My old spine and walking

[Maria]

edited as necessary

[fireyangel76]

maria,
It is nice to hear your back is not giving you too much trouble. I am sorry to hear about the feet and knees though. I know the feeling...at my age when something feels better another thing starts to hurt.
I have been told that sitting puts the most pressure on your discs, especially lumbar area. Standing also. This may be why your back talks to you when you stand or sit. Mine does the same thing.
I hope the knees and feet start to catch up wirh your back.
Betsy

[Maria]

Betsy,
My injury is from the early '80's. Lifting a patient returning from surgery/Neurosurgery. I've had problems so long that it seems more normal to not feel well spinally that to feel well!

Yes, the pressure on the discs is supposedly greatly increased with sitting and standing is just killer to me anyway in one place for my low back but even knees/feet.

[fireyangel76]

I last injured my back at work 9/11/01...yes right before the planes hit the first tower. I was working ICU and was moving an ER patient from stretcher to bed. Sounds like a very familiar injury. If I think back besides catching a patient mid air this is the same way I always hurt it. I guess thats why hospitals are going to lift teams. Wish they were around 20 years ago. I am so happy to be on my treadmill. I feel like I can claim ownership of my body again. Sitting is the worst for me still but getting better. I have lots of hope now and I am loving ot!

[Maria]

Hey Betsy,
When I worked at the VA in SF back in the early '80's they had a lift team and utilized equipment for full body lifts. I shoulda stayed there but I had the bug to work for a "learning institution" again which was way understaffed (working on skeletan staff aways or a freeze on hiring)~

At night I have to sleep w/legs propped up on about 4-5 pillows and neck on cervical roll. If I side lie my back is fine but neck isn't.

I do wake up w/raging back pain usually and it takes about an hour to two to work off. Walking now seems to help whereas before it made it worse...

I still think surgery could help if it would address pain generators and I'd love to be where you're at AFTER surgery! Congrats on your progress!

Wonder what it's like in Germany w/nurses and other countries...if they have the same number of spinal injuries we seem to have had here over the years?

[dshobbies]

Okay everyone. I am quite familiar with sitting and standing issues which have plagued me just as much as anyone else.

A little known yet very effective tool is the tush cush. I can go by other names and qualities vary from where you buy it. It's generally under $50 but worth so much more in the relief it provides.

The tush cush is a wedge pillow with a small section cut out by the tail bone. By not sitting on your spine, most of the pressure is relieved allowing you to sit much more comfortably and for longer periods of time. Every spiney should have one or two or ten. I buy mine at a Relax the Back store. I keep one in my car and at my desk. When I sit somewhere else and am not using this cushion, I can tell the difference within 10 minutes. It's subtle but so effective. I've even gotten over the embarrassment of taking it with me (like to the movies, etc.).

If you don't like it or don't think it's working for you, you're only out $50. How much more do we all have invested in our backs? Try it!

Also just to mention it, zero gravity chairs relieve much back stress but can be quite costly. I love mine but the tush cush is much cheaper.

[Maria]

I've had tush cushes for years on nearly every office chair but it doesn't really make a difference for me. I have to have something very firm to sit on and not sit long because that segment of my low back (the lumbar segment that is) can't seem to support itself and just craps out under sitting. My tailbone even with a tush cush cannot take sitting for long and the worse seems to be in an airplane. Sitting while driving is killer too after about a half hour. Sitting at someone's home is really a pain esp. if the cushions are soft, I'm DEAD!!!!!!!

I think my disc spaces are just narrow to nothing when I sit but give me a transforaminal ESI and I'm good to go~ feels so nice with the irritated spinal nerves bathed in the steroidal goo

[dshobbies]

Maria,

Well even if it doesn't work for you, I'm glad you at least tried it. Too many fellow sufferers don't even know about it and for those of us for whom it does work, it can double our sitting time.

So are you going to reschedule your surgery?

Dale

[fireyangel76]

I think I'll try the tush cush someday soon. I have tried so many things that I gave up on everything. Sometimes in the past I've been in so much pain I would have tried a sledge hammer but couldn't convince the hubby to wack me in the head with it! $50 seems like a small price to pay if it works and if the reccomendation comes from another spiney".

Maria I totally agree about the driving and visiting friends with soft sofas. My right leg kills me when driving so I stick to short trips, but even that is so much better. I still have parathesias in my feet but getting better. If you worked at a VA hosp you must have worked your rear off. Like me...back in the day when you have 15 pts. I haven't gone back to work yet. I doubt very much even with nurse/patient ratios I could work a floor again. I am in the northbay not too far from SF. Are you still around this area?

[Maria]

Dale,
Nope, didn't reschedule. Still ponder the idea of closing out WC bennies and heading off to Germany w/Dr.B. Weighing pro's and con's..

Haven't even scheduled my 2nd foot surgery for lack of hating being down again in the summer and more pain/foot and back!

Betsy,
Living in So.Cal now since '83. Lived in Richmond district of SF and loved it but too cold in summer/foggy and parking was insane (so no car)!
Have since learned the value of public transportation because lived in San Diego a while and the public transportation there really rocks. It's lots less scary than here in LA county!
I still like No.Cal very much as it's lovely and lush~ and some of my very best California buds live in SF and outside, known them ever since I've moved here and some even from the East coast that relocated long long ago!

I stopped working in 2000 altho I'm anxious to return in some form or fashion to what I loved.. working in nursing/medicine somehow!