on yourself could do to it.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that the back pain will probably go away if you build a stronger core and lose the weight. I did have upper back pain that I haven't had in a year now. It's been a huge relief. I just didn't realize how much of a weight burder I was carrying, it was a kind of denial. I read the entry you wrote about seeing your picture and that could have been me writing about a picture of myself from over a year ago. My face had blown up to the point that it had totally taken over my eyes, lips and mouth. Now I'm not afraid to catch my reflection in windows. It's been a big relief because I would avoid reflections like the plague. It sounds to me like you're struggling a lot but you have to remember, a lot of weight loss is mental. It's getting past those mental obstacles with grit and determination. And like a muscle your determination becomes stronger the more you use it and thus, the weight loss becomes easier. Trust me, I know. :)
ReplyDeleteI think your physio sounds like a complete moron/quack who might end up causing you more harm if you follow his advice. Is there a way to switch to someone else?
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily agree with the physio but he does have some good points. Like we were mentioning before, getting up and moving every 15 mins does help...despite how we don't do it that often normally. Yes, my job has me getting up from my desk almost that often but it's still hard to remind myself.
ReplyDeleteThe posture thing on the other hand makes some sense. Bad posture is bad posture, whether you're underweight or overweight. I have horrible posture from the years of being on the computer, so much so that I'm participating in a trial for a posture bra. They chose me not only because I was convenient (it's my mom's friend) but because my posture was so bad. Getting your posture better includes strengthening your back muscles...it's something I definitely need to work on also, even though I'm slightly underweight.
Good luck hun.
I agree with Hamlet's Mistress about what your therapist was saying. I'm not a skinny girl, but I weigh very much the same as I did before my back was injured and I was strong. I lost muscle strength & tone, but didn't gain weight. So, I'm bigger but not heavier. I think I may have gotten injured because, months before the injury happened, I stopped working out and became much less active in general. Then, the stage was set. My therapist repeated over and over again that the best thing I could do would be to walk as much as I possibly could after we got my back to the point that walking would benefit. The herniation in my disc was pressing on nerves and it would be exacerbated by walking, so first we needed to get the bulge squeezed off of those nerves, THEN I could walk, walk, walk. I also have been told repeatedly about my posture. That has everything to do with muscle strength, and muscle strength has everything to do with keeping back parts where they need to be. (Another very important thing you may not hear from a male therapist is about your pelvic floor muscles and how important they are in the back pain equation.) I find that it makes a huge difference in my pain (on the days that aren't bad days) if I sit up very straight. But, it's so tiring because I'm not strong yet.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any interest in an accountability person for the binging issue, or would that just add guilt or otherwise make it worse? Just wondering because I am sitting here on about half a bag of Lindt truffles.
I have chronic pain. I've also lived with chronic back pain since 1996. I have several herniated disks, crumbling disks, and other things wrong with my lower back due to some unfortunate series of events. I was also at one of the fittest points in my life in 1996. I was very physically active. Pain changed everything. It is pain that I fight back now. And I hate to say it but I honestly believe there will always be pain regardless of what I weigh. What I do know is that I will be better off without all this weight. For me there are times when I cannot do anything because the pain is to much. But there are times, lots of times that I just push back and there is a mental play with it. Hard to describe. One thing I know is the more I work at losing and dealing with how I got here the more I'm aware of the physical pain in my body. Pain meds work great but you can use your mind for the low chronic stuff. The last time I was hospitalized with me out of commission because of my lower back and pain, I was told I might not ever walk again. I was told that it was time for a rod. I rejected. And one nurse saw, (thank you for coming into my lofe when you did) saw my fight. She and I fought back. I got back on my feet. I got back to moving. And I got the hell out of there. There was a lot of mental there. And this week. I'm still in lots of pain. But I'm mad as hell and I'm going to fight back. A stronger core will help all that much more. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't buy most of what he said. I could barely walk for YEARS because I did not let my back heal and "worked through the pain". And I'm not even kidding - barely walk. Nearly bed ridden with back pain. Strengthening your back muscles is, of course, important and will help your back, but losing weight - in all forms, will help. For every extra pound of weight we carry, that is 4 pounds of pressure on our knees. Losing a pound in any form removes that four pounds of pressure. I can only imagine the same must hold true for your back. It is ALWAYS better, over all, to lose weight through a combination of diet and exercise. Losing through diet only means you also lose muscle mass, and that isn't great for your body, but to say it has no effect at all is just stupid. :)
ReplyDeleteI have had various forms of severe back pain that lasted for years, and my knees have been jacked up since junior high school. One thing I have found that really helped is my recumbent bike. It is fully supportive of your back and knees, and will help you start with exercise off. Bonus burgers? A lot of times you can balance a laptop on the handle bars, so reading, tweeting, chatting, web surfing, going through your blog reader, etc... all make exercise SO MUCH EASIER. I can't tell you how many times I promised myself 20 minutes... dove into my reader... and looked up and nearly an hour had past. :)
I'm a huge proponent of stretching to help with back pain (upper, mid, and lower - with different stretches, of course). I always give my massage clients homework, which includes tons of stretching. But you need to be consistent with the stretching, which most people, myself included don't/can't/won't do. The people who do the stretching have seen some really good results in just a few weeks. Really, it can't hurt anything to follow his advice to see if it works for your body. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteSo where exactly is the pain at? Is it in between your shoulder blades or
ReplyDeletedoes it go up to the hunk of meat on teh top of your shoulders (that's a
muscle and everyone has it)? From the very little I know about your
situation I would also throw in some chest stretchs - it seems weird but
when your shoulder/mid back muscles are over-stretched and in pain,
sometimes (actually more often than not) your chest muscles are contracted
and cause extra pulling. I'll look around for some good pictures of some
additional stretchs.