Lower back pain and Class 1 medicals
Psychophysiological entity
A rather hurried and badly written note - firstly to spread the word about inflammation. In the OP's post the problem seems to have been caused at a specific time so the first part below is just for general knowledge.
Went through years of thinking most of my pain was spinal. I now seems that a lot of the 'ill feeling' in the L5 area may have been gluten related - despite not being Celiac. One local chap used to lie down on any bed he could use while working. (estate agent) Assumed a very bad back. When he was diagnosed with Celiac ALL back pain went away. My spinal surgeon showed me how close the downpipe is compared to the spine and said, if this is inflamed, of course you'll feel pain around here.
Soooooo frustrating, because so many times I've felt kind of ill when the back pain was at its worst. Now I don't cheat on the diet, and my life was largely transformed. Then I had surgery.
Back on thread.
Radgirl's first post is spot on. MUST know what's going on in there before pulling it around.
Mind you, where there's sudden excruciating pain as in the so-called 'Slipped Disc', a qualified person can put this back in a few moments - if you're lucky. What really happens is the facet joint(s) get locked on full travel - probably jammed by their own encapsulation. The pain comes from huge lock-up signals on major supporting muscles. They do that to save the spinal cord, and relaxing them is the first task. Once that's achieved one can usually get the 'adjustment' to go quite smoothly.
Recently, after 14 years of pestering, I had a [B][one night/B] stay in Ipswich. Got rid of some of the bulge and stuff in the way of the sciatic nerve where it passes through a keyhole.
I had gone from routinely lifting 200 lbs at 60 years old to self-imposed limit of 20. Any more, and I'd be off to my workbench and pressing up while pressing the edge into my tummy just above the nuts. I could feel the facet joints move and I could set about building restoration again for a few more minutes or even hours.
It's amazing what you can achieve by using fulcrums - even one's knee - and dragging stuff. I put three tonnes of tree out for the Texas council to collect. Wish they did that here.
All the time I was living this compromise, I was commuting between Essex and Texas, doing building work and chainsawing trees. The press-up thing and having the Rivetess walk on my back was just part of life. The double attack of Celiac diet and surgery has made a vast difference. My wife said recently, she hadn't seen me so active for years. Being a squeaky wheel, the first to get oil, is hard to do when living in two countries, but for people with normal lives, pestering and pestering is the only way to go. One surgeon at Colchester had his (skilled) chap go through all the tests but would not even see me. Pain control. In other words, writing me off at c 70 years old. Well, f
k him. Compromise is not what I want to do.
One other thought. I've observed another local chap who routinely breaks up concrete as part of his job - all in middle age. He has two Wallis devises and prior to them being fitted, couldn't even stand for half an hours. Wallis devices are more or less shims, but keeping them in place is the hard bit. I don't know why we don't here more about them.
Went through years of thinking most of my pain was spinal. I now seems that a lot of the 'ill feeling' in the L5 area may have been gluten related - despite not being Celiac. One local chap used to lie down on any bed he could use while working. (estate agent) Assumed a very bad back. When he was diagnosed with Celiac ALL back pain went away. My spinal surgeon showed me how close the downpipe is compared to the spine and said, if this is inflamed, of course you'll feel pain around here.
Soooooo frustrating, because so many times I've felt kind of ill when the back pain was at its worst. Now I don't cheat on the diet, and my life was largely transformed. Then I had surgery.
Back on thread.
Radgirl's first post is spot on. MUST know what's going on in there before pulling it around.
Mind you, where there's sudden excruciating pain as in the so-called 'Slipped Disc', a qualified person can put this back in a few moments - if you're lucky. What really happens is the facet joint(s) get locked on full travel - probably jammed by their own encapsulation. The pain comes from huge lock-up signals on major supporting muscles. They do that to save the spinal cord, and relaxing them is the first task. Once that's achieved one can usually get the 'adjustment' to go quite smoothly.
Recently, after 14 years of pestering, I had a [B][one night/B] stay in Ipswich. Got rid of some of the bulge and stuff in the way of the sciatic nerve where it passes through a keyhole.
I had gone from routinely lifting 200 lbs at 60 years old to self-imposed limit of 20. Any more, and I'd be off to my workbench and pressing up while pressing the edge into my tummy just above the nuts. I could feel the facet joints move and I could set about building restoration again for a few more minutes or even hours.
It's amazing what you can achieve by using fulcrums - even one's knee - and dragging stuff. I put three tonnes of tree out for the Texas council to collect. Wish they did that here.
All the time I was living this compromise, I was commuting between Essex and Texas, doing building work and chainsawing trees. The press-up thing and having the Rivetess walk on my back was just part of life. The double attack of Celiac diet and surgery has made a vast difference. My wife said recently, she hadn't seen me so active for years. Being a squeaky wheel, the first to get oil, is hard to do when living in two countries, but for people with normal lives, pestering and pestering is the only way to go. One surgeon at Colchester had his (skilled) chap go through all the tests but would not even see me. Pain control. In other words, writing me off at c 70 years old. Well, f
k him. Compromise is not what I want to do. One other thought. I've observed another local chap who routinely breaks up concrete as part of his job - all in middle age. He has two Wallis devises and prior to them being fitted, couldn't even stand for half an hours. Wallis devices are more or less shims, but keeping them in place is the hard bit. I don't know why we don't here more about them.
Came across a neat book called Aging Backwards by Miranda Esmonde-White. My lower back threw one of its thankfully seldom snits over the holidays and it was quite the enterprise to get on my feet in the morning.
I got working on the posture stretches, recovered nicely in a few days and am continuing as the feeling of well being builds from the stretches.
The real trick is to maintain your musculoskeletal system. Prevention beats cure, but it's never too late to start.
I got working on the posture stretches, recovered nicely in a few days and am continuing as the feeling of well being builds from the stretches.
The real trick is to maintain your musculoskeletal system. Prevention beats cure, but it's never too late to start.
Last edited by Bad medicine; 1st Mar 2016 at 04:10. Reason: Removed commercial link
Loose Rivets. Ditto, although I had to have the nasty spinal fusion a year prior to looking into the non-coeliac gluten intolerance. Slice of toast = wind/squirts/back pain. 10 times better on a gluten free diet although the mechanical aspects of the fusion have made flying near impossible. I had no coeliac-esque symptoms until after the 18 months on pain meds.
Psychophysiological entity
Again, just for general interest.
I've been right about a few things medical, but this one escaped me totally. The half-dozen times I've just given up on a lovely day out due to back pain, I now realise the feeling has been one of illness rather than sharp mechanical issues.
I knew I'd got a fuzzed up mass of stalactites in me spine, so assumed it must all be down to that. Judo to a silly age probably didn't help. Building work that I didn't have to do kept me strong, but seemingly not fit. One day, nearing 60, I felt a pain down my leg. It was to change my life. Just a nuisance at first, but eventually back pain became tedious enough for my lovely girls to offer to carry my flight bad. Awwwww.
The big one was I could no longer run. Amazing the psychological difference that makes.
Parallel with this was the allergies to wheat etc,. the soap reaction was to come later. A doctor I was chatting to yesterday was particularly well briefed on anaphylaxis. I know for the first time why I felt so horrifyingly ill - the cause, hospital soap. Thank God I'd finally retired before things got that bad.
The cause of becoming allergic to things seems to get worse with age (discounting adolescence) and while probably due to a breakdown of our 'systems' there might well be issues deep in the mind, kindled at a very young age. In my case I'm sure, due to over-thinking medical issues probably from the age of 6.
Parents. They need to be careful. One PPRuNer friend had healthy and adventurous parents. To this day it doesn't occur to him to think there might be some physical reason not to do whatever he wants to do. My Mom however, used to sit with relatives and they'd all discuss terrifying ailments. It's no wonder I'm so preoccupied with health issues.
She died aged 93 having taken medical books out of the library and correctly diagnosed her ailment. The doctor said, You don't need a doctor, do you? I'm calling an ambulance. It was her last ride.
Probably one of the most important things we can do is pass on healthy mind-set to the next generations, but that may not be as easy as one thought. Smoking is obviously the first issue, but the oddest things come out of the woodwork from time to time. Today it seems, good cholesterol might be a problem. In some cases, as it fights bad cholesterol, the long term affects can be as bad as smoking. Oh, my . . .
I've been right about a few things medical, but this one escaped me totally. The half-dozen times I've just given up on a lovely day out due to back pain, I now realise the feeling has been one of illness rather than sharp mechanical issues.
I knew I'd got a fuzzed up mass of stalactites in me spine, so assumed it must all be down to that. Judo to a silly age probably didn't help. Building work that I didn't have to do kept me strong, but seemingly not fit. One day, nearing 60, I felt a pain down my leg. It was to change my life. Just a nuisance at first, but eventually back pain became tedious enough for my lovely girls to offer to carry my flight bad. Awwwww.
The big one was I could no longer run. Amazing the psychological difference that makes. Parallel with this was the allergies to wheat etc,. the soap reaction was to come later. A doctor I was chatting to yesterday was particularly well briefed on anaphylaxis. I know for the first time why I felt so horrifyingly ill - the cause, hospital soap. Thank God I'd finally retired before things got that bad.
The cause of becoming allergic to things seems to get worse with age (discounting adolescence) and while probably due to a breakdown of our 'systems' there might well be issues deep in the mind, kindled at a very young age. In my case I'm sure, due to over-thinking medical issues probably from the age of 6.
Parents. They need to be careful. One PPRuNer friend had healthy and adventurous parents. To this day it doesn't occur to him to think there might be some physical reason not to do whatever he wants to do. My Mom however, used to sit with relatives and they'd all discuss terrifying ailments. It's no wonder I'm so preoccupied with health issues.
She died aged 93 having taken medical books out of the library and correctly diagnosed her ailment. The doctor said, You don't need a doctor, do you? I'm calling an ambulance. It was her last ride.
Probably one of the most important things we can do is pass on healthy mind-set to the next generations, but that may not be as easy as one thought. Smoking is obviously the first issue, but the oddest things come out of the woodwork from time to time. Today it seems, good cholesterol might be a problem. In some cases, as it fights bad cholesterol, the long term affects can be as bad as smoking. Oh, my . . .
