life: the short and curly

[tielan]

Stressful job: FINISHED.

Stressful commute: ABOUT TO START

Hockey: PLAYED FIRST ROUND. Won the game I was goalie for. Lost the one I played on the field. We were tied, and then they scored in the last minute. ARGH. Have O35s game tonight. Training tomorrow. Will either be very fit, or dead.

Body: Back is still aching a little - I actually find it more difficult to sleep with the pillow between my knees (it's supposed to help adjust my back) - it's very unrestful.

Writing: Getting caught between the desire to finish a bunch of shorter stories, and the desire/need to write the epic Maria Hill story that's been in my brain for about a year now.

Reading: I have a lot of books on the 'to-read' pile. None of them are being read. :(

Quilting: Two baby quilts on the books (babies being born in the next month), one quilt up on the design board (it's been there at least one month, possibly two), several quilts to quilt (need to book time this weekend for the Guild quilt - it's the last Saturday I have free for a while), and am in several quilt-alongs that just aren't happening.

Comments

[thothmes]

At one point about a 15 years ago, I had back pain that carried on for about a year, and was making life very difficult. We had adopted Middle Daughter at the beginning of that year, and suddenly I was carrying a heavy baby around on one hip or on my back, without the usual build-up you get when you start with an infant instead of a one year old. My mom had had some structural issues with her back, so my primary care doc ordered an M.R.I. to see if we could see any similar structural issues with my back. I was beginning to have some lack-of-sensation issues, so it was serious. On the appointed day, I took off all my jewelry and metal things and showed up to enter the belly of the beast. They put me lying on my back, and put a shaped foam pillow under my knees, and apologized for the fact that I would be stuck in that position for rather a while.

They did the test, and although it was difficult to stay still, the really difficult thing was not staying in the position (although I am a person who loves to figit, so I did have to fight my wiggly fingers and feet the whole time), it was enduring the NOISE.

Anyway, when I got out of the machine, my back felt a little better. I could move with a bit more freedom. The test showed no structural or positional abnormalities, and that was that, but within 3 days my back was just fine, thank you very much! I kept waiting for the pain to come back, to move in the wrong way and find myself back to beginning, but it never happened.

Standing upright, as you probably know, makes us liable to back pain. I have not been free of back pain since then, but it has never again been quite the trouble it was. Generally it has yielded well to making sure my hamstrings are as limber as I can make them, keeping my core strong, and an occasional pillow under the knees as I lie on my back. When you test my flexibility, I test out as very flexible, except the hamstrings, which test out as merely flexible, and when I neglect to stretch out regularly the first thing my body says is tighten ALL THE HAMSTRINGS! I simply cannot sleep on my back, however, unless I am incredibly exhausted, and I can't afford to lie in bed until that happens, because by the time it does, I will only be able to sleep an hour or two, if at all. I can't face a day with The Whirlwind with no sleep and no other adult on board, so instead I put the pillow under my knees for 20 min. to an hour, and then take it out. I figure the M.R.I. was about that long, and if it will do something for me, it will happen in that time. Then as much as I can I try to sleep on my side with knees flexed.

You might try planning to be in bed a mite early with that pillow for your knees and a good book, and lie there for a while and read, and then when you feel drowsy, pull the pillow out and sleep in a more comfortable position. I doubt that doing the pillow thing all night will do much more for you, other than making sure you are tired and grumpy the next day.

Of course, just like the people they sustain, backs are individual, so YMMV, but here's hoping this helps some.

[tielan]

Oh, I'm glad to hear that your back pain went away (eventually). And thanks for the advice about the pillow and the lying there. I might do that tonight. :)

My back pain is easing - it's more of a low-level ache now, although the work I'm currently doing involves a lot of sitting for long periods (90 minutes a pop instead of the usual stand-and-stretch every 30 that I can do). And an hour-long drive to get to work. :\